Psalm 14 · a question people ask
"There is no one who does good, no, not one" (14:3). Then who are "the generation of the righteous" (14:5)?
The psalm says both, a few lines apart, and doesn't explain how they fit. The LORD looked down "on the children of men" (14:2), and the next line says, "They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one" (14:3). Then it speaks of "my people", whom the workers of iniquity "eat up" (14:4), of "the generation of the righteous", with whom God is (14:5), and of "the poor", whose refuge is the LORD (14:6). Paul (Romans 1:1) gives words close to 14:1-3 after "As it is written" (Romans 3:10), where he has said that "both Jews and Greeks" are "all under sin" (Romans 3:9). He goes on to "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe" (Romans 3:22). These notes set the verses side by side and don't say more than they do.
The verses
“The LORD looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God. They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on the LORD? There they were in great fear, for God is in the generation of the righteous. You frustrate the plan of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.”
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,”
“What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.”
“even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction,”