Psalm 14 · a question people ask

"The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”" (14:1). Is the psalm talking about someone who argues that God doesn't exist?

In the text

The psalm gives only his words, where he says them, and what goes with them. He says them "in his heart" (14:1), and the verse goes straight on to deeds: "They are corrupt. They have done abominable deeds" (14:1). Later the psalm says the workers of iniquity "don’t call on the LORD" (14:4). Brown-Driver-Briggs gives naval, the word for fool, as "foolish, senseless, esp. of the man who has no perception of ethical and religious claims", and Strong's as "stupid; wicked (especially impious)" (tap fool). Elsewhere in the Psalms the word is used of those who mock God: "Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day" (Psalm 74:22). Psalm 10 lets the wicked speak in his heart too, and there he names God: "God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it" (Psalm 10:11); the chapter on Psalm 10 looks at those words. Psalm 14 doesn't say more about what the fool believes than his words, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“For the Chief Musician. By David. The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable deeds. There is no one who does good.”
Psalm 14:1 · World English Bible
“Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on the LORD?”
Psalm 14:4 · World English Bible
“Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.”
Psalm 74:22 · World English Bible
“He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.””
Psalm 10:11 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 14

Psalm 14: The fool has said in his heart

The LORD's look in 14:2 has Genesis 11:5's words (the LORD, to see, the children of men), and 14:1's "They are corrupt" is the verb of Genesis 6:12. Where Psalm 14 says "the LORD", Psalm 53 says "God". And Paul takes the psalm's "not one" (Romans 3:10-12) on to "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:22).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions