Psalm 14:1 Study Bible: [For the Chief Musician. By David.] The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt. They do abominable works. There is none who does good.

◄ Psalm 14:1 ►

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt; their acts are vile. There is no one who does good.

The fool
The Hebrew word for "fool" here is "נָבָל" (nabal), which implies more than just a lack of intelligence. It denotes a moral deficiency, a willful rejection of wisdom and righteousness. In the biblical context, a fool is someone who lives as if God does not exist, ignoring divine law and moral order. This term is not merely an insult but a profound spiritual diagnosis of a person who chooses to live apart from God’s truth.

says in his heart
The phrase "says in his heart" indicates an internal conviction rather than a public declaration. It reflects a deep-seated belief or attitude. In Hebrew thought, the heart is the center of one's being, encompassing mind, will, and emotions. This internal dialogue reveals a deliberate choice to reject God, highlighting the personal and intimate nature of unbelief.

There is no God
This statement is a declaration of atheism or practical atheism, where one lives as if God does not exist. In the ancient Near Eastern context, where polytheism was prevalent, this denial is radical. It reflects a rebellion against the Creator, a refusal to acknowledge His sovereignty and authority. This denial is not just intellectual but moral, as it leads to a life devoid of divine guidance and accountability.

They are corrupt
The Hebrew word "שָׁחַת" (shachath) means to be spoiled, ruined, or morally perverted. This corruption is a consequence of denying God, leading to a life that is spiritually and morally decayed. It suggests a departure from the intended purpose and design of humanity, which is to reflect God's image and glory.

their acts are vile
The term "vile" translates from the Hebrew "עָלִיל" (alil), meaning abominable or detestable. This describes actions that are morally reprehensible and offensive to God. The rejection of God results in behavior that is contrary to His nature and commands, highlighting the link between belief and conduct.

There is no one who does good
This phrase underscores the universality of sin and the fallen nature of humanity. In the absence of God, true goodness is unattainable. The Hebrew word for "good" is "טוֹב" (tov), which encompasses moral goodness, beauty, and excellence. Without God, humanity cannot achieve the standard of goodness that reflects His character. This statement sets the stage for the need for divine intervention and redemption, pointing ultimately to the necessity of Christ's atoning work.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The Fool
In Hebrew, the word used is (nabal), which refers to someone who is morally deficient and lacks wisdom. This person denies God's existence and authority.

2. The Heart
In biblical terms, the heart is the center of one's inner life, including thoughts, emotions, and will. The fool's denial of God originates from the heart, indicating a deep-seated rejection of divine truth.

3. Corruption and Vile Acts
These terms describe the moral decay and sinful behavior that result from denying God. The Hebrew word for corrupt is (shachat), implying ruin or decay.

4. The Absence of Good
The psalmist emphasizes that without acknowledgment of God, true goodness is absent. This reflects the belief that moral goodness is rooted in a relationship with God.

5. David
Traditionally attributed to King David, this psalm reflects his observations of human nature and society's moral state.

Teaching Points

The Reality of God
Acknowledge God's existence and sovereignty as foundational to a moral and meaningful life. Denying God leads to moral decay and purposelessness.

The Heart's Influence
Recognize that beliefs and attitudes of the heart shape actions. Cultivate a heart that seeks God and His wisdom.

Moral Accountability
Understand that true goodness and moral integrity are rooted in a relationship with God. Without Him, human efforts at goodness fall short.

The Universality of Sin
Accept that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory, emphasizing the need for redemption through Christ.

Wisdom in Reverence
Pursue wisdom by fearing the Lord, which leads to a life aligned with His will and purposes.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the description of "the fool" in Psalm 14:1 challenge our understanding of wisdom and morality?

2. In what ways does the denial of God lead to corruption and vile acts in today's society?

3. How can we guard our hearts against the influence of a culture that often denies God's existence?

4. What practical steps can we take to cultivate a heart that acknowledges and reveres God daily?

5. How does understanding the universality of sin deepen our appreciation for the grace offered through Jesus Christ?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Romans 3:10-12
Paul echoes Psalm 14, emphasizing the universality of sin and the absence of righteousness apart from God.

Proverbs 1:7
Highlights the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge, contrasting the fool's denial of God with the wisdom found in reverence for Him.

Genesis 6:5
Describes the wickedness of humanity before the flood, paralleling the corruption mentioned in Psalm 14.

Sermons

A Fool Indeed	A. Roberts, M. A.	Psalm 14:1-7
An Infidel Silenced	A. T. Pierson, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Atheism	J. H. Hitchens. D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Atheisms and Atheisms	George Dawson, M. A.	Psalm 14:1-7
Belief in the Being of God	R. Palmer, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Conflict Between God and the Wicked	C. Short	Psalm 14:1-7
Infidelity Illogical	The Young Man	Psalm 14:1-7
Is There a God	W. R. Graham.	Psalm 14:1-7
On the Atheism of the Heart	J. Jamieson, M. A.	Psalm 14:1-7
Practical Atheism	F. Wayland.	Psalm 14:1-7
Practical Atheism	S. Charnock, B. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Practical Atheism	N. W. Taylor, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Religion and Materialism	R. N. Storey, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Right Views of God's Government	W. Forsyth	Psalm 14:1-7
The Being of a God	T. Mortimer.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Character Reasonings, and Folly of the Fool	George Townsend, M. A.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Creed of Atheism	D. Merson, M. A.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Depravity of a Godless World, Viewed by God	C. Clemance	Psalm 14:1-7
The Existence of God	S. Charnock, B. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly and Impiety of Infidelity	R. Shittler.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly and Wretchedness of an Atheistical Inclination	J. Balguy.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly of Atheism	R. South, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly of the Fool	J. O. Keen, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Fool's Denial of God's Existence	John N. Norton.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Heart Speech of a Fool	F. Tucker, B. A.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Moral Condition of Mankind	Homilist	Psalm 14:1-7
The Practical Atheist	J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Practical Denial of God the Root of All Evil	A. Maclaren, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Unreasonableness and Mischief of Atheism	W. Talbot, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
The Withered Heart	Joseph Parker, D. D.	Psalm 14:1-7
Theoretical Atheism	F. Wayland.	Psalm 14:1-7

People

David, Jacob, Psalmist

Places

Jerusalem

Topics

Abominable, Abominably, Actions, Anything, Chief, Choirmaster, Committed, Corrupt, Corrupted, Corruptly, David, Dealt, Deeds, Doer, Evil, Fool, Foolish, Gt, Heart, Leader, Lt, Music, Musician, Music-maker, None, Overseer, Psalm, Says, Themselves, Unclean, Vile, Works

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Psalm 14:1

     5016   heart, fallen and redeemed
     5818   contempt
     8702   agnosticism
     8710   atheism
     8744   faithlessness, as disobedience
     8757   folly, effects of
     8760   fools, characteristics

Psalm 14:

5420 music

Psalm 14:1-2

8779 materialism, nature of

Psalm 14:1-3

     5004   human race, and sin
     6023   sin, universality
     6130   corruption
     6156   fall, of humanity
     6169   godlessness
     6185   imagination, desires
     6632   conviction
     8442   good works

Psalm 14:1-4

8616 prayerlessness

Library

Are You Mocked?
"Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge."--Psalm 14:6. GOD'S Word divides the whole human race into two portions. There is the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman--the children of God, and the children of the devil--those who are by nature still what they always were, and those who have been begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There are many distinctions among men, but they are not much more than surface-deep. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

Letter Xliii a Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey.
A Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey. There is no reason to mourn a son as lost who is a religious, still less to fear for his delicacy of constitution. 1. If God makes your son His son also, what do you lose or what does he himself lose? Being rich he becomes richer; being already high born, of still nobler lineage; being illustrious, he gains greater renown; and--what is more than all--once a sinner he is now a saint. He must be prepared for the Kingdom that has been prepared for him …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Knowledge of God Stifled or Corrupted, Ignorantly or Maliciously.
1. The knowledge of God suppressed by ignorance, many falling away into superstition. Such persons, however, inexcusable, because their error is accompanied with pride and stubbornness. 2. Stubbornness the companion of impiety. 3. No pretext can justify superstition. This proved, first, from reason; and, secondly, from Scripture. 4. The wicked never willingly come into the presence of God. Hence their hypocrisy. Hence, too, their sense of Deity leads to no good result. 1. But though experience testifies …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Luther's Fourth Preface
To Valentine Bapst's Hymn-book, Leipzig, 1545. The xcvi Psalm saith: "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." The service of God in the old dispensation, under the law of Moses, was hard and wearisome. Many and divers sacrifices had men to offer, of all that they possessed, both in house and in field, which the people, being idle and covetous, did grudgingly or for some temporal advantage; as the prophet Malachi saith, chap. i., "who is there even among you that would shut …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—The Hymns of Martin Luther

Communion Broken --Restoration
Cant. ii. 8-iii.5 "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest happly we drift away from them."--Heb. ii. 1 (R.V.). At the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at rest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would never be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride. But, alas, …
J. Hudson Taylor—Union and Communion

Introduction. Chapter i. --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple …
St. Hilary of Poitiers—The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers

Second Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 12, 6-16. 6 And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; 7 or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; 8 or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting; he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Of the Way to Attain Divine Union
Of the way to attain Divine Union It is impossible to attain Divine Union solely by the activity of meditation, or by the meltings of the affections, or even by the highest degree of luminous and distinctly-comprehended prayer. There are many reasons for this, the chief of which are as follow:-- First, According to Scripture "no man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, and even of active contemplation, while esteemed as the summit and end of the …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Covenanting a Duty.
The exercise of Covenanting with God is enjoined by Him as the Supreme Moral Governor of all. That his Covenant should be acceded to, by men in every age and condition, is ordained as a law, sanctioned by his high authority,--recorded in his law of perpetual moral obligation on men, as a statute decreed by him, and in virtue of his underived sovereignty, promulgated by his command. "He hath commanded his covenant for ever."[171] The exercise is inculcated according to the will of God, as King and …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Exegetic.
(i) As of the De Spiritu Sancto, so of the Hexæmeron, no further account need be given here. It may, however, be noted that the Ninth Homily ends abruptly, and the latter, and apparently more important, portion of the subject is treated of at less length than the former. Jerome [472] and Cassiodorus [473] speak of nine homilies only on the creation. Socrates [474] says the Hexæmeron was completed by Gregory of Nyssa. Three orations are published among Basil's works, two on the creation …
Basil—Basil: Letters and Select Works

Perhaps There is no Book Within the Whole Canon of Scripture So Perplexing and Anomalous...
Perhaps there is no book within the whole canon of Scripture so perplexing and anomalous, at first sight, as that entitled "Ecclesiastes." Its terrible hopelessness, its bold expression of those difficulties with which man is surrounded on every side, the apparent fruitlessness of its quest after good, the unsatisfactory character, from a Christian standpoint, of its conclusion: all these points have made it, at one and the same time, an enigma to the superficial student of the Word, and the arsenal …
F. C. Jennings—Old Groans and New Songs

For which Cause Our Lord Himself Also with his Own Mouth Saith...
4. For which cause our Lord Himself also with His own mouth saith, "Cleanse what are within, and what are without will be clean." [1813] And, also, in another place, when He was refuting the foolish speeches of the Jews, in that they spake evil against His disciples, eating with unwashen hands; "Not what entereth into the mouth," said He, "defileth the man: but what cometh forth out of the mouth, that defileth the man." [1814] Which sentence, if the whole of it be taken of the mouth of the body, …
St. Augustine—On Continence

Excursus on Usury.
The famous canonist Van Espen defines usury thus: "Usura definitur lucrum ex mutuo exactum aut speratum;" [96] and then goes on to defend the proposition that, "Usury is forbidden by natural, by divine, and by human law. The first is proved thus. Natural law, as far as its first principles are concerned, is contained in the decalogue; but usury is prohibited in the decalogue, inasmuch as theft is prohibited; and this is the opinion of the Master of the Sentences, of St. Bonaventura, of St. Thomas …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

But Concerning True Patience, Worthy of the Name of this virtue...
12. But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there are some [2650] who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it hath by Divine assistance, but which it hath of free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, "A scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the proud." [2651] It is not therefore that "patience of the poor" which …
St. Augustine—On Patience

The Manifestation of Holy Love.
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us." --1 John iv. 16. The question which now presents itself is: In what way is the divine, majestic act of making man a partaker of true love accomplished? We answer that this is-- 1. Prepared by the Father in Creation. 2. Made possible by the Son in Redemption. 3. Effectually accomplished by the Holy Spirit in Sanctification. There is in this respect, first a work of the Father, which the Heidelberg Catechism designates, "Of God the Father …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 13, 8-10. 8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. CHRISTIAN LOVE AND THE COMMAND TO LOVE. 1. This, like the two …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Second Sunday Before Lent
Text: Second Corinthians 11, 19-33; 12, 1-9. 19 For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. 20 For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. 21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Second Sunday after Easter
Text: First Peter 2, 20-25. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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