Human History Set to Music

Here’s the sobering reality: there comes a point when God stops speaking. Go read the rest of Romans 1. There comes a point when we’ve worked so hard to suppress the truth that God gives us over to foolishness. It becomes baked in. At first the atheist closed his ears to God’s glory-revealing symphony in creation. Once hardened, he removes his hands, and he doesn’t hear the trees of the field clapping their hands and the mountains singing for joy. They’re just trees and mountains.

Psalm 53’s portrait of the fool, however, isn’t limited to a functional rejection of God.

Fools Oppress His People

Psalm 53:4

Again the focus here is not so much on a formal, conceptually developed atheism. In a way this psalm, like Psalm 1, divides humanity into two categories of people—the ones who are with God and the ones who aren’t. The former group are “my people” (v. 4), “you” (v. 5), “his people . . . Jacob . . . Israel” (v. 6). They are, by implication, those who do seek God (contrast of v. 2) and who do “call on God” (contrast of v. 4).

In wisdom psalms the contrasts are absolute. The world is full of two kinds of people: the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous live this way; the unrighteous do exactly the opposite. Psalm 53 has elements of a wisdom psalm. The way the fool treats God (v. 1) carries over in his hostility toward God’s people (v. 4). It’s a kind of hatred by association. So the people who “do not call on God” are the same people who “consume my people as they consume bread.” The curse that fell in Genesis 3 included a promise that there would be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. That is to say, world history is a battle of light and darkness.

Christian friend, if we think we will have an easy road in this life, we have not yet understood what it means to live as children of light in a world of darkness. Jesus told his disciples he was sending them out as sheep among wolves (Matt 10:16). Notice how binary that is. Jesus, in that moment taking up the rhetorical tools of the wisdom tradition, divided the world in two. There are sheep, and there are wolves. What did he mean? He meant, don’t expect this to be easy. He told them, they hated me; they’ll hate you as well because you’re with me.

This is why Paul said, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens” (Eph 6:12). And this is why you hear, for example, Paul speak this way:

But Elymas the sorcerer (that is the meaning of his name) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

But Saul—also called Paul—filled with the Holy Spirit, stared straight at Elymas and said, “You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, you son of the devil and enemy of all that is right. Won’t you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord?” (Acts 13:8-10)

It’s almost as though Paul is looking not just at Elymas but through him to invisible realities that operate behind flesh and blood, seeking to keep the world in darkness.

The serpent who wants nothing more than to seek, kill, and destroy (John 10:10) has workers (John 13:27; Acts 13:8-10; 1 Tim 1:19-20). The King who came to give life and that abundantly (John 10:10) has workers as well (Matt 9:38; Phil 2:15; Rev 12:11).

This means, church, we are not living in peacetime. The kingdom of God advances through bold witness and light-bearing holiness. We will not march unimpeded. There is an enemy who will oppose Christ’s glory in your life and your witness to Christ in the world. He wants to distract you, to discourage you. Some he’ll attack with spiritual pride and self-righteousness. Others will be drawn in with the bait of different sins. Others, perhaps many Christians in our culture, he’ll simply distract with a materialism and busyness that, in effect, takes us off the field of kingdom action. This world’s God-rejecting foolishness notwithstanding, our call is forward!

We are counted as fools in this world, but God is the one who defines the terms, and in the end reality will win out. God’s wisdom will prevail. The foolishness of God will be wiser than the God-neglecting “wisdom” of this world. This is where history is heading. Whose side are you on? Are you with God and with his Christ?

God Rejects Fools

Psalm 53:5

Verse 5 is sobering. Remember, this isn’t just a song. And, since we have New Testament revelation throwing its light back into the Old Testament, we also know verse 5 isn’t just ancient history. Verse 5 is prophecy. Verse 5 is coming.

Dread will fall on those who have foolishly pushed God aside and opposed the progress of his kingdom through his people. Conceptual, card-carrying atheists and practical, God-patronizing dabblers—all will fall before him when God the Judge appears in glory.

This verse paints a picture of where this world’s God-denying “wisdom” is headed. Bones scattered. Rejected by God. The ones who consumed God’s people (v. 4) are consumed.

God’s judgment is righteous. No one is wrongly punished. If human history seems to be one unending tale of injustice and oppression, that story will end. All wrongs will be made right. A world that has desired to live without God—outside the light of his love, out from under his rule and blessing and provision—will have what they desire. Jesus said they will be cast into outer darkness (Matt 22:13).

God Restores His People

Psalm 53:6

If humanity is divided into two categories, verse 5 tells us what happens to the fools. Verse 6 tells us what happens to those who belong to God—the ones who have called on his name, the ones who were evildoers but, by grace, stand righteous in his sight because of the work of Jesus Christ.

Look at the concepts that collect around God’s people in verse 6: Deliverance. Restoration. Fortune. Rejoicing. Gladness. This is the salvation the psalmist is praying for. Apparently there was some experience that felt like verse 4. They were being consumed like bread. They were not strong enough to fight off their adversaries. The psalmist announces that the adversaries of God’s people will be put to shame, and what remains for the people of God will be joy. Peter calls it “inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet 1:8). King David calls it “eternal pleasures” at God’s right hand (Ps 16:11).

The story of the world is seen in this psalm through what God is doing. He looks for one who does good. He finds no one seeking him; all have turned away. The New Testament tells us what God does about this. He sends Messiah to rescue us from our sin and God-neglecting foolishness. Then, in the end, God scatters and rejects a world of fools who have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, and he restores and saves and gladdens the hearts of his people forever.

Where are you in the story?

Reflect and Discuss