One of the things I try to do in following Jesus is spend time reading Scripture. It is certainly more difficult now than when I was a pastor, but the struggle to “fit it in” is helping me learn just how difficult (and important) Bible reading is for the “working Joe.”
About six years ago, I started using the M’Cheyne Bible Reading plan. I certainly have not done it completely all six years, but I find it one of the best plans available because of the variety of readings it gives me every day.
Anyway, I think that one thing I might do occasionally is post a few comments on this blog for the reading from that day. That way, if you are reading along the same plan, what I write here will sync with what you were reading that day.
Today, one of the chapters in the reading was Psalm 53. It begins with a quite famous verse: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.'”
Lots of Christians love to use this verse to bash atheists. “Look!” they say. “The Bible says that atheists are fools! How can they be so ignorant as to not see that all creation speaks of the existence of God?” Then the Christian turns to Romans 1, or to some of the logical arguments for the existence of God.
However, this reading of the text is probably not what David had in mind. He was not writing against atheism. After all, atheism is really only a few hundred years old. Prior to the Enlightenment, everyone believed in the existence of some sort of god or gods. So Psalm 53:1 has nothing to do with atheism.
Rather, the author is writing against the person who chooses to live “as if” God were absent, not caring what we do, not watching over our lives. It is the one who believes God exists, but refuses to read God’s Word, listen to God’s voice, and instead, simply does what one pleases, without any thought of what God might desire.
In other words, who is the fool in view? It is the one who believes God exists, but refuses to obey what He says. And if you read the rest of Psalm 53, that is what the Psalm is all about: the foolishness of disobeying God. When viewed this way, the biggest fools of all are those of us (myself included) who pray to God, and read His Word, but do not do what He says.
This truth is also explained in passages like Matthew 7:24-29 and James 1;22-25.
I never knew that man I should learn Hebrew
Jeremy, I like that. I looked, and you are right!!!
Thanks for pointing this out!!!
Diane
Great perspective.
Very good to remember, and more importantly to live out.
I agree with Kirk (no relation!) that it is important to learn Hebrew. Then you will understand what the quoted words in this psalm mean. They do not mean “No, God” in the sense you seem to think, an address to God communicating “no” rather than “yes”, i.e. a refusal to obey. Rather they mean “no god” in the sense that God either does not exist or is absent.
The translators supplied the words “there is” for a good reason, as they are needed to express the psalmist’s meaning in grammatical and clear English. It is not for people who don’t seem to have even looked at the Hebrew text to take out these words and then to repunctuate what is left to give a meaning which is quite alien to what the original text could possibly have meant.
But I can agree that the author was probably not thinking the fool was an atheist, rather that the fool thought God was absent and not taking any notice of what he was doing – more a deist than an atheist perhaps.
Hi all,
When I wrote this post, I did not have access to the Hebrew, and so made a guess that the Hebrew word being used was “lo” rather than “ayin.” Anyway, when I gained access to my books, I looked it up, and found it that the word is “ayin” which, as Peter Kirk pointed out above, does not mean “No, God.” (For that, you would need “lo” as in Gen 18:15).
However, as Peter went on to point out, the meaning of the Psalm really doesn’t change too much. The “fool” is not really one who denies the existence of God, (for atheism is a relatively new belief), but is instead deciding to live without God.
Thanks! (and sorry for misleading!)
Jeremy, thanks for correcting the post, which is now excellent. It is good to note that these verses don’t apply so much to those atheists out there but to many Christians, even perhaps also ourselves, who live our daily lives as if there were no God.
Hi Jeremy,
God spoke to me through your post. Good words of exhortation!
While this is an interesting take on this scripture, it is a bit naive to assume that atheism is young system of belief. Solomon stated in the Book of Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. While the upsurge in atheists may be a new phenomenon, let us think that it hasn’t always existed. As long as devil has been in operation he would have found ways to turn man away from God including creating a disbelief in Him. Still a very interesting take on the Scripture though.