Is There Hope For Our Heart Problem? (Psalm 53)
GIST: We have a heart problem which makes destructive behavior commonplace and fear a permanent state, but God cares, so both joy and hope are possible.
This morning, we’re coming to Psalm 53. It’s actually pretty interesting because this is a psalm that is not only famously quoted in Romans 3, but is also almost identical to another psalm. In fact, aside from a few words, they are almost exactly the same until we come to verse 5. Some of you might remember this coming up, but it’s unlikely because it was six summers ago! Honestly, I had forgotten about having this conversation, so I went back to watch the video from that Sunday, and it was like looking into a time capsule ☺️.
Now, David didn’t just write this psalm a second time because he’d ran out of material. He was inspired at a different time in his life and the life of Israel to bring people back to these core truths. Really, anytime we see something repeated in Scripture it’s not because God forgot He’d already inspired it, it’s meant to draw our attention to the importance of these truths. And though not always easy to digest, these are some key truths. Let’s dive in→
"1 For the director of music. According to mahalath. A maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and their ways are vile; there is no one who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. 3 Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. 4 Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour My people as though eating bread; they never call on God. 5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those who attacked you; you put them to shame, for God despised them. 6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores His people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!" (NIV for our reader today!)
In case you’re curious, our gist this morning is not the same one we had for Psalm 14 ☺️. We took it as a case study and looked at it in medical terms like “the condition, the symptoms, the cure”...etc. Nonetheless, the truths developed here are still the gospel. Here’s the gist of what we’ll break down: We have a heart problem which makes destructive behavior commonplace and fear a permanent state, but God cares, so both joy and hope are possible.
I. We Have A Heart Problem
“1 To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath. A Maskil of David. The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. 2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”
Again, we have a maskil, so this is meant to be instructive. And it’s meant to be performed according to Mahalath which appears to have either been a specific melody or a musical instrument. So, what does this instructive melody start by teaching us?
We’re all naturally foolish. Encouraging, right? ☺️. Listen, I know this can come across as incredibly offensive, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees. This is not calling atheists stupid people as a kind of guttural response to those with whom we disagree. This isn’t about intellect. It’s about morality. Missing out on the truth of God is embracing what Tim Keller defines as “a destructive self-centeredness”.
And this is a heart situation. Notice he says that the fool says this in their heart. There are actually a few things we could take away from that. First, though you have instances— in fact in some circles it’s kind of in vogue to fall into this camp— of publicly claiming not to believe in God…or at least not the God of the Bible (vague spirituality tends to be much more accepted), this might not be something ever vocalized. You could be a faithful church attender, but in your heart not believe. You could even publicly claim belief, but live as a practical atheist. If God is your “Sunday-thing” but He has no bearing on the rest of your week, that’s where you are right now.
And truthfully, this is our natural state. By “our” I mean all of us. Like I said, this psalm is instructive and it pulls no punches. Immediately, we hit moral ignorance and total depravity. Like in Psalm 51, we’re being given a picture of original sin. None of us our born righteous. We don’t grow into sin. It’s our natural state. None is righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10).
Now, that doesn’t mean there is nothing good in this world that isn’t produced by Christians, but it does mean there is nothing good in this world that isn’t produced by God. He works good amongst even those who reject Him as an act of common grace. And He’s placed eternity within all our hearts. If He were to completely remove His hands from this world… well, you think it’s bad now…
So, we have this heart problem→
II. Which Makes Destructive Behavior Commonplace
“2… They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity… 4 Have those who work evil no knowledge, who eat up My people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?”
Bad stuff keeps happening. I don’t know that I need to break that down any further, right? Have you had a week where you didn’t see pain in some form or another? We live in a hurting world. Guys, this is one of the main reasons we try to always emphasize the importance of going out. Life is hard. Naturally, we’re both perpetrators and victims. We need the light and hope of Jesus. If we have that light, then we’ve been called to shine it brightly.
Naturally, sin will just remain commonplace. That’s the picture we get here with this idea of eating people like bread. The picture might be lost on our culture a bit now because some of us just don’t eat as much bread. For ancient Israel, it would have been part of every meal. It was definitely like that when I lived in Belarus too. In fact, even my grandparents would always have bread on the table regardless of what we were eating. It was just… normal. For those of us who are still trapped in sin, that's exactly what sinning is like. It’s natural. It's part of our everyday life. We seek ourselves at the expense of others, and we don't even think about it...because it's just what we do.
When you look at this too, it does say that His people are the ones being eaten. I think that’s at least worth noting. Sin will naturally oppose God’s work. Why? Because it has no regard for Him. Notice, there is no calling out to Him. Why would there be when we’re living like He doesn’t exist?
So, we have a heart problem that makes sin commonplace→
III. And Fear A Permanent State
“5 There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.”
This is where the psalm diverges a bit from Psalm 14. They both tell us missing out on God leads to fear. I feel like this psalm emphasizes it even more though.
It paints a picture of needless fear without hope. Each word there is important. They are in great error where there is no terror. God did not design for us to live in fear, but look at our world. How prominent is fear? And there are plenty of reasons to be afraid. Our world is a scary place. Terrible atrocities happen all the time. Anxiety is at an all-time high. Yet, if we’re walking with Jesus, we have a source of hope and stability in the midst of these storms. That doesn’t mean we won’t ever struggle. Oh, we will. But we have a firm foundation to stand on when the onslaught comes. But if you live like God isn’t real?
He wants to come to your rescue. That’s the picture here. We’re afraid, but Jesus came as our overcomer. But if we turn away from Him, it’s to our own detriment and shame because we’re rejecting hope. As a result, we will stand in the rejection we’ve chosen. That’s a disheartening place to stand, but it was never meant to be where we stay. That’s our natural state→
IV. But God Cares
Look back at verse 2. I skipped this because it ties into the point David wraps up with really well.
“2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man…”
God isn’t some distant God who just doesn’t care about the pain of the world. He’s the God who looks. Man says in their heart there is no God. Naturally, we look away from Him, but He doesn’t look away from us! I love how David Guzik puts it: “While man may wish to forget about God, God never forgets about man!” God cares→
V. So Both Hope And Joy Are Possible
“6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores the fortunes of His people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”
We have this picture of hope leading to joy. He is longing for salvation to come from Zion, and it has. Jesus, God in flesh, came and died and rose again as the ultimate fulfillment of this hope. Because He has, His people can rejoice and be glad. Do you see the contrast here between needless fear and joy?
TAKEAWAYS
Let’s just look at those points again real quick.
We have a heart problem which makes destructive behavior commonplace and fear a permanent state. This is true for all of us. This is the natural state of our world… but it doesn’t have to be.
Nonetheless, because God cares, both joy and hope are possible. Will you come to Him?
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