The Fate Of The Fool
Psalms 53
November 3, 2019
Tonight we look at yet another song
Which God inspired for His church to sing.
A song which again was “For the choir director”
To teach to the great congregation.
The truths contained here are truths to be read, memorized, sung,
And thus engrained in the human heart.
What you may immediately be aware of is that this Psalm
Is nearly identical to a Psalm we have already studied.
Psalms 14 and Psalms 53 are very similar.
And that doesn’t bother us in the least.
Paul said:
Philippians 3:1 “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.”
Peter wrote:
2 Peter 1:12 “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.”
So just because we study something again, is not a big deal at all.
And there will definitely be some similar points.
However, there are also some important differences to grasp,
And such that will take us to a different application for Psalms 53.
For starters,
In the subheading we get information for Psalms 53 that was not present in Psalms 14.
Namely that it is played “according to Mahalath”
“Mahalath” is a word that can mean “disease”.
It can also mean “stringed instruments”
Many have noted that most likely this Psalm
Was to be played upon the string instruments to a sad theme.
So we know it carries a different tune than that of the 14th Psalm.
Another notable difference is when the 14th Psalm speaks of God David used Yahweh, translated “LORD”.
But in Psalms 53 the word “Elohim” is used and is translated “God”
Whereas Yahweh was the covenantal name of God
And focused greatly on the relationship between God and His people, Elohim is a name that seems to focus on the powerful Creator God.
So where Psalms 14 may have been for a more relational feel, Psalms 53 is going to focus in more on the power of God.
The third major difference you will see comes in verse 5, which is the most significantly different verse in the Psalm and one that allows us to gain the differing point and direction of this song.
Now, despite the differences they are very similar.
In fact the first 4 verses are almost identical.
And like the 14th Psalm, the focus here is on the fool.
Certainly we can all understand the importance of this topic.
Even when the Lord finished His Sermon on the Mount, He ended it with a warning about a foolish man.
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”
Most know that story, and there is even a child-song we sing about it.
That story is the final application of Jesus’ entire Sermon on the Mount.
He spent 3 chapters talking about true righteousness as opposed to merely external religious behavior.
• He called men to be poor in spirit and to hunger for righteousness
• He condemned hypocrisy
• He condemned self-righteousness
• He condemned those who put all their trust in their own religious deeds
• He called men instead to see their sin and ask Him for righteousness
• He called men to realize their desperation and enter through the narrow gate
Those who would see God’s righteous standard
As something they had failed to uphold
And who would understand their due judgment
And who would run to Christ to be saved from that judgment
WERE CONSIDERED WISE.
Those who ignored God’s righteous standard,
Ignored God’s judgment,
And chose rather to trust in all their own efforts
WERE CONSIDERED FOOLS.
After Jesus gave that sermon He could have easily ended with this Psalm.
It is a song which emphasizes the utter foolishness of fools.
We the church sing this Psalm still
• As a reminder of what true foolishness is,
• And how foolish it is to ignore God’s righteous standard.
• And how foolish it is not to call upon God for salvation.
AND THAT IS A REMINDER WE NEED
Buried in the prideful human heart
Is a continual draw toward legalism and self-reliance.
And even we must be continually reminded
To never put confidence in the flesh.
This is why Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Philippians 3:2-9 “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,”
The Philippians needed to guard themselves
From the temptation to put confidence in their flesh.
That confidence is the very heart of all foolishness.
• Only a fool trusts in his own house and forsakes the rock of Christ.
• Only a fool ignores the warning signs of judgment and believes himself to be
well established in his own goodness.
And the church must be reminded of this continually.
IGNORING GOD IS FOOLISH.
But we also sing this song as a reminder of the fate of the fool
So that we might glory in salvation
And be driven to evangelize all the more.
We remember the fate of the fool so that (as John learned in the Revelation) we might be driven to “prophesy again”.
No wonder God inspired such a fitting song to be sung.
This is an important Psalm to remember.
This is an important doctrine to fix in your heart.
We broke Psalms 14 into 2 points, but we’re going to break this Psalm into 4.
And they are all about the fool.
#1 THE FOOL DENIES HIS CREATOR
Psalms 53:1
Here we are talking about “The fool”
It’s not a foreign term – the book of Proverbs uses it 38 times.
Yet there are 3 different Hebrew words that are commonly referred to as “fool”
There is EVIL (e-veel)
• And this one just means “one who despises wisdom”.
• They don’t want correction
• They don’t want instruction
There is KESIL (ke-seel)
• And this is just a stupid or silly person.
And then there is the word used here.
• It is NABAL and it means “senseless”.
• That is to say, they just don’t get it.
This is the fool who can’t seem to discern
That the storm is on the way and his house is about to fall into ruin.
This is the person who can’t seem to grasp
The holy expectation of God or His coming wrath.
HE IS SENSELESS.
In the New Testament this man is not so often referred to as a fool
So much as he is referred to as “dead” or “spiritually dead”
Colossians 2:13 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,”
It speaks of that person who is unable to recognize the things of God.
He is not aware of what is going on around Him.
This is why Paul prayed for the unrepentant lost like this:
2 Timothy 2:25-26 “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
Consider the prodigal son, the beginning of his salvation is recorded like this:
Luke 15:17 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!”
This is the type of fool spoken of here.
• Not necessarily a stupid person
• Not necessarily a stubborn person
• Not dealing with an apostate here
• We not even be dealing with a person who has even heard the gospel
• But mostly a senseless person, they don’t get it.
It is a lost person
It is a spiritually dead person
But that lack of sense still makes him a fool.
And in verse 1 it is that he denies God’s desire.
(1) “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable injustice; There is no one who does good.”
• Here we find the heart-confession of the senseless fool.
• He “has said in his heart, “There is no God.””
This the person David has in mind here.
It’s NOT that he runs around militantly declaring God isn’t real.
David is talking about the guy who lives like there is no God.
• He has just never contemplated that he was created
• He has never wondered who created him
• He has never considered his Creator’s expectations
David continues
“They are corrupt”
“corrupt” there is the Hebrew word SHACHATH
And it means “rotten” or “perverted” or “spoiled” or “decayed”
It speaks of something that
Is no longer useful for its intended purpose.
Genesis 6:11-13 “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, ” The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”
Interestingly enough in that last line when God says that He will “destroy them” that word is also SHACHATH.
They are spoiled, rotten, and decayed, so God will decay them.
Exodus 32:7 “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.”
That of course was in reference to the golden calf incident.
• Through their actions the people had strayed from their original purpose and had rendered themselves unfit for their intentional design.
• They were ruined and no longer useful.
This is what David says about these fools.
“They are corrupt”
They have strayed from their created purpose
And are no longer useful for what they were designed for.
David goes on to say that
“they have committed abominable injustice;”
This was the means of their corruption.
“abominable” is a word that means “detestable”
The reason they are so ruined is because
They have spoiled themselves
By doing absolutely detestable things.
There is actually a word swap from Psalms 14 here.
• Psalms 14:1 says they “have committed abominable deeds”
• But Psalms 53 says “they have committed abominable injustice”
Whereas Psalms 14 just referenced detestable deeds.
Psalms 53 uses a word that means “violent deeds of injustice”
It really takes it up a notch and intensifies it.
They are just bad, they are violently bad.
They do unthinkable things.
My mind goes here to the atrocities we read about
• Concerning things like abortion.
• Or the killing of a baby who accidentally survives and abortion.
• Or the harvesting of a fetus’ organs.
• Or the selling of those organs.
It’s just intensified violent evil.
DAVID IS HERE MAKING SURE YOU UNDERSTAND
THAT THEY ARE DESERVING OF GOD’S DIVINE WRATH.
They have done things they should not have done,
And as such have corrupted themselves
And rendered themselves unfit for service and useless to God.
THEY JUST HAVE NO INTRINSIC VALUE BEFORE GOD
And then to sort of sum up the total problem of the fool David says:
“There is no one who does good”
“good” there is TAWB
You’ve seen it before
Genesis 1:31 “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
“good” there represents God’s expectation and desire.
• It represents what is complete and perfect and useable to Him.
• It represents something that functions exactly as He designed it to function.
And David says that there is no fool “who does good”
• They are all corrupt
• They have all been defiled by their detestable deeds
• None of them maintains the original good purpose which God designed for
them
That is why we say the fool has DENIED HIS CREATOR
God created humanity for a specific purpose and for a specific design
And every fool out there denied that purpose and corrupted themselves.
They were all ruined and useless.
The fool Denies His Creator
#2 THE FOOL DISREGARDS HIS JUDGE
Psalms 53:2-3
“God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. Every one of them has turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”
Certainly we see again emphasized the fact that
The fool has failed to live up to God’s righteous expectation.
But added to that problem here is the fact that
The fool is also totally UNAWARE THAT GOD IS WATCHING.
“God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand”
We already established that man has corrupted his purpose
And is unusable to God,
Here we want to know if they realize that there is a problem with that?
And the answer from David is, “NO”.
God wanted to know if “there are any who understand”
That is to ask
• Do they understand that they have corrupted the purpose for which they were created?
• Do they understand that they have maligned their true purpose?
• Do they understand that they have offended Me, their Creator?
And the answer is, “No, they do not”
And it’s the same answer across the board.
“EVERY ONE of them has turned aside, TOGETHER they have become corrupt; There is NO ONE who does god, NOT EVEN ONE.”
What we are talking about here is not just a couple of people
Who need to be segregated or quarantined,
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC.
It was the same epidemic that occurred before the flood.
Genesis 6:11-12 “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.”
They had become corrupt, God was watching, and they didn’t care.
• It mattered not to them that judgment was occurring.
• It mattered not to them that their Holy Creator disapproved.
It is the fool, totally disregarding the fact that God is watching.
It is the horrifying statement found in Romans 1
Romans 1:32 “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
THAT IS TO BE SENSELESS
• They don’t get it.
• They are totally oblivious to the standards of God and the judgments of God.
• They are senseless, they are dead
The Fool Denies His Creator The Fool Disregard’s His Judge
#3 THE FOOL DECLINES HIS SAVIOR
Psalms 53:4
“Have the workers of wickedness no knowledge, Who eat up my people as though they eat bread, And have not called upon God?”
Here you actually have David asking, “Have [they] no knowledge?”
• These people “who eat up my people as they though eat bread”
• These people who “have not called upon God?”
• These are people who have denied the very reason for their existence.
• These are people who have disregarded that God might judge them for that.
• These are people who also have attacked those who do serve God.
And yet we find that thus far in life they “have not called upon God”
You will remember what Paul said in Romans 10
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
The point being, nothing has changed.
• Despite their rebellion.
• Despite their apathy.
• Despite their persecution of God’s people.
They still have not come to their senses and repented
And called upon God for forgiveness and salvation.
And David asks:
Have they no knowledge?
In other words, “Are they really that dumb?”
• Only a fool would live like that.
• Only a fool would do such things without repenting.
• Only a fool would refuse to call upon God for salvation.
Do they not realize what a terrifying predicament they are in?
Hebrews 10:29-31 “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY.” And again, “THE LORD WILL JUDGE HIS PEOPLE.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Do they not know that?
And the answer is – NO
• They don’t know that God is righteous and they are wicked
• They don’t know that they are wicked and God is angry
• They don’t know that God is angry and they are in danger
NOW THIS IS WHERE THE PSALMS GO IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS.
In Psalms 14 David said:
Psalms 14:5-6 “There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation. You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But the LORD is his refuge.”
Psalm 14 clearly desired to contrast the fool with the wise man.
And the point to Psalms 14 is that
While the fool is raging, the wise man is trusting.
And so Psalms 14 becomes a contrast between the fool and the wise man.
• Whereas the fool denies God’s desire and disregards God’s judgment and
declines God’s salvation, the wise man does none of those things.
• The wise man realizes that God is with the righteous generation and so the
wise man takes refuge in the Lord.
It is a contrast meant to inspire the church to choose wisdom over folly.
But Psalms 53 has a different feel.
Instead of talking about how the wise is different from the fool,
David here gives one more point about the fool.
#4 THE FOOL DESERVES HIS FATE
Psalms 53:5
This Psalm makes no contrast between the fool and the wise man.
This Psalm instead takes the fool to his complete end.
Notice the coming reality for those who deny their Creator and who disregard their Judge and who decline their Savior.
There are really 2 listed here.
1) FEAR DUE TO JUDGMENT
2) SHAME DUE TO REJECTION
Look at it.
“There they were in great fear where no fear had been;”
David reveals that there was a point when they had no fear of God.
Well that is certainly true.
• It’s not listed here, but we are well aware of that other famous statement that
Paul draws upon from Psalms 36.
Romans 3:18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
That is certainly the fool.
• He lives in such a manner as to defy God and doesn’t even seem to care.
• There is really no fear there.
I watched a video promo recently by Ron Reagan in charge of
“The Freedom From Religion” campaign.
Where he boldly says at the end, “Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.”
You can even go on their website and create your own digital billboard where you upload your own picture inside a set of devil horns where you can also proudly proclaim that you also are not afraid of burning in hell.
That is the sort of brash foolishness we hear from our world today.
And yet, David also reveals that their lack of fear is temporary.
David says, “They were in great fear where no fear had been.”
They were previously unafraid of God’s judgment,
And all of a sudden that changed to “great fear”
Why?
Well that’s easy, God’s judgment began.
“For God scattered the bones of him who encamped against you.”
These ungodly fearless non-believers
Who ate up God’s people as though they ate bread
Were judged by God.
God attacked them, decimated them, and scattered their bones.
You may remember a couple of months ago we listened as Jesus warned that unfaithful slave that He would return and “tear you in pieces”.
Well that is what God is doing here,
And all of a sudden these fools found their fear.
We read of it in Revelation 6
Revelation 6:12-17 “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Isaiah 13:6-9 “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.”
Ron Reagan isn’t afraid today, but that confidence is only temporary.
Only a fool would make such a statement.
There will be a fear due to judgment.
But David also speaks of a second reality.
SHAME DUE TO REJECTION
David says, “You put them to shame, because God had rejected them.”
Today there are many who don’t fear God
And there also many who feel no shame at their sin.
We live in the day of gay pride parades.
We live in the day of sexual immorality being celebrated.
At pro-abortion rally’s with signs like
• “My body my choice”
• “I don’t regret my abortion”
• “If Mary had had an abortion we wouldn’t be in this mess”
It’s a foolish lack of shame in our culture.
We saw it in Scripture.
Jeremiah 6:10-15 “To whom shall I speak and give warning That they may hear? Behold, their ears are closed And they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the LORD has become a reproach to them; They have no delight in it. But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding it in. “Pour it out on the children in the street And on the gathering of young men together; For both husband and wife shall be taken, The aged and the very old. “Their houses shall be turned over to others, Their fields and their wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD. “For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely. “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace. “Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time that I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.”
Philippians 3:19 “whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”
But there is coming a day when their pride will come to an end.
The Bible says that God “rejected them”
And in that rejection “put them to shame”
Can there be a more shameful or foolish feeling than being shut outside of the door into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth?
Is there not shame in those beating in the door saying
“Please open up to us!”
It is coming.
• Today they have no fear of God but one day they will.
• Today they have no shame, but one day they will feel like the biggest fools of all.
And that is the focus of Psalms 53.
The foolishness of a fool.
BUT YOU OF COURSE NOTICE ONE MORE VERSE.
I’m convinced that verse 6 serves as sort of the chorus of the Psalm.
It is the truth that God’s people are to grab ahold of.
(6) “Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God restores His captive people, Let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.”
It is the fitting chorus to be sung between every stanza about the wicked.
• It is a cry for God’s Savior to immerge.
• It is a cry for God to restore the captives.
• It is a cry for God’s people to rejoice in that salvation.
I FIND IT EVEN TO BE A SONG WITH A MOTIVATION FOR EVANGELISM.
• When we contemplate the fate of the wicked should we not be moved to a greater evangelistic zeal?
• When we contemplate the fate of the foolish should we not be moved to warn them?
• When we contemplate the fate of the lost should we be like the prodigal son’s older brother and just rejoice in their damnation?
I certainly don’t find that to be Christ-like response.
So here’s how you sing this song.
THE FOOL DENIES HIS CREATOR – Oh God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!
THE FOOL DISREGARDS HIS JUDGE – O God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!
THE FOOL DECLINES HIS SAVIOR – O God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!
THE FOOL DESERVES HIS PUNISHMENT, but O God send Your Savior to rescue the captives and I am so thankful that You saved me!
And if you’ll see it, that is the message of the New Testament.
We certainly are made aware of the reality of the fool,
But that reality is that which is meant to ultimately
Drive us to the greatness of Christ.
TURN TO: ROMANS 3:10
• You are familiar with verses 10-18, we read them quite often and many of them
come from Psalms 14/53.
But Paul doesn’t just stop there.
• First Paul reveals that the Law couldn’t fix the problem. (19-20)
• The Law didn’t help.
But what happened?
God sent His Savior.
He rescued the Captives.
(READ 21-24)
The church sings this song of the judgment of the wicked.
But how did David say we sing it? “Mahalath” – we sing it sadly!
Sinful man is a fool, and the end of that path is only judgment.
And that is why (like us) they need a Savior.
If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked,
How foolish would it be for us to do so?
We sing this song to remind us where the fool is headed.
• May it also inspire us to pray that God’s Savior would come.
• May it also inspire us to pray that God would save those captive to sin.
• May it also inspire us to rejoice at the salvation of the wicked.
• God forbid we be like the Pharisees who were angry at Christ for reaching out to tax collectors and sinners.
• God forbid we be like the prodigal’s older brother who had no room in his heart for a forgiven sinner.
I can’t help but be reminded:
Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
So we are aware of fools and the trouble they are in.
But that is why we pray for the Savior to come and save.
They are fools, but so where we.
God saved us, and we pray for God to save them.
