Ps. 14

Ps. 14

Fools / say / in their heart / “There is / no God” / They are / corrupt / they do / abominable deeds / there is / no one / who does / good. We have finally made our way to the Biblical fool. He is a character that has received a good deal of attention in the western philosophical tradition. However, that aspect of his life is not something we want to focus on today. Instead, we want to see how (or why) this mad is regarded by the psalmist as a fool. The first thing to note is that the fool is not verbally expressing this statement but says it “in his heart”. This is important because what follows, describing this ‘fool’, are actions he takes. What I think we have here is that, for the psalmist, what a person does are expressions of what the heart ‘says’. These do not need to be verbally, cognitive statements. Rather, a person’s life give’s expression to the heart’s ‘words’. How a person behaves is the ‘word of their heart’. The issue then becomes what exactly is this person doing which would garnish him such a condemnation: and here we are in familiar territory—he lives his life as if Yhwh could not (or, was unable) to bring him to justice. This does not mean that he doesn’t believe in God’s existence; it means he doesn’t believe in God’s ability to oversee or judge him. It is a question of power, not existence. Another aspect of this psalm is how this initial denial of God leads to a categorical and absolute condemnation of such ‘fools’. Initially at least, this blanket condemnation only applies to the ‘fools’. They are the ones are corrupt and do abominable deeds. Again, these statements can be read as a parallelism to the first verse—to say ‘there is no god’ is ‘to act corruptly and do abominable deeds’. The scene now immediately shifts to heaven, with Yhwh peering down on the earth: Yhwh / looks down / from heaven / on mankind / to see / if there / are any / who are / wise / who / seek after / God. First, notice what this transition ‘to heaven’ accomplishes. By removing the reader up into the celestial realm, the psalmist is, geographically, directly contradicting the ‘fool’. A similar juxtaposition happens in Psalm 2 when the nations congregate and Yhwh booms from heaven, and it also happens in a more recent psalm where the friend of the psalmist was telling him to ‘flee to the mountains’ because Yhwh could not protect him. The immediacy of the move ‘to heaven’ is the embodiment of the condemnation of “fool”. It is reminiscent of all of the humorous tales of the ‘prophet’ who is unable to see Yhwh (or his angel) standing right in front of him (Balaam, Eli, etc…). Here, of course, there is no hint of humor but pure judgment/condemnation. We may, in fact, recall two similar situations in Genesis: the flood and the tower of Babel. In the flood story, Yhwh looks down from heaven and sees the earth full of corruption and wickedness; in the story of Babel, Yhwh ‘looks down’ and sees man acting as if he didn’t “exist”(i.e., was the supreme source of all power). In both, this ‘looking down’ revealed a world in almost total rebellion to God—just as we find here. Likewise, this ‘looking down’ eventually become an act of total judgment (in one total destruction, in another, total dissimulation). I wonder here, too, if we are not to catch some vague reference back to when God went out ‘searching for Adam’, and yet he was ‘hidden’ from him due to his sinfulness/shame/rebellion. One way this psalm coheres though is that Yhwh is looking for something in particular: wisdom, which is equated with ‘seeking after God’. Although this will be picked up later, what is fascinating about this search is that whenever Yhwh is on the verge of destroying an entire people (whether in Sodom/Gomorrah, in Exodus, or in Jeremiah), he looks for one “good” person to dissuade him from his judgment. I am not aware of anytime he is looking for one ‘wise’ person. Might we see here an introduction to the Jewish sense of ‘wisdom’ as not involving necessarily ‘perception into mysteries’ but a type of ‘covenant faithfulness’ or ‘goodness’? Later in the psalm the complaint by Yhwh is that there is no one “who is good” (not ‘wise’).It seems as if, here, these are parallel terms (although not necessarily identical). Finally, and this will be more apparent in the next verse, this verse answers verse 1 (something we have already pointed out): The fool has said there is no god---Yhwh looks down….

The last verse was the searching, this is the result: They have / all / gone astray. They are / all / alike perverse. There is / no one / who does / good; / no / not one. The first result is a vision of animals wandering away from their leader: they have ‘gone astray’. This term, at least in the prophets, often refers to Israel’s breaking away from covenant faithfulness and following other gods. The prophets are, in response, attempting to get them to “follow after” Yhwh (as Jesus will, later, call the disciples to “follow after” him). It would seem then that what Yhwh sees when he looks upon the earth are covenant-breakers, those who have entered into a covenant with Yhwh but have ‘veered off’ or ‘wandered off’ of the reserve. They are ‘sniffing’ the wind for the smell of other sources of power and gods. Like Adam, they are searching for wisdom in ways that break from the commands of Yhwh. This ‘going astray’ leads into another description, more sinister—perversity. The first implied almost a type of state of being ‘lost’ or aimless wandering. Here, the true nature of this straying is categorically judged: it is perversity, a veering away from a proper course. One might conclude that ‘going astray’ was willful, although perhaps simply negligent, but here the act speaks more of a rebellion; and intentional and knowing turning away from covenant faithfulness. This leads into the final condemnation: no one ‘does good’. As we have already mentioned, this ‘doing good’ is matched to the ‘wise, seeking after God’. While it may at first glance appear to be a retreating from the escalating judgment, it is, in face, but the final outcome: here it is called rebellion when matched with the ‘wise, seeking after God’. Yhwh looks upon the earth for those who will walk in the ways of covenant faithfulness and not only does he not find any, he finds an open rebellion. The earth seems to be swarming with infidelity. It concludes with the utter wickedness of man: not one person does Yhwh find. This would appear to harkens back to times when Yhwh would avert his wrath if he could find a righteous man; in Genesis it is as low as 10, in Jeremiah, Yhwh, as here, looks for just one person that will calm him. He does not find any and one can only realize that soon Yhwh’s wrath will be vented without anyone to stand in his way. Have they / no knowledge, / the evildoers / who / eat up / my people / as they / eat bread / and / do not / call upon / Yhwh? “Have they no knowledge”—of what? If what we have said thus far is accurate, these evildoers live as if Yhwh was unable to control/stop them. Furthermore, they are covenant-breakers who rebel against the covenant laid down by Yhwh. Their lack of ‘wisdom’ entails, in some form, this rebellion. Yet here we are given an added hint of what their lack of wisdom entails: it may also entail their lack of understanding about the punishment for covenant-breakers. There seems to be a latent threat here, that judgment is being stored up for them, and just as they can’t (or refuse) to ‘ascend to the heavenly’ perspective of vs. 2, so too are they unable (or unwilling) to acknowledge the flames that are being prepared for them in heaven. “Who eat up my people as they eat bread”: For the first time we have been given access to who the psalmist is: the king (perhaps David himself). And he is shocked by the evildoers casualness in performing their wickedness, here described as devouring the poor. They perform in the same manner as ‘eating bread’; there is nothing dramatic to their action. It is as normal to them as eating bread—and the king, in whose heart dwells these poor, is watching this take place. This image of ‘eating the poor’ is not unique to this psalm; the prophets employ it constantly as an image of destruction of just/poor. Jesus will alter refer to his disciples as ‘lambs’sent out among ‘wolves’, pointing to their being devoured. I am not aware, however, of when it is used to refer to ‘bread’, a much more passive form of devouring than hunting. “And do not call up on Yhwh”: this failure is damning; it reverberates throughout the OT, specifically it finds expression as the final outcome in the book of Judges (at the end of the book the downward spiral has hit the bottom when the people cease to ‘cry out’ to Yhwh) and in Jeremiah (where Israel has failed to ‘cry out’ to Yhwh and instead is proclaiming ‘peace, peace’). This crying out, in these two instances, are both for deliverance and repentance—both of which should not be too far removed. It would seem then, that we have something very similar to both Judges and Jeremiah: Judges, in that the people are ‘wandering away’ on ‘their own paths’ in rebellion to Yhwh, and Jeremiah, in that they do not see the coming judgment that is being stored up for them. Likewise, it is surely the case that we have here an echo of the opening line: the fool who says there is no God. To fail to ‘cry out’ as one should is to be an atheist in this king’s eye. There / they shall be/ in great terror / for God / is with / the company of / the righteous. We find here martial imagery. The idea of being ‘found in great terror’ is reminiscent of the terror induced by Yhwh as the Warrior King who fought for Israel in both the Exodus and in the conquest of the land. The enemy was often found to be thrown into a panic and overcome ‘with terror’. This image was exploited by the prophets to point to the ‘day of the Lord’ when Yhwh would come to judge the world, either within time or apocalyptically. Here, it seems that these covenant-breakers are to experience Yhwh not as their defender but their attacker and will be regarded as his enemy in the same way as the Pharaoh and the nations. Likewise, the company they ‘oppressed’ (the poor) will be like the Israelites, delivered from their ‘mouths’. Just as Yhwh was with the smallest of the Israelites, in both the Exodus and the conquest, so too now will he be with the ‘company of the righteous’, fighting for their deliverance. You / would confound / the plans / of the poor / but / Yhwh / is their refuge. You / would confound / the plans / of the poor / but Yhwh / is their / refuge. One thing that is spoke of often in the context of Yhwh’s deliverance is way in which he accomplishes a ‘great reversal’. 1^stSamual, following Hannah’s prayer of the ‘reversal’, can be fruitfully read this way (contrasting the priest Eli and his sons, with Samuel, and Saul with David). What is evident from Samuel is that this reversal is brought about, not simply to show Yhwh’s power, but because justice demands it; human rebellion has so distorted the proper dialogue between Yhwh and Israel that those on the top must be thrown down (Eli and his corrupt sons; Saul) and those on the bottom raised up (Samuel; David). What I have not paid enough attention to but here it is apparent in these reversals is that the dramatic nature of the reversal is premised on the oppressive weight of rebellion against Yhwh and his chosen people by the wicked. It is like a drowning person coming up for air—they do not gently take in their breath but violently take large gulps. Something similar seems to be at work here: the poor are being suffocated almost to death and Yhwh is called upon to deliver them, but their deliverance must be as ‘oppressive’ as the injustice they are suffering under. Notice how the psalm, for the first time, actually addresses someone: “you” (meaning, “the wicked” who claim “God does not exist”). What they are attempting to do is “confound” the poor. Apparently, their ‘eating’ of the poor like ‘bread’ is accomplished by way of leaving them incapable of carrying out their plans. They attempt to keep the poor down by removing from them their ability to succeed (perhaps we have hear references to business transactions they thwart, or they bribe judges (with influence or money or what-have-you) and prevent them from obtaining justice). Whatever it is, they have placed them far away from normal channels of power. What they have failed to realize is what the whole psalm has been aiming at: Yhwh is watching over and sides with these poor in the same way as he sided with Israel in her liberation. I wonder if what the psalmist is attempting to convey is this: we began with the fool who denied that God was able to control them (hence, that heaven was not as strong as they), here, we end with the claim that these men cannot conceive of power coming ‘up from below’ (that there could be a hidden power in the poor; that Yhwh is their ‘refuge’). Perhaps we should see here the fact that the ‘poor’ are to these wicked as what the angel of Yhwh was to Balaam, or the voice of Yhwh was to Eli