Commentary - Psalm 14:4-6

Bird's-eye view

Following the grim diagnosis of mankind's universal corruption, the fool saying in his heart there is no God, David now turns to the practical consequences of this atheism. This is not a theoretical atheism debated in sterile classrooms; it is a functional, lived-out atheism that has real-world victims. The passage pivots from the internal state of the fool to the external havoc he wreaks. David poses a rhetorical question that highlights the sheer ignorance and brutality of the wicked, describes their sudden, inexplicable terror, and concludes by contrasting their shameful counsel with the believer's secure fortress in God Himself. It is a movement from arrogant consumption to panicked dread, and finally to the ultimate security of the righteous.

The central theme here is the stark collision between two generations: the workers of iniquity and the righteous generation. One lives as though God is not there, and the other lives knowing He is not only there, but is with them. This divine presence is the determinative reality. It is what turns the tables on the wicked, filling them with dread, and it is what provides an unshakeable refuge for the afflicted, whose counsel the wicked despise. The Lord's presence in the midst of His people is the indigestible reality that chokes the godless oppressor.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 14, and its very close parallel in Psalm 53, serves as a foundational statement on the nature of human depravity. It is a psalm that the apostle Paul will later lean on heavily in Romans 3 to make his case for the universal sinfulness of man. The first three verses establish the verdict: from God's heavenly vantage point, no one does good, no, not one. Our passage, verses 4-6, flows directly from this verdict. It asks, given this universal corruption, what does it look like on the ground? It looks like the oppression of God's people. The psalm is not just a theological treatise on sin; it is a gritty, real-world lament about the effects of that sin, particularly how it manifests as hostility toward the righteous.

This psalm sets up a fundamental biblical dichotomy: the fool versus the wise, the wicked versus the righteous, those who call upon the Lord and those who do not. The conflict described here is not a petty squabble but a spiritual war, a clash of two fundamentally different ways of living in God's world. The resolution, hinted at in verse 7, is the salvation that comes from Zion, which is ultimately fulfilled in Christ.

Verse by Verse Commentary

Psalm 14:4

Do all the workers of iniquity not know, Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call upon Yahweh?

David begins with a question dripping with holy astonishment. It is a rhetorical question, of course. The answer is no, they do not know. The "workers of iniquity" are not just those who commit occasional sins; this is their trade, their vocation. They are defined by what they do. And what defines them is a profound ignorance. This is not a lack of IQ points. This is a willful, moral ignorance. They operate in the world without any understanding of how the world actually works, who runs it, and what the rules are. They are, in a word, fools. Their foolishness, as established in verse 1, is rooted in a practical atheism. They have said in their hearts, "No God," and this foundational error makes all their subsequent calculations disastrously wrong.

The outworking of their ignorance is described with a startlingly graphic metaphor: "Who eat up my people as they eat bread." This is not just persecution; it is consumption. The people of God are treated as a commodity, a resource to be devoured. Notice the casual nature of it. They do it "as they eat bread." It is routine, commonplace, a part of their daily sustenance. They feed on the lives, labor, and well-being of the righteous without a second thought, just as a man eats his lunch. This reveals the depth of their dehumanizing cruelty. They are spiritual cannibals. Thomas Watson was right when he said this is a Christ-hating and saint-eating world.

And the final diagnostic sign of their condition is that they "do not call upon Yahweh." This is the root of it all. Prayerlessness is the native air of the practical atheist. Why would you call upon someone you have dismissed in your heart? Their refusal to pray is not an oversight; it is a consistent outworking of their functional theology. They are self-sufficient. They are their own gods. To call upon Yahweh would be to admit need, to acknowledge a higher authority, and the fool is far too proud for that. Their ignorance, their cruelty, and their prayerlessness are all tightly bound together.

Psalm 14:5

There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation.

Here the scene shifts dramatically. One moment the wicked are casually eating their lunch, and the next, they are seized with a sudden, overwhelming terror. "There they are in great dread." The Hebrew emphasizes the immediacy and intensity of it. This is not a low-grade anxiety; it is a full-blown panic. But what causes it? There is no visible army, no earthly threat mentioned. The cause of their dread is entirely theological. It is a sudden, unwelcome awareness of a reality they had been diligently ignoring.

The reason for their terror is given in the second clause: "For God is with the righteous generation." This is the truth that crashes their party. They thought they were just consuming "people," but they find they have bitten into God. The Lord is present in and with His people. The phrase "righteous generation" is significant. It speaks of a lineage, a people set apart, a covenant community. God has identified Himself with this specific group. To oppose them is to oppose Him. When the workers of iniquity come to devour the saints, they are startled into fear because the indigestible God is in our midst. They thought they were dealing with a helpless minority, but they run headlong into the Almighty. This is the terror that fell upon the enemies of Israel in the Old Testament, and it is the terror that will seize all who oppose the Church of Jesus Christ when He returns.

Psalm 14:6

You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But Yahweh is his refuge.

This verse addresses the wicked directly. "You would put to shame..." This is the goal of the oppressor. It is not enough to devour the afflicted; they must also mock their trust. The "counsel of the afflicted" is their plan, their hope, their entire strategy for life, which is simply this: to trust in the Lord. To the worldly-wise, this is the height of foolishness. "You're in trouble? And your plan is to... trust in an invisible God?" The workers of iniquity see this as pathetic, and they seek to shame them for it. They want to prove that such a hope is empty, to make the righteous feel like fools for ever believing it.

But their mockery shatters against the second half of the verse. The sentence structure is a beautiful antithesis. You try to shame their counsel, "BUT Yahweh is his refuge." The world's shame cannot touch the one who has taken shelter in God. A refuge is a fortress, a high tower, a place of absolute security when the enemy is attacking. The afflicted man's counsel is not foolish at all; it is the only sane course of action in a hostile world. While the wicked are being seized with inexplicable dread in their palaces of bread, the afflicted is safe in his God. The world mocks what it cannot understand, but the believer's security does not depend on the world's approval. Yahweh Himself is the hiding place, and there is no safer place to be.

Application

First, we must recognize that practical atheism is the default setting of the sinful heart, and it always leads to a form of cannibalism. When we live as though God is not God, we will inevitably begin to use other people for our own ends. We will consume them. This can be as overt as political oppression or as subtle as selfish ambition within a family or a church. The refusal to call upon the Lord leads directly to devouring His people. The application is straightforward: pray. A life of dependent prayer is the antidote to a life of arrogant consumption.

Second, the presence of God with His people is our great terror and our great comfort. It is a terror to His enemies and a profound comfort to us. We must live in the reality that God is with the righteous generation. This is not a sentimental platitude; it is a rock-ribbed, tactical reality. When we are afflicted, when our counsel is mocked, we must remember that our persecutors are not just picking a fight with us. They are picking a fight with the God who dwells among us. This should not make us arrogant, but it should make us fearless. The wicked are terrified because they have a dawning sense of this; we should be confident for the very same reason.

Finally, we must see that the ultimate refuge is not a principle or a place, but a Person. Yahweh is his refuge. For us, this is focused with laser-like clarity in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who was devoured by the workers of iniquity on the cross. They ate His flesh and drank His blood, thinking they were disposing of a nuisance. But God was in Him, and on the third day, this indigestible reality broke the teeth of death and hell. Now, all who are afflicted, all whose counsel is shamed by the world, can run to Him. In Christ, we find our refuge. The world may mock our counsel, but our counsel is Christ, and He is a fortress that has never been breached and never will be.