Commentary - Psalm 14:7

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 14 is a stark diagnosis of the human condition apart from God. The psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, declares that the fool says in his heart there is no God, and that this atheism is not an intellectual problem but a moral one, leading inevitably to corrupt and abominable deeds. This is not a description of a few bad apples; this is a panoramic sweep of the whole human race. "There is none who does good, not even one." This is the very passage Paul picks up in Romans 3 to build his airtight case for universal sinfulness. But after this bleak and honest assessment, the psalm pivots in its final verse to a cry of longing. It is a heartfelt prayer for a salvation that must come from outside the corrupt system of humanity. The problem is total, so the solution must be divine. The psalm therefore ends on a note of expectant hope, a hope fixed on God's dwelling place, Zion, and anticipates a future restoration that will turn the sorrow of captivity into the gladness of deliverance. This final verse is the gospel in miniature, the Old Testament saint looking forward to the day when God Himself would act decisively to save His people.

This verse, then, is the hinge upon which the whole psalm turns. It moves from the universal depravity of man to the singular salvation of God. It is a cry from the depths of human folly for the heights of divine wisdom. It is the recognition that if a rescue is to come, it must be an invasion. God must intervene. And the nature of this intervention will be a great reversal, a turning of fortunes that results in explosive joy for the people of God. It is a glorious, prophetic exclamation point at the end of a very dark sentence.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 14 stands alongside Psalm 53, which is nearly identical, as a foundational statement on the nature of sin. Its placement in the first book of the Psalter establishes this doctrine early on. The world is full of practical atheists, whose lives are corrupt because their hearts are rebellious. God looks down from heaven and sees a world united in its departure from Him. But God is also "in the generation of the righteous" (v. 5), and He is a refuge for the afflicted. This creates a tension: a world of fools arrayed against the people of God. How will this be resolved? Verse 7 is the answer. It is a prayer that looks forward to God's ultimate resolution of this conflict. It is a prayer that echoes throughout the Psalms, this longing for God to act, to save, to restore, and to vindicate His people before the watching world. It is the cry of the Church militant, waiting for the final victory of the Church triumphant.

Key Issues

The Gospel According to the Fool

The fool's creed is simple: "There is no God." But this is not the conclusion of a dispassionate philosophical inquiry. It is a moral declaration, a statement of desire. He says it "in his heart." He wants it to be true so that he can be his own god, living out his corrupt desires without accountability. The psalmist shows us that this foolishness is the root of all the world's misery and corruption. Having laid this groundwork, the final verse is not just a pious wish; it is the only possible solution. If mankind is universally corrupt, then salvation cannot come from man. It must come from God. The longing for salvation to come "out of Zion" is a longing for a God-initiated, God-accomplished rescue. The fool says there is no God, but the man of faith knows that God is his only hope, and he prays for God to make His presence and power known.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7a Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!

This is a great sigh of longing, a heartfelt yearning for deliverance. The psalmist, having surveyed the wreckage of human sinfulness, looks to the only place from which help can come. And where is that? Zion. In the Old Testament, Zion was the mountain on which Jerusalem was built, the location of the temple, the place where God had chosen to place His name. It was, symbolically, God's earthly address. To say that salvation comes "out of Zion" is to say that salvation comes from God Himself. It is not a human project. It is not something we can bootstrap. It is a divine rescue operation, launched from God's command center. For the New Testament saint, Zion is transfigured. The earthly Jerusalem gives way to the heavenly Jerusalem, the Church of the living God (Heb. 12:22). Salvation now comes "out of Zion" in the sense that it comes from Christ, the head of the Church, and is proclaimed to the world through His body, the Church.

7b When Yahweh restores His captive people,

Here the nature of this salvation is described. It is a restoration, a bringing back of His captive people. The Hebrew phrase can be translated as "restores the fortunes" or "turns the captivity." In the immediate historical context, this would have brought to mind deliverance from foreign oppressors, a return from physical exile. But the captivity described in the preceding verses is far deeper than political bondage. It is a spiritual captivity to sin and foolishness. Paul tells us that before Christ, we were all held captive, slaves to sin (Rom. 6:17). The ultimate restoration, therefore, is the great act of redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ. He is the one who leads "a host of captives in his train" (Eph. 4:8), having defeated the spiritual powers that held us in bondage. When Yahweh restores His people, He is breaking the chains of sin and death and bringing His children home. This is the heart of the gospel. It is a divine jailbreak.

7c May Jacob rejoice, may Israel be glad.

What is the necessary and inevitable result of such a great salvation? Explosive, uncontainable joy. The names Jacob and Israel are used here in poetic parallel to refer to the people of God. Jacob, the supplanter, the schemer, represents the people in their weakness and sinfulness. Israel, "he who strives with God," represents the same people, but now as God's covenant nation, blessed and transformed by Him. Both the before and the after, the grimy sinner and the glorified saint, have reason to rejoice. This is not a quiet, dignified golf-clap. This is gladness, exuberant celebration. When a man truly understands the depth of the pit from which he was rescued, his gratitude will not be tame. The Christian life is to be characterized by this deep and abiding joy, a joy rooted not in our circumstances, but in the objective fact of our deliverance. God has acted. The captives are free. Therefore, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, and do so with gladness.

Application

This verse teaches us where to look for salvation and what to do when we find it. First, we must look away from ourselves. The world, like the fool in verse one, is constantly telling us that the solutions to our problems are within us. Just try harder, be better, think positive thoughts. This psalm demolishes that notion. The solution is not within; it is "out of Zion." Our hope is not in a program, a politician, or a self-help guru. Our hope is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came forth from the heavenly Zion to save us. We must cultivate a deep-seated distrust of all man-centered gospels and fix our eyes on the God-centered gospel.

Second, we must understand that salvation is a rescue from a real and desperate captivity. We are not just flawed individuals who need a little improvement; we are captives of sin, treasonous rebels against our rightful King. Until we feel the weight of this bondage, we will never truly appreciate the freedom Christ has won for us. The gospel is good news only to those who have heard and believed the bad news about their own condition.

Finally, our response to this salvation must be joy. A joyless Christian is a contradiction in terms. If our hearts are not regularly overflowing with gladness and gratitude, it is a sign that we have either forgotten the greatness of our salvation or we have never truly understood it in the first place. The restoration of our fortunes in Christ is the greatest reversal in history. It turns the deepest sorrow into the highest joy. Let us therefore live as a people who have been set free, with the glad songs of Zion constantly on our lips.