Unflattering Pictures
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Have you ever seen a picture of yourself and said, “That’s not what I look like, is it?”
For most of us, it’s our drivers license.
Does anyone have a drivers license pic that they pull out and go, “Man. I look good.” No, we all look terrible.
You know that feeling though? Someone out in public takes your phone and takes a picture of you from a weird angle, and they hand it back to you and you say, “Nope. Delete.”
Psalm 14 gives us an unflattering picture of humanity.
Fools. Corrupt. Doing abominable deeds. There is none who does good. Not even one. Evildoers. No knowledge.
I don’t often think like that. That’s not nice! There’s good people in the world, right?
Really? None? Is this an accurate picture of us or is the Bible simply taking a selfie from down here and making us all look worse?
What about your neighbor - awesome to live with, not super interested in God or the church, but lets you borrow their tools and you enjoy being on the same side of the street. Evildoer? No knowledge?
People with other beliefs, Mormons, Muslims, agnostic? Fools? Corrupt?
What about you? What about me?
You’re not good? I’m not good?
I could go to the library right now and get 30 books for Isabelle and Simon that would say otherwise. Who’s right?
What is David getting at? Is this actually how are are as humans or is David just really bad with his poetic camera?
In Psalm 14, David is thinking deeply about human nature, about God’s nature, and about where we find hope.
I think in Psalm 14 we will see that people are foolish, but God is our salvation. People are foolish, but God is our salvation.
In verses 1-4 we’ll see a picture of humanity
In verses 5-6 we’ll see a picture of God
And in verse 7 we’ll see a picture of hope
A picture of us
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord 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 turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread
and do not call upon the Lord?
This is an unflattering picture of humanity.
It’s like your drivers license. You don’t really want to look at it, but when you do, you might not like what you see.
Corrupt. Not seeking after God. Turned aside. No knowledge. Evildoers who devour people like a cheeseburger you bought at the McDonalds drive thru. Which is actually closed right now.
Can you work with me a little on this point because it’s going to take more time? I know it’s summer and you’re wearing a swim suit under your clothes.
We are in the Psalms this Summer.
And the Psalms are songs, they’re poetry. It’s David and other poets who have reflected on life in God’s world.
David has thought deeply about this. I find it hard to think deeply about anything. I’m distracted. Multitasking. Interrupted by my phone. David has taken time to ponder what it means to be human. Who are we? Who is God? And he writes poetry to help us slow down and think deeply about it, too.
What’s struck me about the Psalms as we’ve studied them is how well they fit together.
The Psalms are not a spotify playlist put on shuffle. There’s an intentional arrangement to them like when your favorite band debuts an album, it’s meant to be listened in a certain order.
Psalm 12 was about what do you do when it feels like all the good people have left the building. God speaks and promises to act. But then it seems like he takes a long time in acting and Psalm 13 was asking, what do you do when it feels like God himself has left the building?
And David chooses to wait and trust that God is present and will act.
But now in Psalm 14, it’s like David is saying, that in a world where it often feels like God is absent, humans are foolish when they say, “Nah, God’s gone. Let’s just do what we want.”
It’s a really unflattering picture of us.
When was Psalm 14 written?
We don’t know. But Psalms 1-34 are almost all David psalms and many are laments where David is distraught and crying out to God.
Psalm 14 is a lament. Picture David huddled in a cave, on the run for his life from King Saul, water is pouring over the mouth of the cave as it rains and thunders outside and David knows out there, someone is hunting him.
And he prays and he sings.
Let’s unpack verse 1…
The fool says…
What is a fool?
We often think - Homer Simpson. A baffoon. Incompetent. Dumb.
That’s not the Bible’s picture.
The picture in the Bible is someone who is morally or spiritually ignorant. Atheism was not a thing in biblical times as it is today. They knew there was a God, they just didn’t trust him or submit to him.
Job’s wife says curse God and die! Job says you’re a fool!
She’s not saying God isn’t real, she just says, “I know he’s real and I don’t want anything to do with him.”
You ever been there?
What makes this person a fool? Their heart.
It’s not just what they say it’s an inner disposition.
A fool may say, “Praise God! Thank you Jesus.” But in their heart never give God the time of day.
I know God is real, I just don’t trust what he says or that he has my best interest in mind.
And David goes on to say that is foolish. It is corrupt. It leads to abominable deeds.
God peaks his head out of heaven to see if there’s even one person who is seeking after him and it’s a ghost town.
And this foolishness inevitably leads to the destruction of God’s people. It’s evil. It’s void of knowledge.
The heart condition of humanity is that bad.
You might say, “What a dreery and insulting picture of people!”
The Bible doesn’t say that people are trash.
The Bible gives us a portrait of humanity far better than we often do.
People are made in the image of God. Made to rule with him. Spiritual beings that have an eternal destiny in God’s universe. Capable of incredible good and everlasting relationship with their maker.
Those 30 books I could get at the library that tell Isabelle and Simon how awesome they are? They undersell my kids and your kids.
They are encouraging books and I want Isabelle and Simon to have self esteem but the worldview behind those books says that humans are essentially just atoms that came together at random with no purpose and so you should just be happy for as long as possible and let’s not talk about the fact that one day you’ll die and that’s it.
The Bible says you are made in the image of God, AND, sin has distorted us and made us foolish.
The Bible gives us an honest picture of people.
Sin is that bad. A heart that says “God? Don’t need him.” Is that wicked.
To think otherwise is to believe a lie.
In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve eat the wrong fruit. In Genesis 4, Cain murders his innocent brother. In Genesis 5, people live a long time but then everyone dies. In Genesis 6 we read this…
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Kinda sounds like our passage today, right?
David, huddled in his cave, on the run for his life, reflects deeply on this.
People are foolish. Sin is that bad.
What makes them foolish? Their hearts. What don’t they do? Verse 4…they don’t call up on the LORD.
Have you called upon God? Asked for his help? Asked him to heal you from your sin? If you haven’t, the Bible says you may be made in the image of God but you are being foolish.
And for us as believers, are you being foolish and not calling upon God for some area of your life?
My prayerlessness is worse than busyness it’s foolishness. It’s not wise.
It’s an unflattering picture of us. But what is David’s picture of God?
A picture of God
5 There they are in great terror,
for God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You would shame the plans of the poor,
but the Lord is his refuge.
Here we see a picture of God.
He’s so holy that he terrifies the foolish people.
This is what sin does. We are made to run to God, but sin makes us hide from God and be afraid of him.
God is with the righteous
Those who are in right standing with Him, with each other, and the world. God is with the good guys!
And David is saying, I’m righteous! I’m huddled in this cave and on the run for my life and I know you’re with me and those who with me.
God is their refuge.
Even when the wicked world threatens to overtake them, God is their safety.
Again this sounds a lot like Noah’s ark because Noah is a righteous man whom God protects from the flood.
Why would David give this picture of God?
He’s reminding himself and God’s people that God is with them and will protect them even when they’re in danger.
What is this picture of God?
That God is salvation.
Salvation for those oppressed by evil. Salvation for the poor.
Salvation for those who call upon him. Who trust him. Who seek him. Who say, “I know it may sound crazy, but I’m going to do what God says.” For the righteous, God is their salvation.
It’s an unflattering picture of people that people are foolish, it’s a beautiful picture of God as salvation, and then he ends with a picture of hope.
A picture of hope
7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
David gives us a picture of hope.
He’s in the cave, the thunder is booming outside, he knows out in the dark lies an army that wants nothing more than to see him dead, and David is full of hope.
David isn’t just praying for himself but for all of God’s people.
And where is his hope coming from? Zion.
Zion is this beautiful image of where God lives. His holy mountain. Jerusalem. The disney castle but a billion times better. It’s the garden of eden, it’s amazing because God is there. And that’s where our salvation will come.
Salvation isn’t coming from a neighboring country who has a big army and will fight for us. Salvation isn’t coming from David who’s going to save everyone himself. Salvation isn’t coming from peace talks with the enemy. It’s going to come from God himself.
Hope is certain.
God will restore us. It won’t always be like this.
God’s people will be saved.
There’s no doubt. There’s no uncertainty. This will come to pass because God is our salvation and he will save us from foolish, evil, wicked people.
We can sing and dance and jump for joy because God is coming!
That’s David’s prayer.
People are foolish, but God is our salvation.
Like your drivers license isn’t the best look for you, so David gives this unflattering picture of humanity, but a beautiful picture of God’s salvation and a picture of hope from God himself.
How does this give us hope?
How are we foolish? How is God our salvation today?
A long time after David, the apostle Paul, a Jew, sat down with a cup of tea on a cold day in Rome and reflected on Psalm 14.
And he says you know what, that’s still very true today and for all people.
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written:
“None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
Paul is saying
It’s not just non-Jews that are foolish. All people are foolish. Just as David said in Psalm 14, this is true for ALL people. Every single one.
Every single human being, because of sin, apart from God, is foolish.
People are foolish. Apart from God, we were not seeking him, we were not doing well on our own. We were foolishly exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
You say, no I’m not! That’s not what I look like.
It’s the true and unflattering picture of humanity. We’re all made in the image of God but sin takes that picture of us and distorts it like some funhouse mirror.
Apart from God, all humans have hearts that rather than run to God run away from him.
This is you and me.
Yeah but I’m not evil or wicked or devouring people.
We may not be bounty hunters or drug dealers, but if we’re honest and we’ve lived long enough - we all have this darkness in our hearts. We may not kill with our hands but we kill in our thoughts and words. We may not devour people but the porn industry is alive and well and devours women.
To believe that our foolish hearts are not that bad is a lie. The same lie that went in 3 chapters from eating the wrong fruit to the destruction of humanity in the flood.
And God - the holy one in heaven - who made people in his image to rule with him - looks down at the world, looking to see if there’s even one person who seeks him on their own. And none.
Just one! If there was just one!
None. He has every right to do what he did in Genesis 6. Wipe us out and start over.
Not a flattering picture of people.
Oh that salvation would come!
If there was just one righteous person who could save us!
How can foolish people experience the salvation of God?
Romans 3:21–25 (NLT)
21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.
People are foolish, but God is our salvation.
Out of Zion, God personally came as Jesus to be our salvation.
To die in the place of foolish humanity.
For fools like you and like me.
Jesus is the better Noah. The one righteous person when there were none. Our salvation in a world full of fools.
You can’t be made right with God by just being a nice person. You can’t be made right with God by living a good religious life. The church can’t save you through teaching good morals. Education can’t save us by removing ignorance. The economy can’t save us by creating equality.
The heart problem is deeper than that. We need someone to fix our hearts.
If we trust Jesus, he forgives us, makes us right with God. We are no longer fools but righteous people who sometimes act foolishly.
People are fools, but God is our salvation. So what do we do?
Just as the Psalm says - call upon the Lord!
Say with your heart, Jesus, there is a God and he is good and I need you!
So many of you have done that.
Many of us this week are experiencing or know someone who is experiencing serious health issues.
Call upon the Lord! Continue calling upon the Lord! Be reminded that it’s not foolishness to pray. It’s wisdom. And when we are weak we are no fools.
Conclusion
Connect back to picture
Enlightenment quote
Benjamin Franklin - “As to Jesus of Nazareth…I have…some doubts as to his Divinity, tho’ it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence of making his doctrines more respected and better observed.” - Church History in Plain Language, Shelley 365
Holbach quote on page 366