- There they are, in great terror, where there is no terror! For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you; you put them to shame, for God has rejected them. Psalm 53:5 – This psalm is almost a repeat of Psalm 14. In both psalms we see the fool, not someone who is mentally unable to understand things but someone who is making a foolish decision, rejecting the existence of God to give him “permission” to do the evil things his heart desired. One of those evil things was to come against God’s people to destroy them. The image given in this last portion of the psalm is God’s people surrounded by these fools who were seeking to do them harm. While the fools had the power and had the strategic upper hand, suddenly a great fear, for no apparent reason, came over them and they scattered. What we see taking place in this psalm is the word of God in Leviticus 26:36 being played out. “…I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight…” Those that reject the Lord and His commands will find terror in places there is no reason to terror, and they’ll be scattered in the wind. Yet, for those who listen and obey the words of the Lord, what we see instead is God’s blessings and establishment. While sin can be enticing, let’s not find ourselves in the position of the fool dismissing God or minimizing God’s power so we can justify our sinful behavior. The fool says and lives in such a way that there is no God. That though will not be us who follow Jesus. We know there is a God for that God has changed our lives. That knowledge shapes how we live and how we reject the sin that’s all around us. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3008
- The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity; there is none who does good. Psalms 53:1 – After reading a psalm that over and over speaks about how there is no one who does good, we can walk away from scripture pretty discouraged. Is God trying to bring us down by reminding us of our sin? No, He is reminding us of our need for Him. We aren’t good on our own anymore due to sin and we can’t be going through life saying there isn’t a God because we need God to save us. Here God is showing us once again that we need Him in our story. Thankfully He is willing to step into your story. We all need God and God is willing to help. How are you leaning on Him today for help? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 989
- God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Psalm 53:2-3 – When reading the passage understand this is speaking of the hearts of man before coming to know Jesus. That God looked down on man to see if there was anyone at all who was good, had a heart of love, and was seeking Him out. He though found no one who had the perfection needed to be with Him, no one who was sinless. Did God then just turn His head away in pride from us because He was better than us? No, His heart broke for us and chose to do whatever it took to make it possible for us to be whole, good, and followers of Him. Without what God did for us, we’d be in the same boat as our Psalm: corrupt, fallen away, not pursuing Him. Yet because of Jesus we can be found holy, close to God, and pursuing Jesus. Our hope for this difference in our story is in Jesus alone. Know if you haven’t chosen to follow Jesus and trust Him, your story can change today. Choose to follow Jesus. If you need more details on all that, shoot me a message and I’d love to chat! I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2013
Daily DEVO 