Psalm 14: Functional Atheism

David begins in Ps. 14, “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”  But David did not live in our modern world of secular humanism.  In David’s world everybody was religious, people and nations were defined by their gods.  So who are these ancient atheists who seemingly deny the reality that everyone else lives in?   His critique is not levied against those outside the people of God but those who claim the name and heritage of the Lord for their own.  These people say all the right things and show up for all of the religious ceremonies but  in truth, they live as if God does not exist.

The Hebrew word used for fools here is nabal a word denoting “someone who operates off of a faulty assumption about the way things work.”^[1]On Nabal the man, 1 Samuel 25v25:  Nabal is his name, and folly is with him…  David here does not describe the actual atheist but the functional atheist.   David is inviting us to interrogate our own assumptions about the congruence of life and he indicts us all:  we have all gone astray (v.3), living segmented lives that deny the all-seeing, all-ruling reality of God.

So what are we to do with such an all-encompassing condemnation?  First, submit to it.  When John the Baptist emerges in the wilderness proclaiming the coming Kingdom, preparing the way of Jesus, his call is to one and all:  repent.  Hebrews 10:31 tell us that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but the rest of Hebrews 10 tells us this is only true for those who refuse the grace of Jesus.  This is functional atheism, whether by denying our own sin or Jesus’ love revealing the fullness of God.  Hebrews 10:22 beckons us to boldly approach the Lord with a pure heart and a clean conscience.  The Scriptures do not live in denial of the reality of sin, they invite us to acknowledge our own sin, and to place our hope and faith in the one who has overcome it by the power of his blood.^[2]Hebrews 10v19  Confession is our first response to grace.  Often the first honest word we utter to God is, “Christ Jesus have mercy upon me a sinner.”

Second, we must seek to live integrated lives.  Functional atheism arises from our ability to compartmentalize between sacred and secular.  Jesus’ death has torn the veil of the temple, separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of existence.  Just as the curtain has been ripped in two, so the curtains have been removed from our eyes.  Jesus is Lord of all of life.  This psalm is an invitation to investigate where we have segmented our lives and to subordinate it all to beautiful reign of King Jesus.

For meditation:
– Meditate on the psalm’s insistence in v. 3:  hey have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
-Throughout your day, repeat the Christ Prayer, “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner.”  Allow this to be a centering practice as you focus on the log on your own eye instead of the specks in the eyes of your neighbors.