Psalm 54: The Pleading & The Praise!

1.  The Pleading                                         Psalm 54:1-3

Text: “Save, O God, by Thy Name, and judge me by Thy strength.”  Psalm 54:1.

Good morning, Christian besieged by enemies, fears, and anxieties!  If this sense of being Spiritually, mentally, and emotionally besieged describes how you feel this morning, please join the club – for the author is right down there with you in that ‘...slough of despond...’, as Bunyan puts it in his Pilgrim’s Progress, and both you and I need to run swiftly to our place of personal prayer, to humbly plead with the Lord God Jehovah, for His help.  Let us do so immediately.  Selah: Now think upon this in solemn prayer for God’s help.

              2.  The Praise!                                          Psalm 54:4-7

Text: “Behold (look closely, and fully understand), God is mine Helper: The Lord is with them that uphold my soul.  He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in Thy truth.”

Psalm 54:4-5.

Good morning, delivered Christian!  You have been - with the author - down wallowing in the depths of dread, fears, and anxieties for far too long, and have suffered much down there.  However, our sufferings have driven us to the only One that can deliver us from all fear and dread – we have taken our humble, reverent pleadings to the throne of God’s ever-given grace, and there found a Divine Helper Who not only cares for our besieged souls, but has gone to Calvary’s cruel Cross in our place, and suffered the just penalty for every sin we have ever, or shall ever, commit against our Holy Lord God.  Hallelujah!  What a Saviour we have in the Son of the Living Lord God, Jesus Christ the righteous!  Glory to His Name!

“There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin...He only could unlock the gate of Heaven and let us in...” (Hymn: There is a Green Hill Far Away. Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848)

Is it not truly wonderful that, once the persecution, the fears, the dread and anxieties, have been lifted off by our Lord God’s grace – the sense of utter relief and deliverance is a very real and deep blessing indeed?  When the city cruelly besieged for any given period finds such relief – that deliverance and relief bubbles over and out of hearts/voices in open praise.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.”  (Psalm 103:1-5)

“From verses 1 to 3, where the ‘Selah’ makes a pause for us, the Psalmist pleads with God, and then in the rest of the song, laying aside all doubt, he chants a hymn of joyful triumph.  The vigour of faith is the death of anxiety and the birth of security.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 248)

True, God-given FAITH in Christ, is the only thing that can bring the besieged Christian up out of the horrors of deep depression, fear, dread, heartache, and prolonged grief.  Every true Christian necessarily possesses this Divine gift of faith – but at times during our trials and Christian lives, we can be very slow to EXERCISE it to gain God’s promised relief.  Thus, we prolong the dreadful experience, and leave ourselves to wallow in the realm of assumed Spiritual defeat and emotional pain.  This should not be, dear friend!

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it (God-given faith) the elders (early believers) obtained a good report.  Through faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear... By faith...”  (Hebrews chapter 11 gives a Divine list of things which were accomplished by men/women only by the exercise of God-given faith!) (Hebrews 11:1-4)

Verse 4.  “Behold, says he, I produce a certain fact, well known, demonstrated by a new proof, and worthy of all attention; for the particle behold contains this breadth of meaning.”  (Hermann Venema, 1697-1787)

Verse 4.  “Behold, God is my helper.  He saw enemies everywhere, and now to his joy as he looks upon the band of his defenders, he sees One Whose aid is better than all the help of men; he is overwhelmed with joy at recognizing his Divine Champion and cries, Behold.  And is not this a theme for pious exultation in all time, that the great God protects us, His own people: what matter the number or violence of our foes when He uplifts the shield of His omnipotence to guard us and the sword of His power to aid us?  Little care we for the defiance of the foe while we have the defence of God.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 248)

“The Lord is my Rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in Whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my Salvation, and my high tower.  I will call upon the Lord, Who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.”          (Psalm 18:2-3)

Verse 5.  “He shall reward evil unto mine enemies. Let us not think for one moment that God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, went all the way from Heaven to become man; all the way through life and its sufferings as a man for thirty-three years; all the way to the cruelty of the scourging, and the brutal buffeting; the shameful ridicule of sinful man; all the way to that fearful Cross of ultimate torture and pain – to bear the sins of ‘His people’ - only to let us suffer unnecessary sufferings at the hands of mere mortal enemies?  Never!  Christ has promised His judgements on all those that persecute, hinder, and harm the souls that bear His precious Blood of infinite Sacrifice.

 “And He saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.  He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.  And, BEHOLD (See and fully understand), I come quickly; and My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”  (Revelation 22:10-12)

Scoffers and persecutors of Christ’s followers BEWARE – ‘...the time is at hand...’!

Verse 6.  “I will freely sacrifice unto Thee.  Spontaneously will I bring my fee-will offerings.  So certain is he of deliverance, that he offers a vow by anticipation.  His overflowing gratitude would load the altars of God with victims cheerfully presented.  The more we receive, the more we ought to render.  The spontaneousness of our gifts is a great element in their acceptance; “...the Lord loveth a cheerful giver...”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 248)

Verse 6.  “I will praise Thy Name.”  “At the Name of Jesus, every knee should bow...and... every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:9-11)

Verse 7.  “For He hath delivered me out of all trouble.   Sore, and profoundly hurtful are the troubles of Christians today – in this increasingly apostate 21^st Century world.  Yet, we have God’s promise before us: He will deliver us out of ALL trouble.  Wait upon the Lord.

Thought:  Psalm 54 contains a Pleading & a Praise.  We do well to offer both to our God.  Our Pleadings to Him, result in His ever-given help.  Our praises quickly follow.

5. The Only Cure for Mankind’s Sinful Disease Psalm 53: 5-6

Text: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?  Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?”

Jeremiah 8:22.

          “But when Jesus heard that, He said unto them, ‘They that are whole need not a physician (doctor), but they that are sick (sin-sick).  But go ye and learn what that meaneth (means, and continues to mean), I will have mercy, and not sacrifice (of animals): for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’. ”

Matthew 9:12-13.

Good morning sin-cured Christian!  When you and I read God’s Word – contained in our King James Version Bibles – we are taught by God the ONLY cure for mankind’s disease of sin: Salvation, by God’s grace, through God-given faith to believe; and enabled by God the Spirit to trust in the once-for-all-time Sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the Cross at Calvary. 

“So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

The Lord Jesus Christ took all the sins of ‘His people’, all whom God the Father had given Him in Eternity to be saved; suffered the penalty God’s Holiness required for our sins; died the infinite death that He alone could die for us as our Holy Substitute; and arose again from the dead, to justify us in the eyes of His Father in Heaven – in order to to declare us JUST and to give us His own RIGHTEOUSNESS, to grant us acceptance into a Heaven that is absolutely Holy, instead of sending us to a Hell that is absolutely Hot.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man/woman should boast.”  (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“All that the Father giveth (has given, and shall continue to give) Me shall come to me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”  (John 6:37)

“For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.!  (Romans 10:13)

From God’s Word, we discover the answer to our text question, “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?”  We are taught by God Himself that there is indeed, a ‘Balm’ (cure) in Gilead, and not merely in one geographical location, but universally a cure for mankind’s inherent and practiced disease of sin.  That one cure is a Person: the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Holy Sacrifice to pay the price of our vile sin.  Praise His Holy Name!

“Neither is there Salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12)

In the words of the familiar hymn, “What can wash away my sin; nothing but the Blood of Jesus; what can make me whole again, NOTHING but the Blood of Jesus.”  (Hymn: What can wash away my sin, Author: Robert Lowry (1876)

 

A Bible Lesson received some time ago, from a faithful Bible Teacher and Pastor, Cecil A. Thompson, in Washington State, U.S.A., ably teaches us the following facts:

“Sir Isaac Newton, a very brilliant man, published his revolutionary ‘Laws of Motion’ principles in 1687:

1. A body in motion tends to remain in motion until acted upon by some outside force;

2. A body at rest tends to remain at rest unless impelled by some external force;

3.  For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

“To leave such principles of the universe without Spiritual comment, however, would be tragic.   The God of the universe Who Created and designed these forces is that same God Who desires a personal relationship with each of us.

 

“Just as there are physical laws of motion in control of the universe, there are ‘Spiritual Laws of Motion’ designed to draw us close to the Lord.

 

1.  A soul that moves toward the Lord will tend to continue moving towards Him.

2.  A soul that is at rest concerning God will fail to move towards Him.

3.  For every Spiritual action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

“The enemy of our souls is always trying to draw our attention away from the Lord and, if we are not careful our momentum will be stopped.  Where do you find yourself in relation to the Spiritual Laws of Motion’?  Have you made promises to make the Lord a priority in your life but then failed to act upon it?  Time to get in motion!”

(Pastor Cecil A. Thompson, Daily-E-Votional, ‘It’s the Law’)

With these facts of our faith in mind, therefore, we can clearly see that there is indeed a cure – an Eternal cure – for Mankind’s Sinful Disease of sin.  We must read the Word of the Master Physician, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living Lord God; gain vital faith by the reading/hearing to believe (fully trust) in Christ, and in His full Atonement Sacrifice at the Cross for all who will truly believe.  We must cry out in sincerity to God for His gifts of repentance from all our sin; and full faith to trust Christ Jesus to redeem us from the disease of sin that is drawing us down into a Christ-rejecter’s Hell forever.

When we have followed these recommended steps, we must then turn fully away from the sinful lifestyles we have been living, and seek to fully follow hard after Jesus Christ, as His followers and disciples of His Holy Word.  We must seek to ‘...grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ’ for the rest of our lives.  (2 Peter 3:18)

God the Holy Spirit will help us and guide us into all God’s truth thereafter.  Amen.

Thought:  Today you have been shown the cure for Mankind’s Disease – please take the Spiritual medicine and be made forever whole in Christ Jesus?

4. Sin: Mankind’s Universal Disease Psalm 53:2-5

Text: “God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.  Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Psalm 53:2-3.

Good morning, despairing Christian!  If you are in a similar frame of mind as the author this morning; gazing out upon the state of the civilized world today, and seeing the absolute filthy sinful rebellion against God, and all that is deemed godly; Sodomy openly paraded throughout the main thoroughfares of our cities; confusion of gender promoted by man-made laws in our schools and colleges of education; gun-violence; knife-crime; political corruption in high offices; deviant filth and foul language openly flaunted on our television screens as ‘normal behaviour’; the Holy Name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, being continually written into worldly dramas and movies and used as a blasphemous swear word – the list goes on, and seemly deteriorates in moral influence day and daily.  Is it any wonder that true, regenerate, Bible-believing Christians feel such deep despair?

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, Holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on earth?”  (Revelation 6:10) 

“Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed.  My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O Lord, how long?  Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for Thy mercies sake.””  (Psalm 6:2-4)

All made righteous, in and by Christ Jesus, and by His own perfect righteousness imputed unto us (put to our account by faith), are sore vexed at the clearly noticeable increase in sin and evil we see universally practiced in this 21^st Century world.  One look at a television screen, or one glance at a newspaper will clearly confirm this fact.

We Bible-believing, born again Christians, find ourselves in a similar position as Abraham’s nephew Lot, while he tried to live a normal, God-fearing life, within the city of Sodom.

“...that righteous man dwelling among them (the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah), in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.” (2 Peter 2:4-8)

Verse 2.  “God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were ANY that did understand, that did seek God. He did so in ages past, and He has continued His steadfast gaze from His all-surveying observatory.  Had there been one understanding man, one true lover of his God, the Divine eye would have discovered him/her.

“Those pure heathens and admirable savages that men talk so much of do not appear to have been visible to the eye of Omniscience, the fact being that they live nowhere but in the realm of fiction.  The Lord did not look for great grace but only for sincerity and right desire, but these He found not.  He saw all nations, and all men in all nations, and all hearts in all men, and all motives of all hearts, but He saw neither a clear head nor a clean heart among them all.  Where God’s eyes see no favourable sign we may rest assured there is none.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 246)

Is it any wonder the Creator Lord God ‘...repented...’ the fact that He had made man on the earth...’?  The affront to Jehovah’s pure Holiness was enormous in the days of Noah; how much more vile and enormous is the offensiveness of worldwide sin and gross disobedience to God’s Holy Laws today?  The nations of this 21^st Century world should cower in abject fear and trembling before the righteous Jesus Christ, in total wonder at His grace in permitting us all to do so!   Instead, they show the Lord God complete contempt and in disobedience, use His Holy Name as a swear word, a blasphemous curse word in open rebellion to the very concept of the Creator Lord God Almighty.  What a doom awaits them.

Verse 3.  “They are altogether become filthy – ‘neelachu.’  They are become sour and rancid; a metaphor taken from milk that has fermented and turned sour, rancid and worthless.”  (Adam Clarke 1760-1832)  

“There is none that doeth good, no, not one.  The fallen race of man, left to its own energy, has not produced a single lover of God or doer of holiness, nor will it ever do so.  Grace must interpose or not one specimen of humanity will be found to follow after the good and true.  This is God’s verdict after looking down upon the race.  Who shall gainsay it?”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 246)

On this entire concept of the current state of mankind among the nations of this entire world, I challenge any conscious observer to refute the theme of this Bible Lesson: ‘Sin, Mankind’s Universal Disease.’

 Furthermore, dear Reader, I openly declare the fact that, IF the observer cannot agree that present day mankind – in a majority of cases – are living in open rebellion against God’s Laws as laid down in The Ten Commandments He gave to Moses on Mount Sinai, then, that fact alone should be clear proof that the heart/mind of that observer is also as black as the sins he/she is observing. 

It is very evident that, prophetically speaking, we are right now in the very last of ‘the last days’.  The Holy Lord Jesus comes very soon to put a sudden end to the vileness of mankind’s inherited, and practiced, sinful disease.  (Revelation 22:11-12) 

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is Eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  (Romans 6:23)

Verse 4. “Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?  Conscience is a means to curb and restrain, control and rebuke corrupt nature and the swelling forms of it.  It is not there as a native inhabitant but as a garrison planted in a rebellious town by the great Governor of the world, to keep the rebellion of the inhabitants within compass, who else would break forth into present confusion.”  (Thomas Goodwin 1600-1679)

Thought: Knowledge, from God’s Word contained in our KJV Bibles, imparts the vital faith to believe, and receive, healing and pardon for mankind’s sinful disease.   We shun God’s Word at our Eternal peril.  (Romans 10:17)

3. The Prognosis of Man’s Disease (Sin) Psalm 53:1-3

Text:  “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  Do not err, my beloved brethren.”

James 1:15-16.

Good morning, Sin-cured Christian!  All those who have been enlightened by the Lord God to know that we are Hell-deserving sinners against God, and been redeemed by the Blood of Christ, the Lamb; have had our sin - ALL of our sin – Eternally cured!  Hallelujah!

Our vile sins were placed upon our sinless and Holy Saviour, Jesus Christ, as He hung there on Calvary’s Cross, suffered the full penalty we justly deserved; bore all our sins away; and made the full Atonement Sacrifice for the sins of ‘His people’ – as God promised He would.  This fact should make all born again souls cry out: “Hallelujah!  What a Saviour!”  Amen.

“And she (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou (Joseph) shalt call His Name JESUS: for he shall save His people from their sins.”  (Matthew 1:21)

“But as many as received Him (Christ Jesus), to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name.”  (John 1:12)

“Blessed is he/she whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered (by the Blood of the Lamb).  Blessed (blessed with blessings) is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile (def. Cunning, deceit).”  (Psalm 32:1-2)

For all others who have not, and perhaps will not, take Christ as their Eternal cure for sin: sin, fallen mankind’s incurable disease, the sin within shall progress increasingly worse until death, ‘the king of terrors’, eventually claims their souls, and leads them into a Christ-rejecter’s Hell of Eternal torment.  This is the Word of God, we ignore it at our soul’s peril.

“I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”   (Luke 13:3;5)

Verse 1.  “The fool hath said in his/her heart, there is no God.  And this he/she does because he/she is a fool.  Being a fool, he speaks according to his nature; being a great fool, he meddles with a great subject and comes to a wild conclusion.  The atheist is, morally as well as mentally, a fool, a fool in the heart as well as in the head; a fool in morals as well as in philosophy.  With the denial of God as a starting-point, we may well conclude that the fool’s progress is a rapid, riotous, raving, ruinous one.  He who begins at impiety is ready for anything.  “No God,” being interpreted, means no law, no order, no restraint to lust, no limit to passion.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 246)

The healthiest thing we can do is to fully realise that we have a terminal disease called sin.  Only Christ, the great physician, can take our sin away forever.      (Mark 2:7)

Sin is not primarily actions against God – but the actions naturally conceived within the unconverted, fallen heart of mankind.   For example: We do not have to teach little children how to be disobedient, how to tell lies; how to rebel against a parent’s wishes.  No.  Little children commit such disobediences NATURALLY, because we are all born of woman, and born with a disobedient, sinful, heart (the essence of the person, not the blood pump in our chest!).  We have to teach children what is right and correct behaviour for living in a civilised society; we have to socialise our children to do what is lawful and morally correct.  We all sin naturally, because we have been born with a fallen, sin-prone, inherent nature.  We are all born with the fallen nature of Adam/Eve – we are begotten in Adam’s fallen image.

“And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness (fallen from grace), after his own image; and called his name Seth.”  (Genesis 5:3)

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843), puts it this way:  “Learn 1^st: The fearful depravity of your heart.  I venture to say there is not an unconverted man present who has the most distant idea of the monstrous wickedness that is now within his breast.  Stop till you are in Hell, and it will break out unrestrained.  But still let me tell you what it is – you have a heart that would kill God if you could.  If the bosom of God were now within your reach, and one blow would rid the universe of God, you have a heart fit to do the deed. 

“2^nd.  The amazing love of Christ – ‘While we were enemies, Christ died for us.’”

“But God commendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, being now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the Atonement.”  (Romans 5:11)

Natural sin in the essence (heart) of each of us, brings forth that same sin in our outward actions, in our thoughts, and in our attitude towards God and other sinners.  Therefore, the prognosis of man’s disease – sin – is never positive, but always predicts a downward spiral of sin which, of course, leads the immortal soul into a Hell that is hot and Eternal.

If left unattended by the individual, the root of sin in mankind’s heart, will always increase in severity and manifest itself publicly in that individual’s continuation in total unbelief.

“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God.  Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is NONE that doeth good.”  Psalm 53:1)

Thought:  Throughout Holy Scriptures, the Lord God is continually addressing the plight of FOOLS: “How long, ye simple ones will ye love simplicity?  And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  Turn you at My reproof: behold (look and fully understand), I will pour out My Spirit unto you, I will make known My Words unto you.  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.  THEN shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find me: for they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord.”  (Proverbs 1:22-29)

2. The Nature of Man’s Disease Psalm 53:1-3

Text: “The fool hath said in his/her heart, There is no God.  Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none the doeth good.”

Psalm 53:1.

Good morning, vexed Christian!  We read in 2 Peter, chapter 2, how Abraham’s nephew, Lot, a man called out, justified, and made righteous by the Lord God, how his soul was sorely ‘vexed with the filthy conversation (entire lifestyle) of the wicked of his day.   From that passage of Scripture, we learn that Lot, ‘...that righteous man dwelling among them (the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah), in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.’  (2 Peter 2:4-8)

How much more are sincere, born again, Bible-believing Christians VEXED in our souls, at what we see happening day and daily on the streets, and in the homes of our sin-sick Nations?  The days of Sodom and Gomorrah are once more upon us today!  Sin, ‘man’s disease’, is once more permitted to run rampant throughout the minds and lives of our societies; and the minds and hearts of our children and our children’s children are being programmed to think such live-styles and behaviour is lawful, and ‘normal’.  Such sickness!  God alone can forgive those that have been used by Satan to make laws, that promote in the media, Sodomy and sin - their end, according to Scriptures, is a terrible doom indeed!

“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man (Jesus) be.  For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”  (Matthew 24:37-39)

“And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the Way of truth (Christ Jesus) shall be evil spoken of.  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgement now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not...God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgement.” (2 Peter 2:2-4)

So, what is the nature of ‘man’s disease’?  It’s origins are the Fall from grace of Adam & Eve in Eden’s Garden, and the expulsion from God’s Paradise that followed as a consequence.  But, what is the basic symptom of man’s disease today?  The basic symptom of the presence of depraved sin today is our inherent disobedience to the Supreme authority of God Himself.

Verse 1.  “The fool hath said in his/her heart, ‘There is no God...”  The words ‘there is’ in our King James Version Bible is rightfully written in italics – denoting that they are put there to help us to understand the meaning of the sentence, which was not originally written for the English language.  But in fact, the words ‘there is’ are not words inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The two words can be left out.

Therefore, the inspired Original language of this verse clearly states: “The fool hath said in his heart, ‘NO GOD!’” 

The Folly of a Fool:  The fool says in his/her heart that he/she does not accept that there is a God at all!  The fool is stating that even if there is a God, that fool will be saying, ‘NO God, I will not recognise You; I will not listen to You; I will not obey the Laws you make!  I will refuse to come under Your will, direction, or Laws.  I will not be instructed by You.  I will live my life in total opposition to everything that You are, and all that you have said in your written Word.  I will live in total rebellion to You and to Your Commandments.’

The sickness of sin is a total refusal of God and all His given Laws and Commandments.   Thus, it is a ‘fool’ indeed, that says ‘No, God!, I refuse You!’

“The state of the earth ought to be deeply felt by us.  The world lying in wickedness should occupy much of our thoughts.  The enormous guilt, the inconceivable pollution, the ineffably provoking atheism of this fallen province of God’s dominion might be a theme for our ceaseless meditation and mourning.  To impress it the more on us, therefore, the Psalm repeats what has been already sung in Psalm 14.”  (Andrew A. Bonar, 1859)

One of the reasons that I feel I was led of the Holy Spirit to reintroduce the 21^st Century church worldwide to the great wealth of Scriptural knowledge contained in Spurgeon’s The Treasury of David, (1968), published by David Otis Fuller D.D., and reprinted by Kregel Publications as Psalms – is the fact that sin, ‘Man’s Disease’, is increasingly being either reinterpreted as ‘normal behaviour’ or at worst, being totally accepted and ignored as an offence against our Holy Lord God.

If fallen mankind can successfully ignore, or abolish the concept of SIN – mankind can never come to a realisation of our desperate need of the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour.  Who will seek to be found, that does not first realise they are LOST in sin?

Matthew Henry’s View of Sin: 

“1. The fact of sin.  God is a witness to it.

2.  The fault of sin.  Its iniquity (verses 1-4)

3.  The fountain of sin. How comes it that men are so bad?

4.  The folly of sin.  He is a fool who harbours such corrupt thoughts.

5. The filthiness of sin.  What neatness soever proud sinners pretend to, it is certain that wickedness is the greatest nastiness in the world.

6. The fruit of sin.  See to what a degree of barbarity it brings men at last!

7. The fear and shame that attends sin.  (verse 5).”  (Matthew Henry 1662-1714)

Thought:  The healthiest thing we can do is to fully realise that we have a terminal disease called sin.  Only Christ, the great physician, can take our sin away forever.  Call upon Him NOW!