3. How do you see renewal happening amongst God’s people today?

y? What needs to Psalm 53 No: 11 Week: 170 Wednesday 17/12/08

happen in the church for this to happen?

Discipleship Prayer
Personal comment: Open the rich stores of Your blessings O Lord, not for us but for our sisters and brothers
throughout the world. Then, whether literally or spiritually, the blind will see, the lame will
It is easy for any of us to say that certain attitudes are ‘foolish’ when they do not accord
walk, the captives will be set free and those who do not know You will have the Good News
with our own, but we have to apply more spiritual logic to this then merely express our
announced to them. This is Your blessing for all people; thank You Lord Jesus for the glory
opinions. The Bible defines foolishness as the refusal to accept that we are all made by
of Your blessings! AMEN
God our Creator, and therefore acknowledge Him as Lord; the rest of our Christian
understanding of life and salvation follows from this. The worst foolishness however is to
nominally accept God as Creator, but to allow yourself to become so distant from Him that
Other Prayer Suggestions
contact is minimal and He is left out of our everyday lives. This, I believe is what the Weekly Theme: Fire Services
psalmist was concerned about in his own day, and we should be today. Psalms such as Pray for those who will be on watch over the Christmas, protecting others from the dangers
this remind me of the great importance of keeping close to God through Jesus, so that we of fire. Pray for any you know who will be away at Christmas because of their duties.
are not overcome by our own foolishness.
On-going prayers
Ideas for discipleship programme
 Pray for all those whose prospects are bleak this Christmas
 Pray for any you know who are troubled by faith, because they find it hard to make  Thank God for the joys of preparing for Christmas
sense of what to you is plain and easy to understand. Be ready to see things from  Pray for the safety of young children in schools and institutions
the point of view of others, so that you can do your best to be a blessing to them.
 Ask yourself whether you have been foolish in your own attitudes and Meditation
presumptions about God or about other people. This is hard to do, but it is
important that we show ourselves gracious enough to accept our faults and This is the life you have given me, Lord God. I have none other.
vulnerabilities. Certainly, others will talk about them behind our backs, if we are I know you are my Saviour, and have redeemed me from sin; so
not willing to be open and handle our failings in a positive manner. Help me to grasp the present and claim it for all that is good;
Save me from the evil of wishing things could be different;
Final Prayer Grant me the power of Your Holy Spirit to be victorious over evil;
Shape me into one who is generous of spirit in every situation;
Bless, O Lord, everything I do in the course of my day. May what I do be worthy of Your Give me the courage to face all circumstances with honest intent;
Kingdom, and may all who come across my path know that I work for You. May all I do Enable me to treat everyone I meet with humanity and equality;
bear fruit worthy of Your Name, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. AMEN Mould my words to make them worthy of one who serves You.
This is the life you have given me, Lord God. I have none other.
For I know You love me as I am, and will do so for ever: Alleluia!

Bible Study - Psalm 53

For the director of music. According to and all alike are perverse;
mahalath. A maskil of David. There is no one who does what is
1
good,
Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no not even one.
God.’ 4
Will they not learn, those evil doers
They are corrupt, they do appalling who consume my people as they
things
eat food;
and no good is done by anyone.
2 those who do not call upon the
The Lord looks down from heaven on
everyone Lord?
to see if there are any who are 5
They were overwhelmed there with
wise, great fear,
who seek after God. where there was nothing to fear.
3
They have all gone astray, For it was God who scattered

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 the bodies of those who attacked would come from Zion! Today, the psalm sounds a clear warning about the foolishness of unbelief amongst God’s
you; Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be people because it leads to the corruption that happens when people are valued more than
You were put to shame, glad God. This distracts from the Church’s task of bringing the Lord’s salvation to all,
for it was God who rejected them. when the Lord restores his people. particularly at times of crisis (53:5). Unfortunately, in recent times, it is not difficult to find
those within the Christian Church who profess no belief in God. They have been taught to
6
O that salvation for God’s people use academic methods to ‘critically assess’ the evidence for God, and in their own eyes,
Review they find that belief lacks credibility. I have heard bishops, clergy and other church leaders
who profess such beliefs, and they claim to reflect both good academic standards and the
Psalm 53 is a fascinating psalm. It is the same as psalm 14 in all aspects except for verse
spiritual values of today. This is highly debatable and in my opinion quite wrong. They do
5, which is completely different from the corresponding verses 5 and 6 of psalm 14. The
not reflect good academia or the truth about the living God who made them.
structure of the psalm is simple, beginning with something of a sermon of complaint against
the ungodly (53:1-4, 14:1-4), and ending with a forthright statement that God will act to Does anyone do good? Psalm 14 speaks unequivocally, ‘there is no one who does what
bring salvation to His people; ‘Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad when the Lord is good, not even one’ (53:3). It would be possible to argue that this is just colourful
restores His people!’ (53:6, 14:7). language used by public speakers, but it is so much more than this. Psalm 14 is urgently
calling people back to their God who promises them salvation (53:7) from evil; wickedness
The verses which are different between psalms 14 and 53 may well indicate two different
and sin. Some believe that Psalm 14’s talk of ‘fools’ (53:1) and the ‘wise’ (53:2) is a type of
setting in which the basic psalm was used. Verses 5 and 6 of psalm 14 (which correspond
Old Testament speech called ‘Wisdom’, and regard all this as teaching material for young
to verse 5 in Psalm 53) speak about God’s protection of the righteous and the poor from
people (which often contrasted the actions of ‘the fool’ and ‘the wise’ e.g. Proverbs 10:14).
those who ‘mock’ them, and this makes psalm 14 feel like a condemnation of social
However, this does not explain the serious tone of the psalm, and the absolute conviction
injustice within Israel. Verse 5 in our psalm 53 reads like the criticism of foolish people who
that no-one is able to live up to the standards of God.
have not trusted God at a time of war or siege, and therefore reads like a condemnation of
foolish kings who have not acted with godly insight in the leadership of the people of Israel. Perhaps, even in ancient times, it was recognized that however good our intentions, it was
impossible for people to live up to the exacting requirements of God’s Law all of the time.
Comparing psalm 14 and 53 is fascinating because it helps us see how the psalms could
Yes, foolish people lack belief in God and rebel against the one who made them, but when
have been used by God’s people in ancient times, and indicates that we, too, could do the
God looks from heaven to see who he can use amongst his people, he is looking for those
same thing. We could use the external structure of verses 1-4 and the last verse, and
who will do his bidding absolutely, without question and whatever the price. The psalm tells
include in the middle our particular concerns about governments, leaders or people that
us the unhappy news that He does not find anyone who fits the bill!
have not acted in a godly way and been ‘foolish’. We will all have opinions about such
things, but the psalm invites us to place our concerns into a scriptural pattern of prayer This, of course, is exactly what Paul picks up in his famous letter to the Romans (Romans
which accepts the foolishness of humanity and looks forward to the saving and delivering 3:10,11,12). He mixes up the message of this psalm with that of psalm 1, 5:9, 140:3, 10:9,
acts of God. 36:1 and also Isaiah 59:7, but this only adds force to his argument. Paul argues that
because no-one is good enough to do God’s work of renewal and redemption, Jesus has
Fools, unbelief and corruption A clear picture is painted from the start; those who deny
done this work once and for all on the Cross. Jesus was pure and did not compromise His
the existence of God and His creation are fools, moreover they are the source of
relationship with God by sinning, and was therefore able to answer the call for a ‘righteous’
wickedness and corruption in the world. In particular, those who have enjoyed the benefits
person to do God’s will. He alone is the reason why we can be restored to God’s presence
of the Lord’s saving and protecting work and then proceed to reject God have completely
from our mortal, fallen state, and is the power source behind any renewal or revival God
lost their way. We may not be able to know who falls into this category, but God ‘looks
brings to His people.
down from heaven’ (53:2) to see who trusts Him and believes in Him, and who does not!
Clearly the psalm expresses amazement that some of those who have known the benefits Renewal today Psalm 53 ultimately points to the salvation (the word also means
of God’s covenant faithfulness to His people chose to ignore this; they have ‘gone astray … ‘renewal’ and ‘deliverance’, as well as ‘salvation’) which is God’s answer to human sin and
there is no-one who does what is good, not even one’ (53:3). wickedness. Today we know that Jesus has fulfilled the psalm, and salvation has ‘come
out of Zion’ (53:6), and this news is as important today as it has ever been. The
We need to be clear; the evil being described is not simply atheism, but unbelief amongst
defenceless poor, whether they are oppressed Muslim women or starving Africans,
God’s people; and the church today is as much prone to the tragedy of this waywardness
confused and controlled North Koreans or oppressed in Western society; all can find their
as were the people of Israel in ancient times. There is a specific example of this in the
true hope for redemption and salvation from the one who stands above human folly and
Bible. King Jeroboam 1 of Israel decided that although the people he ruled in the northern
wickedness, Jesus himself.
Israel had worshipped the Lord for centuries, he set up a golden calf for them to worship at
Bethel (1 Kings 12:30), the very place where Jacob had his vision of angels ascending and
descending (Genesis 28:10 ff). This foolishness set in motion internal strife and bribery
Questions (for use in groups)
within the kingdom that marred Israel’s history for two hundred years until the nation was 1. How do you feel about God’s knowledge of every detail of your life? Why would
invaded by Assyria in 721BC (1Kings 13 to 2 Kings 17). It is possible that this psalm was He want to know us this closely?
either influenced by or came from such times, as its themes closely match what some
would have thought at the time. 2. What kind of foolishness distracts the church from its mission these days? How
does this psalm help us address or identify this?

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