The Fool Has Said in His Heart, There Is No God
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.
Listen to the "Verse by Verse" episode covering this scripture.
This psalm of David “speaks of the foolishness of living as if God did not exist,” as the NKJV Study Bible explains it. “The word fool refers not to mental inability but to moral and spiritual insensitivity. The phrase no God suggests ‘practical atheism,’ the view that if there is a God, it really does not matter to one’s life.”
Adam Clarke’s Commentary identifies three groups who in differing ways deny God. “(1) There have been some, not many [his commentary was published in 1826], who have denied the existence of God. (2) There are others who, without absolutely denying the divine existence, deny His providence. (3) There are others, and they are very numerous, who, while they profess to acknowledge both, deny them in their heart, and live as if they were persuaded there was no God to either punish or reward.”
To deny God’s existence or His power in our lives is to become a law unto ourselves; to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17). In this world under the sway of the evil one, this inevitably leads to corruption and sinful choices—the way of death.
For more about God’s existence, see “Proof of God” and related articles on the Life, Hope & Truth website. See also our study guide Does God Exist?
