The repetition of Psalm 14 in Psalm 53 reminds us of the 1,000 years of time that Israel was writing and collecting their psalms. These Hebrew poems were evoked out of the life of Israel and used in their public and private worship. In them, YHWH’s chosen people are sharing His way of life with one another and, ultimately, with all the people of the world.
In all their variety of form and mood, the Psalms come into being over the whole period of time in which the Old Testament was written. Though often impossible to date, the Psalms contain a poem as early as Moses (Ps 90) and as late as the postexilic period (Ps.126); that’s a timespan of about one thousand years. The repetition and updating evident in Psalms 14 and 53 show us our need to see the Psalter as a living, open book during the whole Old Testament Period. The Psalter was in constant use individually and corporately from its very beginning, and new psalms were often added, but not systematically.
The titles on Psalms give information about the author, the historical occasion which prompted the writing, the melody, the psalm’s function, and, occasionally, other matters. Most Psalms have titles of some sort, but only 14 have historical titles and all of those connect the psalm with an event in David’s life, referring to him in the third person since someone added these titles later. “The amazing fact about the Psalms is that, though they were born out of particular life experiences, their content is remarkably devoid of any references to the particular events which brought them into being.” (Longman, How to Read the Psalms, p. 42)
This has a major impact on how we understand them in their Old Testament context and also today, freeing God’s people back then and now to use them over and over in their public and private effort to be God-
centered.
The most obvious grouping of psalms is the ultimate division of the Psalter into five books , intentionally created to parallel the five books of Moses:
Ps 1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150. Each of theses sections ends with a doxology. Also each section has a preference for the divine name, either Yahweh or Elohim:
Preference for the Divine Name
| Book | Yahweh | Elohim |
| 1 | 272 | 15 |
| 2 | 74 | 207 |
| 3 | 13 | 36 |
| 4 and 5 | 339 | 7 |
Authorship is another criteria for grouping, as well as theme.
COLLECTIONS IN THE PSALTER
| Davidic Collections | Pss 3-41; 51-72; 138-145 |
| Korahite Collections | Pss 42-49; 84-85; 87-88 |
| Elohistic Collection | Pss 42-83 |
| Asaphite Collection | Pss 73-83 |
| Psalms on the Kingship of God | Pss 93-100 |
| A Collection of Psalms of Praise | Pss 103-107 |
| Songs of Ascents | Pss 120-134 |
| Hallelujah Psalms | Pss 111-118; 146-150 |
(The Psalter is shaped in a purposeful way that required a lengthy process.)
The same psalm appears in Ps. 14 and Ps. 53, using the different names for God. Yahweh predominates in Ps 14, while Elohim is preferred in Ps. 53. The language of the psalms allows application of the text to different times in Israel’s history and reinterpretation in different settings. Comparing and contrasting Psalms 14 and 53 demonstrates this flexibility.
How do the psalm titles inform the reading of each psalm? Examine the later verses to see if there is any evidence that the psalm was “updated”.
Psalms 14 and 53 are community laments, reflecting on a “fool,” one whose conduct is disordered and without focus because it is not referred to God. The main theme is a statement about “practical atheism,” what a person’s life looks like when that person mistakenly assumes that life is normless; such a person is corrupt, without good, without discernment, and therefore exploitative of other people. Fools may be intelligent and may even be part of the covenant community. But they live without mystery, without a sense of awe and without accountability. They define their own style of life in clear contradiction to the way of God, the way of wisdom.
A fool lives practically as if God is not there and does not see his actions. Fools extend their influence by oppressing and destroying the godly.
Where the Creator is not honored, creaturely life disintegrates and degenerates. The end result is a life filled with terror (v. 14:5a) There are no guards, limits, or boundaries but everything is continually at risk. A person who follows that way has no supports for life beyond his own hopeless efforts, and those efforts are inevitably inadequate.
Brueggemann, Message of the Psalms, p.44
The fool’s life is a picture of God-forsakenness, of the absence of God.
The fool’s hidden assumption that there is no God is the controlling theme of this psalm, the dominating motif.
The repeated sounds of “no good” and “no God” cause us to hear these expressions together and ask ourselves if there is a connection. We are led by the language of the psalm to juxtapose and contrast the world as it is, that is, the absence of God (according to the fool) and of any doer of good, with the world as it should be, that is the presence of people who do good and right. (Psalm 14:1-3 and Psalm 53:1-3)
In the world as it is, the actions of the foolish are the strongest evidence against God. They do bad stuff, and they get away with it! Those kinds of observations and the questions they raise were very real for Israel. However, it is the psalmist of faith who risks pointing all this out and giving voice to genuine despair and anguish before God. In the midst of God-denying facts all around, Psalms 14 and 53 end up in a ringing declaration of faith, daring to claim that God is present and is restoring brokenness. Of course, there is no final proof that faith is legitimate in the darkness of our life, but the gospel gives us one piece of evidence—the life, death, resurrection of Christ.
Presented July 29, 2019