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“The Fool Says in His Heart”: Humanity’s Denial of God (Psalm 14) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're putting on our
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  reformed thinking caps and we're tackling a subject that is well,
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  it's deeply uncomfortable. It is, but it's also entirely
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  essential. We're doing the deepest dive we
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  can into Psalm 14. It's an ancient Davidic poem,
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  but we're also tracing its, I mean, it's devastating
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  application by the Apostle Paul. Specifically in Romans chapter
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  3. Exactly.
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  So our mission today is really to dissect the biblical
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  definition of human corruption and what our sources call the
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  Fool's Creed. We've got a whole stack of
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  commentaries and analysis here, and you're right, this isn't
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  just an academic exercise for them.
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  We are trying to understand why Paul chose this specific passage
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  as his, you could say, his primary evidence in a cosmic
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  courtroom. And you mentioned the Fool's
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  Creed, it's shockingly short it. Is it's really the central
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  negative article of faith that defines spiritual folly?
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  And it's just this one phrase. There is no God.
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  OK, but right away we need to be clear.
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  Scripture isn't presenting this, as you know, the result of some
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  long philosophical debate. Not at all.
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  And the sources are completely unified on this point.
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  This is not primarily an intellectual failure.
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  It's not a mistake in logic. It's a moral feeling that
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  springs from a heart that is, to put it bluntly, corrupt.
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  So it's an affair of the conscience, the affections far.
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  More than it is about academic wit or, you know, cleverness.
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  We have to get our heads around this, this silent speech, this
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  inner denial, because it's the route that really unravels
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  everything else without the intervention of sovereign grace.
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  OK, let's unpack this, and I think we have to start with
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  Paul's use of the Psalm that really establishes the stakes
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  for this whole discussion. I agree.
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  Because if Psalm 14 is just, say, historical critique of some
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  ancient enemies of Israel, well, that's interesting, but it's
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  limited. Right, it's a history lesson,
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  but. Paul in Romans 3 takes it and
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  uses it to condemn the entire world.
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  He does. I mean, if you look at the
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  structure of Romans, Paul has spent two full chapters just
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  systematically dismantling human pride.
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  He starts with the Gentile world.
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  He proves they're guilty because they rejected the revelation of
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  God in nature. Then he pivots.
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  He turns to the Jewish world. And proves that having the law
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  is no protection. None at all, because they broke
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  the very law they boasted in. He has, as you said, he has
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  boxed everyone into a corner. Which creates the need for this
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  universally damning verdict. Yeah, he needs something so
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  authoritative, so comprehensive, that nobody can wiggle out of
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  it. Not the most devout Pharisee,
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  not the most reckless Gentile. No one.
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  So that's the setup for Romans 3.
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  Precisely. The sources all confirmed that
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  Paul's main purpose here, where he starts quoting the Old
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  Testament, beginning with Psalm 14, is to establish this this
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  massive theological maxim, which is that both Jews and Gentiles
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  are all under sin. He's not just saying we have a
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  tendency to sin. No, it's a state of being.
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  It's a legal status before a holy God.
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  You are under sin. OK, so let me ask a question
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  here because this seems critical.
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  If his goal is to prove universal sin, why use this
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  specific Psalm? A Psalm that David wrote, it
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  seems, about his own enemies. Maybe the surrounding nations or
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  rebels in his own court. Right.
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  Why elevate this specific poem to a status where it condemns
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  every human being who has ever lived?
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  Because Paul recognizes by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
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  that David wasn't just writing an obituary for some long gone
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  enemies. He was painting a timeless
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  portrait of the unregenerate human heart.
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  He saw the universal in the particular.
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  Exactly. And Paul's method is so rigorous
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  it's totally dependent on the authority of the Old Testament.
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  The sources detail how Paul transcribes a great part of
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  Psalm 14. And he mixes it with other texts
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  too, doesn't. He he does, he pulls from Psalm
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  5, Psalm 10, Isaiah 59. He weaves them them together to
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  serve as the single, unified, authoritative testimony about
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  the true nature of humanity. That's the whole bowl game right
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  there. He's taking what looks like
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  historical evidence of corruption from one era and
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  presenting it as the definitive standard for theological
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  anthropology for everyone. And he quotes the psalmist's
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  conclusion. There's none that doeth good.
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  No, not one. And he applies that without any
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  modification to every single person on earth.
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  And the weight of that verdict is just crushing.
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  It is by using this description, the sources explain, that Paul
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  concludes that the whole posterity of Adam, with the one
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  single critical exception of Christ, is placed under the
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  righteous condemnation of God under the curse.
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  Which means no one gets a pass not based on, you know, being a
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  good person or being really smart.
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  The modern idea that someone might be naturally innocent.
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  Is just wiped out. Completely wiped out.
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  This shatters any claim to innocence for what the source is
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  called the natural or intellectual man.
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  I really like the forensic analogy one of the sources uses.
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  It helps make sense of this. The DNA match analogy.
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  Yes, Paul isn't just reading an old poem, he's acting like a
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  prosecutor. Yeah, and Psalm 14 is his DNA
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  evidence. It's the incontrovertible proof,
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  just like DNA can place a defendant at a crime scene no
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  matter what their alibi is. Paul uses this Psalm to prove
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  that the DNA of sin, this inherent corruption, is present
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  in the spiritual genome of every single human being.
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  That is a really potent image. It shows the problem isn't just,
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  you know, a few bad choices here and there.
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  It's systemic. It's inherited.
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  So if this sin DNA is present in everyone, what does it do?
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  What does this total corruption actually look like
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  theologically? The consequence is what the
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  Reformed tradition calls total depravity, and that means
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  humanity as a totality has apostatized.
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  The corruption isn't partial. It's not like one room in the
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  house is messy. No, the whole foundation is
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  rotten. It affects every faculty of the
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  soul, the mind, the will, the affections, everything.
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  Can you give us a specific image from the sources to help us
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  grasp the depth of this? Well, they use some really
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  visceral terms, drawing from the original language.
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  Men have become filthy or sour. Sour, like milk that's gone bad.
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  Exactly. Or like corrupt leaven that
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  spoils the entire lump of dough. Another images of a body that's
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  become putrid and stinking, having lost its life.
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  The theological result is just devastating.
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  The mind is darkened. The will is in bondage to sin,
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  and the affections what we love and desire are set on temporal
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  evil instead of on God. And the first and most critical
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  piece of evidence for this corruption, according to both
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  the Psalms and Paul, is what? It is the simple fact that no
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  unrenewed soul seeks God that's the key.
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  That's the absolute key. The Psalm says there is none
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  that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
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  God. Seeking God should be the most
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  rational, basic first step for any creature.
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  The fact that humanity universally resists doing that
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  is the ultimate proof of our spiritual decay.
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  The whole race suffers from this moral blindness that's coupled
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  with a willful rebellion. It's a condition we're so used
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  to we don't even see. It the sources note that we're
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  so accustomed to the foulness that we only perceive how bad it
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  is when the light of the gospel finally shines on it.
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  That is a devastating diagnosis, and it sets us up to move from
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  this universal state of guilt to the individual who really
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  embodies this rebellion. The.
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  Fool. The fool who dares to utter that
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  negative treed back in the Psalm verse one it names the culprit.
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  The fool have said in his heart there is no God.
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  We have to zoom in on this specific name.
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  This isn't just a general. Insult, right?
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  It's not like calling someone an idiot.
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  No. The Hebrew name for this person
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  is Nabal, and this name is just loaded with meaning.
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  It's precise signification is fading, dying, or falling away.
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  Like a withered leaf. Exactly like a withered leaf or
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  a vine that stopped bearing fruit and has lost all its
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  vitality. So he's not the village idiot,
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  he's someone who is spiritually dehydrated.
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  The life force that should be there has just evaporated.
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  It has the sources layer on these really stark spiritual
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  titles to define him. He's called a sapless fellow.
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  Sapless, meaning no spiritual juice, no vigor.
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  None. He's called a carcass of a man,
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  and even more chillingly, a walking sepulchre of himself.
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  A walking tomb? That's a horrifying image.
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  It paints a picture of a man who is physically alive.
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  He's breathing, he's moving, but inside the true wisdom, reason
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  and godliness have decayed. He is literally dead in sin
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  while still having natural life. And the sources say this name no
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  ball. It marks the atheist
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  specifically. Preeminently and universally,
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  because the very act of denying the source of all life causes
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  this internal extinction of spiritual vitality.
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  That image of a walking sepulcher is just, it's
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  terrifying. It means he's a living monument
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  to his own decay, just moving through the world.
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  And that decay is moral. Which brings us to a crucial
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  distinction we have to make. The sources are very careful to
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  clarify this. The fool is not Stoltis in
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  Ciencia. He is not a fool in wit or
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  intelligence. In fact, it's often the
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  opposite, isn't it? Often history is littered with
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  brilliant minds who deny God. One source even says that a
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  superfluity of wit often makes atheists.
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  Why? Because it gives them the
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  cleverness to argue against what's plainly evident.
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  That's the idea. The intellectual capacity can be
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  very high, but the moral compass is completely broken.
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  So he is scultus in Conscientia A.
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  Fool in life and conscience. The failure is not cerebral,
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  it's militia. It's a failure of the will.
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  He is the Sinner who will not use his reason to acknowledge
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  his Creator. Not the one who cannot.
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  Absolutely not, because to acknowledge the Creator means
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  you have to acknowledge the Lawgiver, and that interferes
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  with his desire for autonomy. That is such a vital
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  distinction. It shifts the blame entirely
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  away from capacity and on to choice.
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  The argument is, if the heart were truly set on truth and
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  righteousness, the mind would have no trouble at all settling
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  the question of a personal God. It's a failure of moral will.
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  The heart dislikes righteousness, so it wants to
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  get rid of the moral governor. Which leads directly to the
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  secret creed. The articulation of that wicked
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  desire. The denial there is no God is
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  described as a silent speech. A bolt shot without noise.
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  Yes. Why silent?
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  Why doesn't he just shout it from the rooftops?
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  Because it's so prodigiously profane, as one source puts it.
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  Right. The Sinner often doesn't even
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  dare to say it out loud, even to himself.
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  He's afraid of his own conscience or what other people
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  might think, but it's the core of his spiritual doctrine.
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  Just one negative article. So if it's a silent speech, a
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  thought in the heart, what is its real nature?
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  Is it an observation? Is it a belief?
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  It's fundamentally A wish. The sources are so strong on
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  this. The Creed is primarily A wish
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  that springs from a corrupt nature.
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  It's a deep personal desire that says, oh, that there were none.
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  And this desire is focused on a very specific aspect of God,
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  isn't it? The psalmist uses a particular
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  Hebrew name for God here. That's a critical detail.
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  He desires to be rid of Elohim if he'd used Yahweh.
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  Jehovah that's more about God as the covenant making self
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  existent 1. That he chooses Elohim.
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  He does, and Elohim emphasizes God in his capacity as ruler,
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  lawgiver, and punisher of iniquity.
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  The fool isn't really worried about God the Creator.
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  He's terrified of God, the Judge.
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  That's it. He wants freedom from restraint.
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  He's trying to deny the covenant, personal ruling and
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  governing presence of God so he can have his own moral autonomy
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  and sin without limits. By denying the judge, he thinks
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  he can nullify the law and that frees him to live without
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  consequence. Which is why the sources call
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  this denial the greatest imaginable folly.
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  It's a spiritual suicide note written in the silence of his
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  own heart. This leads to that trifle
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  description of this madness. Yeah.
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  How do the sources breakdown why this is the highest form of
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  foolishness? Well, it combines 3 aspects of
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  complete failure. First, there's obstinacy.
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  The fool is stubbornly denying the plain evidence of nature.
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  The world screaming of a creator.
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  And the testimony of his own conscience. 2nd, it's stupidity.
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  He's opposing the common consent of mankind throughout all of
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  history, across all cultures. To stand alone against all that
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  is just self isolation. And 3rd, it's pure madness
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  because he's actively stifling his own consciousness.
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  He's trying to shut down the very mechanism God installed
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  inside him to tell him the truth.
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  It sounds like a willful self mutilation of the soul.
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  It is, and this brings us to that astonishing comparison that
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  our sources make, a comparison that deserves some deep
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  reflection. This is the claim that the
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  atheist, the navel, is more vile than a devil.
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  It's an aggressive claim. It seems extreme.
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  It does. I mean, I have to push back a
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  little for the listener. Isn't that an overwrought
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  theological position? How can a human center, no
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  matter how wicked, be worse than a fallen Angel?
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  The justification for it hangs on one single forensic point,
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  belief in existence. Devils, as James 2.19 says,
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  believe and tremble. They know God exists, they
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  acknowledge the judge, Christ, and they know judgement is
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  coming. They never deny God's existence.
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  Flip the nable the fool. The fool commits a crime against
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  reality that you don't even find in hell.
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  The denial of the Most High is very existence.
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  So in a way, the devil is operating under the constraint
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  of knowing the truth, even if he hates it.
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  But the fool, through sheer obstinacy, has managed to
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  suppress even that most basic knowledge.
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  Yes, the denial of existence is the ultimate act of intellectual
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  and moral rebellion, a rebellion so complete it denies the very
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  foundation of all reality. And the outcome is just
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  self-destructive. Purely, it's a suicidal cut.
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  The sources use this chilling analogy of a man denying the
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  existence of fire while he's burning in it.
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  Shouting there is no fire yeah, doesn't put out the flames that
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  are in Dolphin you. Exactly.
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  The fool's denial of God doesn't stop the judge of all the earth
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  from destroying the rebel. This secret creed, no God, it
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  ensures his own destruction. It's the foolish mechanism the
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  heart uses to try and silence the voice of conscience.
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  But. The consequences are eternal,
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  no? And this foolishness, this naval
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  condition, it's the underlying explanation for all the
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  abominable actions that follow in the rest of the Psalm.
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  OK, so we've established the internal state, the silent
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  wishing, denial in the heart. Now we have to shift to the
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  external consequences which follow immediately in the Psalm.
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  This internal creed, it inevitably spills out into the
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  world. It manifests as practical
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  atheism. Right.
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  And practical atheism is the state where men, even if they
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  might, you know, pay lip service to God.
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  They might profess some vague belief with their mouths.
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  But they live their lives as if God doesn't see what they're
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  doing, doesn't care, and certainly won't judge them.
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  One source calls this a mighty prevalent principle in the
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  world. Universal among the
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  unregenerate. The implication being if God is
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  a ruler who doesn't enforce the law, then for all intents and
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  purposes he's irrelevant. That's right, it grants them a
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  license for what the Psalm calls abominable works.
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  If the masters eyes are out, if he's blind or absent or just
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  inert, then the servants will do whatever they please.
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  That lack of accountability just unleashes the corruption we
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  talked about in Part 1. It's a terrible photograph of
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  the world unrestrained by grace. It's just like the first chapter
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  of Romans, which the sources note is a literally correct
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  description of what happens. And the song gives a very
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  specific, ugly example of this corruption in action.
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  Predatory cruelty. Against the righteous, The
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  wicked are described as trying to eat up God's people as they
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  eat bread. That metaphor is so shocking
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  because of its normalcy. Eating bread is a casual daily
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  routine act. It's not some grand dramatic
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  evil. No, the comparison suggests that
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  oppressing the Saints is a casual, daily and ravenous
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  activity. They do it with the same
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  thoughtless this veracity you'd have for a necessary meal.
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  They feel no guilt. None.
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  It shows this instinctive hostility toward the righteous.
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  It's a predatory nature where the strong just devour the weak.
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  Like wolves tearing up sheep. They make no more conscience of
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  undoing a poor man than of eating a good meal when they're
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  hungry. And this cruelty is paired with
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  a kind of psychological warfare, isn't it?
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  They specifically target the faith of the godly.
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  They do. They shame the counsel of the
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  poor. Meaning they mock their trust in
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  God. They see the righteous person's
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  dependence on the Lord, their quiet faith, their hope for
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  justice as the most foolishest thing in the world.
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  It's something to be scorned. Because the wicked rely on their
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  own strength, their money, their wit.
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  And they taunt the godly. They say things like, where is
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  this Lord you claim can deliver you from our hands?
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  It's the ultimate derision of true virtue.
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  They believe that denying the judge will shield them from
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  judgement. But here is this massive ironic
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  reversal that the Psalm introduces.
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  The terror paradox. This denial and oppression leads
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  the wicked themselves straight into a terrifying psychological
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  state. They fall into great fear where
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  No Fear was. This point is so critical.
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  This fear is not rational. It's not based on a visible
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  threat like an approaching army. It's a panic terror.
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  An undefinable, horrible, mysterious dread that just
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  creeps over them and seizes their hearts and minds.
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  How does that show up in the most, you know, audacious and
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  cruel men? Even the most hardened
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  oppressors, the men who seem completely fearless in their
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  cruelty, they have these periods of overwhelming cowardice, a
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  cold sweat of alarm, as one source puts it, that seizes them
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  for no apparent reason. So they could be alone or feel
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  totally secure and then suddenly.
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  Suddenly their inner nabal conscience just erupts in dread
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  and they realize they are not in fact, free from accountability.
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  So what's the root cause of this but mysterious terror?
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  It's a simple theological fact. God is in the generation of the
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  righteous. The wicked deny Elohim the
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  ruler, so they can oppress people.
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  But when they attack the godly, they aren't just attacking a
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  weak victim, they are biting directly into the divine
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  presence itself. So their own action oppressing
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  the godly, it violates their own secret creed of no God.
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  They run headlong into the one reality they desperately tried
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  to suppress. Exactly.
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  The presence of God with that righteous person suddenly
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  validates everything they tried to deny.
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  When they try to devour the godly, they discover God is
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  actively present with the victim working for their deliverance.
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  And this is where that visceral image comes in the gravel.
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  It's an amazing metaphor. They expect a satisfying meal,
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  but the reality is awful. They try to devour the poor, but
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  God fills their mouths and their teeth with gravel.
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  Gravel and the bread. They think they're going to get
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  a meal and instead they break their teeth on divine defense.
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  They cannot digest their prey because the Almighty is
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  defending it. Their anticipated dominance
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  turns into sudden, agonizing panic.
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  They quail before the true nobility of the believer.
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  Realizing that the poor person in his trust is infinitely
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  stronger than they are in their wicked power.
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  The presence of God, which is a refuge for the oppressed,
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  becomes the source of inexplicable terror for the
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  oppressor. It is the ultimate confirmation
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  that the naval is, at his core, self deceived.
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  The denial of God is just a denial of his own deepest fear.
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  Which is why the sources conclude that all cruel men are,
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  at heart, cowards. Absolutely.
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  Cruelty requires you to suppress your conscience.
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  But when God eventually wakes them up from that dead slumber,
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  maybe through a sudden illness, strange event, the failure of
• 19:25
  their wicked plans, the ghost of past sin becomes a terrifying
• 19:30
  specter. The sound of their own past evil
• 19:33
  is in their ears. Making the most audacious
• 19:35
  sinners into the basest cowards, trembling at the mere thought of
• 19:39
  the revenging hand of the judge they tried so hard to ignore,
• 19:43
  the momentary freedom they got by denying him is paid for in
• 19:47
  eternal terror. We've dissected the universal
• 19:50
  human condition, we've defined the Nabel, and we've traced the
• 19:53
  consequences of practical atheism.
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  This brings us to a final question.
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  OK, if this Psalm is such a dark description of depravity and
• 20:01
  oppression, how was the ancient church supposed to use it?
• 20:05
  That's the essential transition. This was not meant for private
• 20:08
  meditation alone. It was commanded for the public
• 20:11
  worship of God. And the evidence for that is the
• 20:13
  dedication. To the chief musician, an
• 20:15
  inscription you find on 53 of the Psalms.
• 20:17
  Which sets the stage for the liturgical life of the Church.
• 20:21
  The chief musician was the overseer of the choir, so this
• 20:24
  confirms these psalms were meant to be sung, recited and used in
• 20:28
  the great assemblies of Israel. And this detail is highly
• 20:31
  significant because Psalm 14 is a heavy doctrinal lament.
• 20:35
  It describes deep corruption. It expresses sorrow over the
• 20:38
  state of the world. It has, as the sources say,
• 20:41
  little or no praise, and it's not even addressed to God until
• 20:45
  the very end. So the very existence of this
• 20:47
  dedication on a Psalm like this, it directly refutes the theory
• 20:50
  that public singing must be limited strictly to praise.
• 20:54
  And that's critique of a very specific, very modern liturgical
• 20:57
  tendency, isn't it? The idea that worship should
• 21:00
  only be celebratory songs, hymns about the comfort of the
• 21:03
  believer, or direct adoration. It is, the sources argue, that
• 21:06
  this theory that public worship must be praise only is far more
• 21:10
  plausible than scriptural. The fact that the Spirit
• 21:13
  inspired David to give these words to the chief musician,
• 21:16
  words about universal sin and the wickedness of the oppressor,
• 21:19
  proves public worship was meant to include the full spectrum of
• 21:22
  spiritual reality. Not just the joy notes.
• 21:25
  Not at all. So what were the divinely
• 21:27
  inspired functions of public psalmity that required including
• 21:30
  content like Psalm 14? Our sources outlined 3 critical
• 21:34
  functions. The 1st is teaching and
• 21:36
  admonition. We see that in the New
• 21:38
  Testament, Paul tells believers to teach and admonish one
• 21:42
  another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
• 21:44
  Exactly. Sacred music is a tool for
• 21:47
  mutual instruction and correction among the regular
• 21:50
  members of the congregation. This Psalm instructs the
• 21:53
  righteous about the true nature of their enemy and also the true
• 21:56
  condition of their own hearts before grace.
• 21:59
  It gives them the spiritual map. It teaches them about the
• 22:01
  reality of the navel, so they aren't surprised by the
• 22:04
  opposition. Precisely.
• 22:05
  The second function is to chant hallowed doctrine.
• 22:08
  Worship has to include declaring doctrinal truths, even ones that
• 22:12
  are distasteful to carnal minds. Like universal corruption?
• 22:16
  Like the fact that all are under sin, these doctrinal passages
• 22:20
  established the drift of the inspired writer, and they set
• 22:23
  the necessary foundation for understanding grace.
• 22:26
  If the Church only sings songs of comfort, it eventually
• 22:30
  forgets the depth of the depravity from which it was
• 22:32
  saved. That makes perfect sense.
• 22:34
  You have to diagnose the sickness before the cure can
• 22:36
  have any meaning. And 3rd, it includes the wailing
• 22:39
  notes of complaint. Public service has to have
• 22:42
  expressions of sorrow and indignant remonstrance against
• 22:45
  evil. It has to reflect the deplorable
• 22:48
  state of things when practical atheism is winning the day in
• 22:52
  the society around them. God gave the church these songs
• 22:55
  to validate the struggles of the righteous and give voice to
• 22:58
  their pain. To ensure that public worship is
• 23:01
  honest about the reality of suffering and sin.
• 23:03
  Restricting public worship only to praise would be like like
• 23:07
  telling an artist they can only use bright yellows and whites.
• 23:09
  The art gallery analogy is useful here.
• 23:12
  It's like a curator refusing to display any masterpiece that
• 23:15
  uses shadows or dark colors. Just as a painting needs
• 23:18
  contrast the dark shades of sin and complaint to give depth and
• 23:22
  definition to the light of praise and salvation, the chief
• 23:26
  musician uses the full spectrum of human experience to compose a
• 23:29
  complete picture of divine truth.
• 23:32
  And that makes the light, when it finally breaks through, all
• 23:35
  the more magnificent. That holistic approach, the
• 23:38
  honest diagnosis right alongside the anticipation of the cure,
• 23:41
  that brings us to the final necessary shift in the Psalm.
• 23:45
  It does, after all, this detail about the terrifying state of
• 23:47
  the wicked and the oppression of the godly, the Psalm ends with a
• 23:51
  cry for deliverance. Yes, the spiritual tension
• 23:54
  culminates in that prayerful cry.
• 23:56
  Oh, that the salvation of Israel will come out of Zion.
• 23:59
  This is the pivot from lament to expectation.
• 24:02
  So the righteous, surrounded by the navel and enduring
• 24:05
  oppression, they look outside of themselves for rescue.
• 24:08
  Outside of this world, Zion is the place of God's dwelling, the
• 24:11
  source of salvation. It's the ultimate resolution.
• 24:14
  The hope for the spiritual seed is the Lord's glorious Advent.
• 24:18
  Whether that's a temporal deliverance or prophetically,
• 24:20
  the arrival of the Messiah. Or the final deliverance of his
• 24:23
  people. The sources note that when the
• 24:25
  Lord brings back the captivity, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel
• 24:29
  shall be glad. It directs the congregation's
• 24:31
  hope not inward to their own strengths, but outward and
• 24:34
  upward. Towards Zion, where salvation is
• 24:36
  secured. Ensuring that even the deepest
• 24:39
  sorrow is turned into rejoicing by the promise of His coming.
• 24:42
  And this prayerful longing for the Lord's coming in grace is
• 24:45
  the perfect divinely sanctioned answer to the universal
• 24:48
  depravity Paul proved using this very Psalm it.
• 24:51
  Forces us to acknowledge our sickness and then immediately
• 24:54
  points to the only cure. So let's try to summarize this
• 24:57
  deep dive, OK? First, Paul uses this ancient
• 25:00
  text as forensic evidence in Romans 3 to establish universal
• 25:04
  depravity. He proves the whole posterity of
• 25:07
  Adam. Christ only accepted is
• 25:09
  universally under sin. 2nd we define the navel, the fool.
• 25:13
  Not someone lacking intelligence, but guilty of a
• 25:15
  willful moral rejection of God's rule of Elohim, a secret creed
• 25:20
  that, as the sources suggest, makes him more vile than a devil
• 25:23
  and sets him on a path of self destruction.
• 25:25
  And 3rd, we saw that the Lord is the secured refuge for the poor.
• 25:30
  His mysterious indwelling among the righteous turns the
• 25:33
  oppressor's dominance into sudden, paralyzing panic terror.
• 25:37
  Forcing the wicked to fear where No Fear was.
• 25:40
  So what does this all mean for us?
• 25:42
  Well, one of the sources noted that affliction is the sauce of
• 25:45
  prayer. When life is comfortable, men
• 25:47
  often pray coldly, if they pray at all.
• 25:50
  But adversity stirs the Spirit. It forces genuine dependence.
• 25:54
  So if the height of folly, the naval condition is to deny God's
• 25:57
  existence or rule when life is comfortable, when the conscience
• 26:00
  is sleeping, what does your own prayer life or your lack of a
• 26:04
  prayer life reveal? The degree of practical atheism
• 26:07
  we might still permit to lurk in our own hearts.
• 26:10
  That's the provocative thought to consider the moral state of
• 26:13
  your own daily actions in light of this naval profile.
• 26:15
  Are you living as though the judge is truly present, ruling
• 26:18
  your life? Or are you, through your
• 26:20
  actions, attempting to declare that for all intents and
• 26:22
  purposes, there is no God?