In a Vision, I Walked… — A Poem on Isaiah

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by Lauren Scott in Guest Posts, Living Faith

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Here’s a guest post from my thoughtful and thought-provoking sister-in-law Abigail Scott. She’s been writing tight poems for a couple decades now (yes, she started quite early). I find this one of hers, inspired by the book of Isaiah, to be particularly moving. Enjoy.

isaiah poem time past future

In a vision, I walked through the annals of time
And the past and the future all merged in one line
With the threads of the nations’ existence entwined
Like the strings of an instrument God had designed.
I saw many powers who reigned on the earth.
They were arrogant, loudly proclaiming their worth.
Yet they rose and they fell, like the swells of the tide
Each self-proclaimed lord overthrown in his pride.
Man repeatedly sought for a warrior to reign
To unite all the earth in one glorious name,
And they worshipped themselves and the work of their hands
So the Sovereign God wasted their works and their lands.
Yet the whispered refrain, resonating through space:
A call to the humble to worship by grace
And a promise that Yahweh would sovereignly raise
A Prince to bring peace, who is ancient of days.

Then I saw through the struggle, the war and the loot
From a root that was withered, God raised up a shoot.
While the world, in each palace, sought humanly might
The eternal King came among cattle at night.
For pride wages war and it antetypes trust
Which worships the God who has made us from dust.
The Creator thus came, weak and helpless on earth
Despised and rejected and lowly of birth.
In the suffering flesh, He came to us humble
And this was the form that caused proud men to stumble
For Greeks search for wisdom, Jews ask for a sign
But eternity’s King laid aside the sublime.
No sign did He offer, but three days of death
And the wisdom that yields up immortal God’s breath.
So the rulers of earth found Him quiet and still
Yet they never imagined the Sovereign God’s will
For they missed the refrain, resonating through space:
A call to the humble to worship by grace
And a promise that Yahweh would sovereignly raise
A Prince to bring peace as the ancient of days.
As a servant, He claimed what was His from the start:
The birthright to reign as the King in each heart.

Ah, but time leads the way to a permanent reign
That fulfills all the thrills of the whispered refrain.

And I saw, in my vision, the scope of all history
Not a line, but a circle, eternity’s mystery.
The Alpha, beginning, the ancient of days,
Once born as a man and thus knowing our ways,
A King who is gentle, and humble, a lamb
Will return as a lion, a sword in His hand
To execute justice and overthrow pride
Of the kingdoms that rise and that fall like the tide.
The beginning and end both meet in one place
In the person and work of the God of all grace
Who touched time in humility, born of the dust
To bow every knee to a King we can trust.
His reign is eternal, His crown won’t rescind
For the annals of time will conclude with this end:
The refrain, a crescendo that overturns space,
When the whole world will worship, forever, His grace,
His Sovereign compelling our eternal praise
For the Prince who brings peace as the ancient of days.

No Story is the Same, No Pain Ever Wasted

08 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Guest Posts, Living Faith

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Christian life, Guest Post, poems, poetry, suffering, trials

Here’s a guest post from my friend Tabitha Alloway who writes at Pursuing Logos. Tabitha is a fellow homemaking, homeschooling wife, mother, and electrician–well, we don’t have that LAST part in common! She’s also a long-time family friend. Enjoy!

Have you ever started into a set of books by a particular author and found that before long you could predict the entire plot before you’d even cracked the next book open?

I remember a set like this from my teen years. I fell in love with the G. A. Henty historical fiction series, and for a while I devoured every book I could get.

But slowly I realized my interest was fading. Every book seemed to have the same plot; only the names, faces and times changed: Boy goes on adventures. Boy goes to war. Boy is captured. Boy escapes. Boy becomes hero. Boy meets girl. Boy settles down and lives happily ever after.

Sigh. Very idyllic.

And so predictably formulaic.

Now I’m not knocking the series—I still like the books and I’m looking forward to the day my kids can enjoy them. But it’s sometimes amusing (or annoying) to see an author embrace a seemingly one-track plot. A good writer is able to spin each story in such a way that, while it will always reflect their own unique style and voice, the story itself is fresh and new.

I think of God as a Master Writer, scripting the days and circumstances of our lives, inscribing our stories page by page. He’s the Master Composer, ordering the “rhythm and rhyme” of our lives as an ode of praise. He is the Potter who shapes our lives for our good and His glory.

While certain themes shine through every story He writes—goodness, mercy, grace, redemption or justice—each one is uniquely different.

Have you ever been tempted to question or wonder what God is doing in your life when you find yourself in difficult circumstances and trying times? Or even perhaps to envy the way God is working in the lives and circumstances of those around you, rather than humbly accepting what the Potter is doing in and with your life (see Jeremiah 18:1-6)?

I have. I’ve been tempted many times, when finding myself in less-than-ideal circumstances, to compare my lot with that of others and to envy God’s plan for and ordering of the lives of those around me.

One morning a couple of months back, feeling burdened and discouraged by the weight of recent trials, I poured my heart out to the Lord about it all. I opened the Word and my attention was drawn to the passages that spoke of giving thanksgiving, honor, worship, and praise to God; of investing our trust in Him because He is good. Not exactly the typical comforting passages you might expect. These precious words comforted by lifting my eyes.

I began to think of the stories of the saints of the Bible as well as the experiences of modern-day saints. No two are exactly the same! God works in such a wide variety of circumstances and ways to accomplish His will in each of His children’s lives.

Look at Hannah. She prayed for a child, and God blessed her with one. Yet many Christian wives through the ages have prayed with the same desperate desire for children and have been told “No.”

Jabez prayed that God would bless him and keep him from harm and pain. God granted His wish. Yet Job was permitted to experience unimaginable grief and pain in his lifetime.

Daniel was saved from the lions’ mouths. But many believers in the early centuries of the church were torn apart and eaten by wild beasts.

Under the reigns of David and Solomon, the saints and prophets rejoiced with gladness and singing. Under the reigns of Ahab and Manasseh, the saints and prophets suffered, and served their God in hard times and discouraging circumstances.

The apostle John lived a long life in service to Christ while Abel’s life was cut off prematurely.

Paul could have been tempted to envy the many believers around him who experienced miraculous, physical healings, while he himself was given a thorn in the flesh and denied its removal.

So many people. So many stories. All of them different.

Had God denied Hannah her wish, or Jabez his, would He still have been good? Would His people have continued to trust in Him? Was God’s work in the lives of Hannah, Daniel, and Jabez better, more kind, or wiser than in the lives of Job, or Jeremiah, or Paul?

According to Hebrews 11 we see that trust in God is not (and cannot be) rooted in our personal circumstances, but rather in the character of a faithful God Who is working in His children that which pleases Him, as He orders our lives for our good and His glory (see Romans 8).

The Word tells us elsewhere: “He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity: just and right is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4). The Psalmist reminds us that “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works” (Psalm 145:17).

In declaring his trust in the Lord, the prophet Habakkuk indicated it was not contingent on any circumstances: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength…” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

We often see both Old and New Testament saints giving thanks to God even in the middle of painful circumstances. While the personal testimonies and experiences are different, I imagine they would share one common sentiment: God is good.

Photo Credit: Tabitha Alloway

One of my favorite hymns is Day by Day. The first verse goes:

Day by day, and with each passing moment

Strength I find to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,

I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure

Gives unto each day what He deems best—

Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Some of the most precious portions of Scripture to me are those in which God reveals His own heart of compassion toward His people. It’s the theme that brightens even the darkest story. We’re all familiar with the passage in Lamentations that speaks of the faithfulness, mercy, and compassion of the Lord. Then Jeremiah goes on to say, “But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men”.

God does not cause pain or withhold desire for no good purpose.

Isaiah breaks out in thanksgiving: “I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us…For He said, surely they are my people…In all their affliction He was afflicted…in His love and in His pity He redeemed them…” (Isaiah 63:7-9).

God sorrows in our sorrow; He is afflicted in our affliction. We do not have a High Priest who is insulated from our pain; He experiences it with us and has compassion on our weaknesses.

It is this God of love, kindness, and wisdom who composes my story and your story. Do we trust Him to do what He deems best? Are we content in His provision for and ordering of our life?

The Master Writer is weaving the days and circumstances of our lives into one story for His glory. Every daily page whispers His goodness, and even the darkest chapters are traced with hope, pointing to the beauty of His eternal purpose.

And that eternal purpose hints at the fact that the Author’s story doesn’t end with us, with this life. There is a “happily ever after” that’s already written, just awaiting publication. If you know Jesus, aren’t you looking forward to reading that story?

Had You not granted Hannah’s wish

And given her a child…

Had You let Jabez feel anguish,

Not blessed with life so mild…

Had You not shut the lions’ mouths

When Daniel prayed to You…

Did You not save his friends, when, roused,

A despot gave death cue…

Had solitude been David’s lot

Instead of throne and crown…

Had Jacob not grasped riches sought,

Nor prosperity had found…

Had Hannah lifted empty arms

In worship to Your Name…

Had Jabez met some earthly harm

In showing forth Your fame…

Had Daniel died a martyr’s death

In service to his Lord…

Had fire snatched the faithful’s breath,

And death been their reward…

Had David sung in open fields

Instead of regal courts…

Had flocks and fields returned no yields

While Jacob sought the Source…

Your faithfulness would be the same,

Your goodness ever new,

Your mercy rich exalt Your Name,

And saints would hide in You.

You are the God of grieving Job,

Of joyful, dancing David.

Your ways and works across the globe

Will always be redemptive.

The God of weeping prophets and

The God of singing saints;

All things lie open in Your hand—

From You derive their fate.

You are the source of grace for Paul

When thorn afflicts him sore.

You save the cripple from a fall

And his weak legs restore.

You’re the God of brave queen Esther,

The God of humble Ruth;

To each his lot, Dispenser,

The One Source of all Truth.

In pain and gain, our love and loss

You are the Sovereign One;

You knew real sorrow at the cross

Now-risen, conquering Son.

You walked on earth in mankind’s shoes

You know heart’s deepest throb;

Appointing things as You so choose,

You hear the smallest sob.

You’ve cried and wept with broken heart,

Felt agony of pain;

When on the earth You shared our part,

Your loss became our gain.

To come to You a man must trust

You are the great I AM;

Your works are true and right and just,

And You reward the man.

Your ways are far past finding out,

No finite mind can see

Exactly what you are about—

Your great Eternity.

You are our life, our love, our light,

Our hope, our help, our haven,

Our Rock, Redeemer and our Right—

Praise God of highest heaven!

Of Atheism and Fools, Part Four

10 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Guest Posts, Living Faith

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April Fool's Day, April Fools, Gospel-Grounded Godliness, of atheism and fools, Practical Atheism, Psalm 14, repentance, Romans 3, The fool has said in his heart, ungodliness

This is the conclusion of Nathaniel’s series on Practical Atheism from Psalm 14. In case you missed them, here are Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

“Christian Loses his Burden” Etching by William Strang found in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

So can a christian even seek after God at all? Are we pursuing the unattainable? Well, yes and yes. Part of seeking God is accepting what He says, even if it makes you feel bad about yourself. Only when we admit the rottenness of our condition can we see our need for His salvation and begin to seek Him, to value what He values, and to hate what He hates.

A Call to Repentance

The late great DC Talk opened their hauntingly poignant song “What If I Stumble” on the double-platinum selling album Jesus Freak with this quote from the admittedly controversial Brennan Manning:

The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

It is worth pausing a moment to consider whether or not we live like those who believe.

Be careful with your cream pies. We shouldn’t mock the philosophical atheist. Of course, neither should we defend him. Instead, we should beg him to join us in deep contrition and earnest repentance for our failure to acknowledge God in how we live our every moment.

We may be shocked by the revelation of the waywardness of our own hearts, but is God surprised by our frequent disregard of Him? No, He’s used to it.

Before Paul used this Psalm in Romans 3 to illustrate mankind’s universal need for salvation in Christ, before David wrote Psalm 14, before the nation of Israel had driven their enemies out of the Promised Land, God told the Israelites through Moses that they were not being given the land because of their righteousness, but because of His covenant with their forefathers, and because of the exceeding wickedness of the natives of the land. Check out Deuteronomy 9 for more details. Here’s verse 6:

‘Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the LORD your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.’

And while Moses communicated to the people all of God’s marvelous works, all of the promises of blessing, and all of the warnings of consequences should they become unfaithful to their covenant with God, the LORD tells Moses at the end of Deuteronomy that soon after he dies, they will forget their God.

He wasn’t surprised then. He isn’t surprised now. But He continues to graciously call us to repentance.

The Antidote to Practical Atheism: Gospel-Grounded Godliness

As Christians, we are no more deserving of God’s grace than the oft-forgetful Israelites–or the most flagrant atheists around us. At best, we are more aware of the depths of our own depravity and our desperate need for God in every moment of every day. If we truly understand this, we will be ever more grateful for the means of salvation that He has provided through faith in Jesus Christ!

That salvation is really the key to all of this. All I am suggesting is that we live our lives as Christians in the light of the same good news that brought us to God in the first place: that Jesus died for wretched sinners like me.

I am a wretched sinner, I have disregarded God—His will, His glory, and my need for Him—pursuing instead my own agenda. I must repent of this disregard of God, this practical atheism. I must trust in the Lord Jesus Christ: for forgiveness of my sins, and for direction and power to live my life according to His word and purpose.

And I must do this not only in the initial moment of my conversion, but in every moment thereafter, so that the Holy Spirit can make me more like Him until He takes me home to be with Him.

I can’t fix the philosophical atheists. I can’t fix you. But I can attend to me. I am very cognizant of the tendencies in my own heart and life to both philosophical atheism and practical atheism. I must repent. I must continue to remind myself of the gospel of grace in Christ Jesus. I must seek more and deeper awareness of the presence, work, and will of God in my life.

After condemning ungodliness, Jerry Bridges explains the goal of pursuing godliness in every aspect of our lives:

Our goal in the pursuit of godliness should be to grow more in our conscious awareness that every moment of our lives is lived in the presence of God; that we are responsible to Him and dependent on Him. This goal would include a growing desire to please Him and glorify Him in the most ordinary activities of life.

And again:

Above all, pray that God will make you more conscious of the fact that you live every moment of every day under His all-seeing eye. While you may not be mindful of Him, He is certainly aware of you and sees every deed you do, hears every word you say, and knows every thought you think (see Psalm 139:1-4). Beyond that, He even searches out your motives. Let us then seek to be as mindful of Him as He is of us.

May we be mindful of His presence, knowledge, power, wisdom, goodness, holiness, grace, truth, justice, mercy, faithfulness, and tender love for those who are His. And may we repent when we lose sight of Him.

Dear Father! How far short of Your glory I fall! Please sober me under this Psalm that teaches that no one, especially not I, does good, or seeks You as You deserve. Please confront me with my sin, and help me to trust in You, in Your forgiveness of my sin, and in Your work to cleanse me from it. Make me more like Jesus, in whose name I pray. Amen

Of Atheism and Fools, Part Three

06 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Guest Posts, Living Faith

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April first, April Fool's Day, April Fools, Guest Post, of atheism and fools, Practical Atheism, Psalm 14, The fool has said in his heart, ungodliness, what is sin

Here is the third installment of my husband Nathaniel’s series on Practical Atheism from Psalm 14. If you missed them, check out Part One and Part Two.

How Bad is it Really?

So the scriptures are clear. There is no one who does good, not even one. We are all corrupted, which according to Adam Clarke, cited in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, is a picturesque and vivid “metaphor taken from milk that has fermented and turned sour, rancid and worthless.” Does this match our experience? Am I really as nasty as rancid milk? That is a pretty hard statement to swallow…

And here’s the other quandary… on the one hand this Psalm is telling me that we are ALL corrupt, practical atheists who do abominable deeds instead of what is good, but it’s pretty hard for me to get that concerned about it if everyone else is doing it too. But on the other hand, I can look around at everyone else, and I actually feel pretty good about myself. I’m not nearly as corrupt as some of them are… especially those nasty atheist fools!

The problem here is my standard of measure. I am comparing myself to other people. The result is that I either think, “Hey, I’m not that bad!” or “Hey, we’re not that bad!” But when the Lord Himself looks down from heaven in Psalm 14:2, He’s not grading us on a sliding scale. He is comparing us to His standard of perfection, and not only moral perfection, but perfect devotedness to Himself. And His conclusion? “There is no one who seeks after God.” That is the root of everything else wrong in the world.

If we really sought after God, if we valued what He values and hated what He hates, if we weren’t so inclined to neglect Him to pursue our own agendas, then moral perfection would be possible. But there is not one of us that can dodge that label of “practical atheist” and therefore not one of us that can attain that moral perfection. And it is repulsive, like rancid milk, to our Holy God. We must face up to the fact that the root of all our sin, even as Christians, is practical atheism.

Jerry Bridges, in his excellent book Respectable Sins, confronts the many abominable deeds which Christians are inclined to tolerate in themselves, because “they aren’t the heinous sins of unbelievers”. The book tears down the Us Versus Them mentality, and reminds us again and again that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. One of the first sins that Bridges addresses is Ungodliness. He contends that Ungodliness, rather than Pride, is the root of all sin. He explains:

Contrary to what we normally think, ungodliness and wickedness are not the same … Ungodliness may be defined as living one’s everyday life with little or no thought of God, or of God’s will, or of God’s glory, or of one’s dependence on God.

Oh that cuts deep! How rarely are my thoughts on God, His will, His glory, or my need for Him! How rarely do I consider my actions in the light of His character, His word, His purpose in the world. I am such a fool! Back to the NET Bible’s note:

This practical atheism — living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions — makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

If we deny the applicability of Psalm 14 to our own lives, or refuse to admit our own practical atheism, we can turn aside into some dangerous places! I have been studying the Psalms in tandem with the life of David. In one of David’s crowning moments of godliness described in 1 Samuel 24 he spares the life of King Saul, the man who is unjustly pursuing him to death. Saul abandons his hunt for David, and David has some room to breathe. But in the very next chapter, David interacts with an evil man named Nabal whose name is the very same word for “fool” that is used in Psalm 14. When David allows himself to scorn Nabal from the moral high-ground of having just spared King Saul’s life, he foolishly decides to slay Nabal and all his servants! Thankfully a wise woman interposes herself into the pending deadly confrontation and in 1 Samuel 25:23-31 Abigail reminds David of God’s promises to him, of God’s will for him, and of the danger that shedding blood without cause brings both to his relationship with God and to his coming kingdom. She delicately confronts David with his own foolishness, his own failure to anticipate the consequences of his behavior, and his own practical atheism. David, the man after God’s own heart, was about to commit mass murder because of a verbal insult.

Brothers and sisters, fellow Christians: if you really believe that God will hold you accountable for your actions, that there are long range consequences for your behavior, how differently should you live? I have already quoted in passing Romans 3:23 twice in this article. We must face up to this reality daily, before we can daily move past it to our calling in Christ. All have sinned, and beyond that, all fall short of God’s glory! He deserves our full attention, our full submission, our deepest love, and our highest worship.

And we all fall so short.

And then, instead of seeking His mercy and grace (which ought to be the most natural response for those who have already tasted it), we look for someone who is even worse than us, and we mock the philosophical atheists so that we can avoid feeling so bad over our own practical atheism. This blame shifting hearkens back to Adam’s response to God’s first confrontation of his sin, reflecting the very opposite of the trust and repentance that should characterize our walk with Christ just as much as it did the initial moment of our salvation.

What is Sin

Check out Part Four for the conclusion of this series.

Of Atheism and Fools, Part Two

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Guest Posts, Living Faith

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April first, April Fool's Day, April Fools, Guest Post, Practical Atheism, Psalm 14, Romans 3

In part one Nathaniel challenged us to see ourselves in the fool of Psalm 14 rather than merely pinning the title on the nearest atheist.

You can’t get out of this!

“But really! This psalm can’t be about me! I’m a Christian—I do believe in God! I do seek after Him! I do good things!”

I hear you, I hear you, and I am in no position to argue with you. I get defensive when I read this Psalm too! But as much as I wish it did, I don’t think the scriptures allow us to exempt ourselves from the condemnation of this passage. Bear with me as I make the case that we all play the fool–not from my own opinion–but from the passage itself and the apostle Paul’s use of it in the epistle to the Romans.

The Internal Case

Psalm 14 is full of strong statements. Not only is the charge laid out that the practical atheist is a fool, but along with that come moral judgments–and every one of these has a universal application. Twice David says, “There is no one who does good,” and the second time, as if anticipating our objections, he continues emphatically, “not even one.”

Spurgeon explains:

But are there no special cases, are all men sinful? ‘Yes,’ says the Psalmist, in a manner not to be mistaken, ‘they are.’ He has put it positively, he repeats it negatively, ‘There is none that doeth good, no, not one.’ The Hebrew phrase is an utter denial concerning any mere man that he of himself doeth good. What can be more sweeping? This is the verdict of the all-seeing Jehovah, who cannot exaggerate or mistake. As if no hope of finding a solitary specimen of a good man among the unrenewed human family might be harboured for an instant. The Holy Spirit is not content with saying all and altogether, but adds the crushing threefold negative, ‘none, no, not one.’

And this judgment is not the opinion of David. As we see in verse two, “The LORD [YHWH] has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men”–it is the result of an investigation conducted by Yahweh, God Himself!

“But what about the fact that the second half of the passage seems to be talking about the victims of the corrupt individuals called out in the first half? Surely there is an ‘us versus them’ scenario in mind there!”

We certainly can’t avoid wrestling with the latter half of Psalm 14, especially the statement that the LORD is the refuge of the afflicted righteous in verses five and six. How do we make sense of this?

In my efforts to exempt the “righteous” (and myself with them) from the sweeping condemnation in verse one, I took a closer look at the investigation performed by God Himself in verses two and three. Remembering that sometimes a biblical phrase is used that implies a certain group distinct from another group (e.g. “nations” in the scriptures always means Gentiles distinct from Jews), I thought to check in on the phrase “sons of men”. Could it be used to designate a certain subset of the human population, while excluding the rest of us who actually do seek after God?

It turns out the phrase “sons of men” is literally “sons of Adam” or “people/descendants of Adam. Think about that for a minute… It would be hard to come up with a more inclusive term for all of humanity.

No, you really can’t get out of this.

The External Case

If you are still inclined to exempt yourself from the condemnation of practical atheism in this psalm, consider the fact that there’s a remix: Psalm 53. This Psalm is only slightly different from Psalm 14. The Hebrew scribes were far too meticulous to have accidentally duplicated the psalm, so the only feasible explanation is that David rewrote the psalm with a few variations because it was such an important message as to deserve restatement.

And, as if that were not enough, the Apostle Paul makes the application abundantly clear in Romans chapter 3. After spending the previous two chapters demonstrating that Gentles are guilty before God because they have violated the laws that He has written in their hearts, and Jews are guilty before God because they have violated the law of Moses, he uses Psalm 14 to tie these arguments together and prove that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Take a look at Romans 3:9-12:

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.’

So tell me, do you find yourself anywhere outside of the categories of Jew + Gentile? Are you “better than they”?

No, you really can’t get out of this.

It would seem the fool’s hat fits all of us. But since we’re all equal in this regard, does it really matter? Just how big of a deal is this? Check out Part Three for the answer.

Of Atheism and Fools, Part One

01 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by Lauren Scott in Guest Posts, Living Faith

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April first, April Fool's Day, April Fools, Guest Post, International Atheist's Day, Joke's on us, Practical Atheism, Psalm 14, The fool has said in his heart

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of these links, I may receive a commission at no extra charge to you.

I’m happy to introduce this guest post as the first in a series by none other than my husband, Nathaniel Scott. He’s been studying and teaching through the Psalms and the life of David in our church for the past five years. In this introductory post, he invites us to take another look at the oft-quoted early verses of Psalm 14.

Whose Day is It?

There is a running joke on the Christian interwebs that April 1^st is “International Atheist’s Day”–a pointed jab based on the opening line of Psalm 14: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” While I don’t question the validity of this application, I would suggest that we Christians often fail to recognize when the joke is on us.

Atheism has two dominions. That of philosophical atheism is the mind. It is here that the famous atheists dwell, building arguments and spewing hatred against a Being whose very existence they deny, but who has managed nonetheless to get them rather perturbed. The occupants of this realm make up a relatively small percentage of the human population.

The second dominion of atheism is the heart and the actions. This we call practical atheism. This dominion is occupied not only by the famous atheists, but by the men, women, and children throughout history who disregard God and His will and pursue their own ways. This describes all of humanity.

So today, amidst the cream pies that are being thrown at Richard Dawkins, Voltaire, and Christopher Hitchens, we as Christians need to consider Psalm 14 as a call to check our own God delusions.

Here’s the full text to get us started:

The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.
The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there are any who understand,
Who seek after God.
They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
Do all the workers of wickedness not know,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon the Lord?
There they are in great dread,
For God is with the righteous generation.
You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted,
But the LORD is his refuge.
Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When the LORD restores His captive people,
Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.

The NET Bible, in one of its characteristically succinct and profound Translators’ Notes, says of the Psalm’s opening line:

‘There is no God.’ The statement is probably not a philosophical assertion that God does not exist, but rather a confident affirmation that God is unconcerned about how men live morally and ethically.

This practical atheism — living as if there is no God who will hold them accountable for their actions — makes them fools, for one of the earmarks of folly is to fail to anticipate the long range consequences of one’s behavior.

How many of us, as Christians, live as if there is no God who will hold us accountable for our actions? How many of us fail to anticipate the long range consequences of our behavior? We ourselves are under a delusion. As we contend for the existence of God in the public square of cyberspace, let’s check our hearts and our lives to make sure we are living in the light of that existence.

Us Versus Them?

Using this Psalm as an insult against philosophical atheism is not new. The meme goes back for generations. In Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of David you can find a collection of many writers over many eras barbecuing the atheist with a myriad of insulting terms. These writers differentiate strongly between themselves and the atheist, much like the Christian internet warriors of today.

But there are a few writers in Spurgeon’s compendium who see the fool as representing the practical atheism of which we are all guilty. These writers are much more gentle, and while clearly condemning the error of the fool’s ways, they do so with more humility. They cautiously look to themselves lest they too be caught in foolishness.

As we dig deeper into Psalm 14, let’s follow their example.

Let’s not draw too sharp of a distinction between “us” and “them”. To do so would be an attempt to write ourselves out of the line “They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.”

And if you go on to Part Two, you’ll see why doing so would be quite problematic.