We are free

  PS 14

1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

2 The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

3 All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.

 The fool is a person has been cursed by God. The curse is being reduced to a language that describes man as lesser than the standard for which he was created and describing a world without God. "There is no God" is like an enemy confessing that he is at war with God. Is this a universal statement? Yes but this atheistic confession does not apply to Gods elect. The Psalms are not written to condemn all men in the sense that God has a right to judge His elect as He judges the atheist. We never consider ourselves in the same boat in order to experience ongoing deliverance. Other wise this Psalm would be written with two exhortations. But the Psalm is written as Gods elect standing behind the Judge who pronounces the curse of the law on the nations. This is where I disagree with the two line reformed view. This Psalm teaches that the elect can only be saved by an understanding that those who are saved are shielded from the condemnation of the law. You cannot be saved by a universal identification of all men. Being saved is being freed from hearing the curse of the law. It is standing on the other side and speaking the curse on the wicked. 4 "Will evildoers never learn-- those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD?"

1 The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good."The Psalmist is saying that the voice of the curse is "There is no God."The evidence of the laws condemning power is in the language of mans heart. That language works out into mans actions. "their deeds are vile" Vile in the sense that they teach principles that twist Gods word. This twisting is making war with God. It is compared to threatening Gods people. All the words of man in this sense are violent words. So the words do not just come from corrupted heart but from a mindset of a godless kingdom. In this sense its not really the words that are evil but its the threatening environment that is created that is evil.  

4 Will evildoers never learn-- those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD?

5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous. 

What do we have in common with the wicked? We both see that there is no hope because in the world there is little evidence of love. The only way that we can fully identify with this hopelessness is to be free. We must see that in order to be free is to die. God must be absolutely just in His requirement of death to law breakers and He can only take all of it upon Himself when there is no blurring between the curse and the blessing. We glory in death in the sense that the curse disarms the evil mans threats. In our freedom the wicked experience freedom.