The Bible Study Podcast, episode 391. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of Psalms with Psalm 53.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. Psalm 53 is not an upbeat

Psalm. It is the Psalm of David and catching David on a bad day. It's only six verses long,

and it goes like this. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt and their

ways are vile. There is no one who does good. God looks down from

heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. Everyone has

turned away. All have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Do all these evildoers know nothing?

They devour my people as though eating bread. They never call on God. But there they are,

overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to dread. God scattered the bones of those

who attacked you. You put them to shame, for God

despised them. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion, when God restores his people,

let Jacob rejoice, and Israel be glad. I don't know if you've ever had a day like this. I don't know

that I ever have, but David is looking around

and he has lost heart. He looks at people, this is like Diogenes in his lantern trying to find

ten honest men, or like Abraham bargaining with God for Sodom and Gomorrah. If we can only

find ten righteous men, can we save Sodom and Gomorrah, and then

failing to find that many. David looks around and sees nothing but evil, sees nothing but corruptness,

sees those who do not understand, those who do not seek God, sees corruption everywhere. What has happened to make

David so cynical? To make David see nothing but evil. Part of it looks to be that we get this clue

in verse four and five that they're devouring my people as the eating bread. They never call on God.

And so David is seeing the people of God being oppressed and looking for salvation.

Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. Oh, that God would deliver us.

...