This evening my catechism students and I looked closely at
Pss 14 & 53. A question worth asking is, why did the Holy Spirit use up two
spots in the canon of 150 Psalms to breathe out two nearly identical ones? At
verses 4 & 5 of the Psalms there are some differences, but the most notable
difference is the use of names for the Lord God. Both Psalms refer to God seven
times, but whereas Psalm 14 alternates between “LORD” and “God,” Psalm 53 uses
only “God.” Behind LORD is the personal and covenantal name YHWH, the name for
God given to and owned by the covenant community.
Psalm 14 is about “the fool” in the covenant community who
has begun to deny the existence of God. This brother or sister has exchanged
godliness for corruption and for that which is vile. The LORD looks down from
heaven and shakes his head at the fool who becomes a covenant breaker.
By the time we get to Psalm 53, the name LORD is no longer
in the picture in the thinking of “the fool.” He has drifted so far from the
ways of the covenant LORD that only the most common, almost generic, name for
the deity can be used. By this time the fool is not only denying the covenant claims
of the LORD; in his rebellious madness he is denying the existence of God.
May God have mercy on those who abandon the covenant claims
of God and end up in unbelief.
