Psalm 14:1, 3 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good….They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
The fool is the pagan unbeliever, the atheist, who believes and lives as if there is no God. They are corrupt, abominable, and filthy. A fool is not someone who is stupid and uneducated, but rather a person who rejects God. He rejects the one who made the moral and spiritual laws that make life just and good. To deny God’s existence allows wickedness to prevail. The wise not only believe there is a God but also strive to please him. To believe there is a God but refuse to please Him is another way of being foolish.
But David is not only indicting the obviously wicked and the blatant rejector. He is indicting every last one of us: “There is none that doeth good, not even one.” Jesus said, “Call no man good.” We are all practical atheists, not living up to the standards of the God we profess to believe. All of us are born with original sin and have no natural good within.
We have no hope for life if it would be up to our inherent goodness. There is none good, but one, and that one is the God-man. The only hope we have is that Jesus is good “for us.” He earns God’s goodness for us and then gives it to us. Through the Gospel the Holy Spirit gives the faith to believe God and also the ability and desire to live according to His Word. We are by birth “not good,” but by faith in Christ accounted as good.