Psalm 14

The Voice

Psalm 14

For the worship leader. A song of David.

This is a wisdom psalm that grieves over the pervasiveness of sin and its sad effects. It is repeated with minor changes in Psalm 53. Paul refers to this Davidic psalm to explain how all of humanity is tainted by sin (Romans 3:1–12).

¹A wicked and foolish man truly believes there is no God.
    They are vile, their sinfulness nauseating to their Creator;
    their actions are soiled and repulsive; every deed is depraved;
    not one of them does good.

²The Eternal leans over from heaven to survey the sons of Adam.
    No one is missed, and no one can hide.
    He searches to see who understands true wisdom,
    who desires to know the True God.

³They all turn their backs, walking their own roads;
    they are rancid, leaving a trail of rotten footsteps behind them;
    not one of them does good,
    not even one.

⁴Do the wicked have no clue about what really matters?
They devour my brothers and sisters the way a man eats his dinner.
They ignore the Eternal and don’t call on Him, rejecting His reality and truth.

⁵They shall secretly tremble behind closed doors, hearts beating hard within their chests,
    knowing that God always avenges the upright.
⁶You laugh at the counsel of the poor, the needy, the troubled who put their trust in God.
    You try to take away their only hope,
    but the Eternal is a strong shelter in the heaviest storm.
⁷May a new day, a day of deliverance come for Israel, starting with Zion.
    When the Eternal breaks the chains of His oppressed people,
    the family of Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be delighted.