Psalm 14 - The Salvation from Zion!

The Salvation of Israel Out of Zion!

Text: Psalm 14

David laments Judean apathy toward God that has led to corruption in high places

His focus is on Israel’s backslidden condition among many who are in power (Romans 3:9-20 Paul asks rhetorically, Are we Jews better than the Gentiles? Answer: No. We’re under sin too because the law doesn’t justify.)
David ties the moral corruption of leadership to their lack of fear of God.
They eat up their own people meaning they use and abuse people for their own purposes.
Out of the heart come the issues of life (vs 1)
- Foolishness vs Wisdom comes out of the heart.
- How is the heart freed from sin and attracted to the LORD? That becomes ministry.
- If the heart is pathological, the work will follow.
David equates seeking the LORD with purity in life.
- Romans 2:6-7
- 1 John, everyone that has this hope purifies himself.
Workers of iniquity is a phrase Jesus used of people who had conned themselves into believing they were the people of God and therefore justified everything they did with a few religious tenets and activities.
- Paul warned the Galatian churches about this.
- Galatians 5:13-15 use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh. I used to think Paul was talking about people who say they can do anything they want because they’re saved. But he’s talking about people who divide and devour others on religious basis. These people believe they are right and justified in whatever they do. That’s why he says what he says in the next verse.

It turns people into caring and just people who love what is right.
Or it is deliverance from the wicked who have turned their back on God, in this case in Judah, and operate on selfish appetites without regard for right or life.
Can we compare our understanding of God’s salvation to David’s?
David sees God’s salvation as a purifying force in government, not as a “Get out of jail free” card for the individual.

The psalm is about Israelites oppressing other Israelites. They do that because they have no fear of God.
Salvation coming out of Zion was the desire of the righteous before Christ, and now celebrating and rejoicing at that fact is a response of the righteous today.