Psalm 14:1 NKJV
The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt,
They have done abominable works,
There is none who does good.
The Reality Behind Unbelief
MY NOTES
“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.” — Psalm 14:1 (NKJV)
When David wrote these words, he wasn’t writing an academic paper on philosophical atheism. He was diagnosing a condition of the human soul.
David isn’t calling out people who just haven’t figured God out yet. Nobody is that smart on their own. The Hebrew word for “fool” here is nabal—it points to moral dryness, the kind of person who’s lost the sap of wisdom, honesty, and reverence. Abigail described her husband the same way in 1 Samuel 25: “Nabal is his name, and folly is with him.” Aggressive, stubborn perversity. That’s the picture.
1 Samuel 25:25 NKJV
“Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him! But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.”
Jude 1:10
“But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.”
Notice where this declaration starts: in the heart.
Very few people begin their journey into unbelief through pure, detached logic. More often, the heart decides it wants to be its own master first, and the head quickly builds arguments to justify the decision. When we want to live without accountability, the easiest exit strategy is to convince ourselves that there is no God to answer to. We whisper it to our consciences late at night—not because we’ve proven God doesn’t exist, but because His existence makes our self-centered choices uncomfortable.
Zephaniah 1:12
“And it shall come to pass at that time That I will search Jerusalem with lamps, And punish the men Who are settled in complacency, Who say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, Nor will He do evil.’”
David watched people who, deep in their own hearts, decided God wasn’t real—or at least wasn’t relevant enough to matter. Often it never even makes it out of the mouth. It stays whispered in the heart, just loud enough to quiet the conscience so life can go on unchanged. I’ve known people who can recite the right words on Sunday and live the rest of the week as if God is sealed off in a far-off heaven with no stake in Monday morning. That’s practical denial. Strip God of His justice, His involvement, His right to call anyone to account, and you’ve said “there is no God” in effect, whether you ever say the words or not.
The Domino Effect of Self-Sovereignty
David paints a stark, uncompromising picture of what happens when God is sidelined: “They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good.”
When the anchor is cut, the ship drifts. Sins of commission—actively choosing what is wrong—inevitably breed massive sins of omission, where doing good simply falls off our radar entirely. Once that decision settles in, the fruit shows up. “They are corrupt.” It’s not only a passive condition; it’s active. We don’t just inherit a bent nature—we fan the flame, corrupt ourselves further by habit, and pull others in with us. Abominable works follow. When people act as if the Master’s eyes aren’t watching, the boundaries disappear. Genesis 6 shows what that looked like before the flood: the earth was corrupt because all flesh had corrupted their way. Romans 1 gives the New Testament version—people who knew God but suppressed the truth, and God gave them over to a debased mind. Things that are loathsome become acceptable when God is no longer in the picture.
Genesis 6:12
“So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”
Romans 3:10-12
As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.”
The good news isn’t finished in this verse, but the verse tells the truth that makes the gospel necessary. Denial starts in the heart long before it becomes a creed. And while the human heart stays what it is, skepticism and practical atheism will keep showing up. The remedy isn’t better arguments aimed only at the head. It’s the love of Jesus aimed at the heart—the kind of love that softens resistance and opens eyes.
Without the transforming grace of Jesus Christ, humanity resembles a desert without an oasis, a dark night without a single star. True goodness isn’t merely doing a decent deed or keeping up civil appearances; it’s living a life rooted in faith, fueled by love, and directed toward the glory of God.
Without His Spirit working in us, none of us can hit that mark on our own.
Prayer
Abba, You know the quiet places of my heart better than I do. Forgive the times I’ve lived as if You were distant or irrelevant, as if I could manage without Your presence and Your standard. Soften whatever stubbornness or dryness is still in me. Thank You that while none of us does good on our own, Your grace in Jesus makes new hearts possible. Help me seek You honestly and point others toward the love that wins where arguments alone never could. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- The “fool” is marked by moral rejection and practical denial of God, not by lack of intelligence.
- The decisive “there is no God” is often said first in the heart, not the mouth.
- Corruption and abominable works naturally result when people live as if God is uninvolved.
- Without God’s grace, none of us does good in the way that matters to Him; we need new hearts.
Proverb for Today
The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the innermost parts of his being. Proverbs 20:27 NASB1995
Daily Scripture
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. Philippians 3:20-21 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“The fool.” The Atheist is the fool pre-eminently, and a fool universally. He would not deny God if he were not a fool by nature, and having denied God it is no marvel that he becomes a fool in practice. Sin is always folly, and as it is the height of sin to attack the very existence of the Most High, so it is also the greatest imaginable folly. To say there is no God is to belie the plainest evidence, which is obstinacy; to oppose the common consent of mankind, which is stupidity; to stifle consciousness, which is madness. If the sinner could by his atheism destroy the God whom he hates there were some sense, although much wickedness, in his infidelity; but as denying the existence of fire does not prevent its burning a man who is in it, so doubting the existence of God will not stop the Judge of all the earth from destroying the rebel who breaks his laws; nay, this atheism is a crime which much provokes heaven, and will bring down terrible vengeance on the fool who indulges it. The proverb says, “A fool’s tongue cuts his own throat,” and in this instance it kills both soul and body for ever: would to God the mischief stopped even there, but alas! one fool makes hundreds, and a noisy blasphemer spreads his horrible doctrines as lepers spread the plague. Ainsworth, in his “Annotations,” tells us that the word here used is Nabal, which has the signification of fading, dying, or falling away, as a withered leaf or flower; it is a title given to the foolish man as having lost the juice and sap of wisdom, reason, honesty, and godliness. Trapp hits the mark when he calls him “that sapless fellow, that carcase of a man, that walking sepulchre of himself, in whom all religion and right reason is withered and wasted, dried up and decayed.” Some translate it the apostate, and others the wretch. With what earnestness should we shun the appearance of doubt as to the presence, activity, power and love of God, for all such mistrust is of the nature of folly, and who among us would wish to be ranked with the fool in the text? Yet let us never forget that all unregenerate men are more or less such fools.
The fool “hath said in his heart.” May a man with his mouth profess to believe, and yet in heart say the reverse? Had he hardly become audacious enough to utter his folly with his tongue? Did the Lord look upon his thoughts as being in the nature of words to Him though not to man? Is this where man first becomes an unbeliever?—in his heart, not in his head? And when he talks atheistically, is it a foolish heart speaking, and endeavoring to clamor down the voice of conscience? We think so. If the affections were set upon truth and righteousness, the understanding would have no difficulty in settling the question of a present personal Deity, but as the heart dislikes the good and the right, it is no wonder that it desires to be rid of that Elohim, who is the great moral Governor, the Patron of rectitude and the Punisher of iniquity. While men’s hearts remain what they are, we must not be surprised at the prevalence of skepticism; a corrupt tree will bring forth corrupt fruit. “Every man,” says Dickson, “so long as he lieth unrenewed and unreconciled to God is nothing in effect but a madman.” What wonder then if he raves? Such fools as those we are now dealing with are common to all time, and all countries; they grow without watering, and are found all the world over. The spread of mere intellectual enlightenment will not diminish their number, for since it is an affair of the heart, this folly and great learning will often dwell together. To answer skeptical cavilings will be labor lost until grace enters to make the mind willing to believe; fools can raise more objections in an hour than wise men can answer in seven years, indeed it is their mirth to set stools for wise men to stumble over. Let the preacher aim at the heart, and preach the all-conquering love of Jesus, and he will by God’s grace win more doubters to the faith of the gospel than any hundred of the best reasoners who only direct their arguments to the head.
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” or “no God.” So monstrous is the assertion, that the man hardly dared to put it as a positive statement, but went very near to doing so. Calvin seems to regard this saying, “no God,” as hardly amounting to a syllogism, scarcely reaching to a positive, dogmatical declaration; but Dr. Alexander clearly shows that it does. It is not merely the wish of the sinner’s corrupt nature, and the hope of his rebellious heart, but he manages after a fashion to bring himself to assert it, and at certain seasons he thinks that he believes it. It is a solemn reflection that some who worship God with their lips may in their hearts be saying, “no God.” It is worthy of observation that he does not say there is no Jehovah, but there is no Elohim; Deity in the abstract is not so much the object of attack, as the covenant, personal, ruling and governing presence of God in the world. God as ruler, lawgiver, worker, Savior, is the butt at which the arrows of human wrath are shot. How impotent the malice! How mad the rage which raves and foams against Him in whom we live and move and have our being! How horrible the insanity which leads a man who owes his all to God to cry out, “No God!” How terrible the depravity which makes the whole race adopt this as their hearts desire, “no God!”
“They are corrupt.” This refers to all men, and we have the warrant of the Holy Ghost for so saying; see the third chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Where there is enmity to God, there is deep, inward depravity of mind. The words are rendered by eminent critics in an active sense, “they have done corruptly:” this may serve to remind us that sin is not only in our nature passively as the source of evil, but we ourselves actively fan the flame and corrupt ourselves, making that blacker still which was black as darkness itself already. We rivet our own chains by habit and continuance.
“They have done abominable works.” When men begin with renouncing the Most High God, who shall tell where they will end? When the Master’s eyes are put out, what will not the servants do? Observe the state of the world before the flood, as portrayed in Genesis 6:12, and remember that human nature is unchanged. He who would see a terrible photograph of the world without God must read that most painful of all inspired Scriptures, the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Learned Hindoos have confessed that the description is literally correct in Hindostan at the present moment; and were it not for the restraining grace of God, it would be so in England. Alas! it is even here but too correct a picture of things which are done of men in secret. Things loathsome to God and man are sweet to some palates.
“There is none that doeth good.” Sins of omission must abound where transgressions are rife. Those who do the things which they ought not to have done, are sure to leave undone those things which they ought to have done. What a picture of our race is this! Save only where grace reigns, there is none that doeth good; humanity, fallen and debased, is a desert without an oasis, a night without a star, a dunghill without a jewel, a hell without a bottom.
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Enduring Word
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God”: David looked at those who denied the existence of God and came to the conclusion that they are fools. The idea behind this ancient Hebrew word translated fool is more moral than intellectual. David did not have in mind those not smart enough to figure God out (no one is that smart); he had in mind those who simply reject God.(Guzik)
“The Hebrew word for fool in this psalm is nabal, a word which implies an aggressive perversity, epitomized in the Nabal of 1 Samuel 25:25.” (Kidner)
The Cosmological Argument: The existence of the universe means there must be a creator God.
· The Teleological Argument: The existence of design in the universe means there must be a designer God.
· The Anthropological Argument: The unique nature and character of humanity means there must be a relational God.
· The Moral Argument: The existence of morality means there must be a governing God.
The fool has said in his heart: When we speak with one who denies God, we should not only – or even primarily – speak to his head, but also to his heart. “Let the preacher aim at the heart, and preach the all-conquering love of Jesus, and he will by God’s grace win more doubters to the faith of the gospel than any hundred of the best reasoners who only direct their arguments to the head.” (Spurgeon)
“Practical denial or neglect of His working in the world, rather than a creed of negation, is in the psalmist’s mind. In effect, we say that there is no God when we shut Him up in a far-off heaven, and never think of Him as concerned in our affairs. To strip Him of His justice and rob Him of His control is the part of a fool. For the Biblical conception of folly is moral perversity rather than intellectual feebleness, and whoever is morally and religiously wrong cannot be in reality intellectually right.” (Maclaren)
They are corrupt, they have done abominable works: David here considers the result of denying God. It leads men into corruption and abominable works. This isn’t to say that every atheist lives a dissolute life and every God-believer lives a good life; yet there is a marked difference in moral behavior between those who take God seriously and those who do not.(Guzik)
There is none who does good: As David considered the sin of the God-denier, he looked out over the landscape of humanity and concluded that there is none who does good. He did not mean that there is no human good in this world, but that fallen man is so fallen that he does not by instinct do good, and even the good he may do is tinged with evil.(Guzik)
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John Gill
they are corrupt; that is, everyone of these fools; and it is owing to the corruption of their hearts they say such things: they are corrupt in themselves; they have corrupt natures, they are born in sin, and of the flesh, and must be carnal and corrupt: or “they do corrupt,” or “have corrupted”: they corrupt themselves by their atheistic thoughts and wicked practices, Jude 1:10; or their works, as the Chaldee paraphrase adds; or their ways, their manner and course of life, Genesis 6:12; and they corrupt others with their evil communications, their bad principles and practices, their ill examples and wicked lives;
[there is] none that doeth good; anyone good work in a spiritual manner; not in faith, from love, in the name and strength of Christ, and with a view to the glory of God: nor can any man do a good work without the grace of God, and strength from Christ, and the assistance of the Spirit of God: hence, whatsoever a wicked man does, whether in a civil or in a religious way, is sin; see Proverbs 21:4. Arama takes these to be the words of the fool, or atheist, saying, there is no God that does good, like those in Zephaniah 1:12.
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Matthew Henry
If we apply our hearts as Solomon did (Eccl. 7:25) to search out the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness, these verses will assist us in the search and will show us that sin is exceedingly sinful. Sin is the disease of mankind, and it appears here to be malignant and epidemic.
The contempt it puts upon the honor of God: for there is something of practical atheism at the bottom of all sin. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. We are sometimes tempted to think, “Surely there never was so much atheism and profaneness as there is in our days;” but we see the former days were no better; even in David’s time there were those who had arrived at such a height of impiety as to deny the very being of a God and the first and self-evident principles of religion.
He says this in his heart; it is not his judgment, but his imagination. He cannot satisfy himself that there is none, but he wishes there were none, and pleases himself with the fancy that it is possible there may be none. He cannot be sure there is one, and therefore he is willing to think there is none. He dares not speak it out, lest he be confuted, and so undeceived, but he whispers it secretly in his heart, for the silencing of the clamours of his conscience and the emboldening of himself in his evil ways.
The character of this sinner. He is a fool; he is simple and unwise, and this is an evidence of it; he is wicked and profane, and this is the cause of it. Note, Atheistical thoughts are very foolish wicked thoughts, and they are at the bottom of a great deal of the wickedness that is in this world. The word of God is a discerner of these thoughts, and puts a just brand on him that harbours them. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; for he thinks against the clearest light, against his own knowledge and convictions, and the common sentiments of all the wise and sober part of mankind. No man will say, There is no God till he is so hardened in sin that it has become his interest that there should be none to call him to an account.
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Calvin’s Commentary
The fool hath said. As the Hebrew word נבל , nabal, signifies not only a fool, but also a perverse, vile, and contemptible person, it would not have been unsuitable to have translated it so in this place; yet I am content to follow the more generally received interpretation, which is, that all profane persons, who have cast off all fear of God and abandoned themselves to iniquity, are convicted of madness.
The Psalmist says that they speak in their heart They may not utter this detestable blasphemy, There is no God, with their mouths; but the unbridled licentiousness of their life loudly and distinctly declares that in their hearts, which are destitute of all godliness, they soothingly sing to themselves this song. Not that they maintain, by drawn out arguments or formal syllogisms, as they term them, that there is no God, (for to render them so much the more inexcusable, God from time to time causes even the most wicked of men to feel secret pangs of conscience, that they may be compelled to acknowledge his majesty and sovereign power;) but whatever right knowledge God instils into them they partly stifle it by their malice against him, and partly corrupt it, until religion in them becomes torpid, and at last dead.
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Miscellaneous Comments
As there is no wound more mortal than that which plucketh forth man’s heart or soul; so, likewise, is there no person or pestilence of greater force suddenly in men to kill all faith, hope, and charity, with the fear of God, and consequently to cast them headlong into the pit of hell, than to deny the principle and foundation of all religion—namely, that there is a God.
—Robert Cawdray’s “Treasury or Storehouse of Similes,” 1609.
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