1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none who does good.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man,
to see if there are any who understand,
who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.
4 Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread
and do not call upon the Lord?
5 There they are in great terror,
for God is with the generation of the righteous.
6 You would shame the plans of the poor,
but the Lord is his refuge.
7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
I was taking a break the other day and browsing through YouTube when I came across a very frightening video of a foolish tourist trying to get close to a bison in Yellowstone park. There are more than one of these videos out there. You might have seen this on the news. It happened several years ago. Bison are very large, very fast, and not at all happy to have humans invading their personal space. This person obviously thought that this was a tame animal. It was not behind a fence or in a cage. It must be safe. The bison was not. She got thrown into the air and landed in a crumpled heap beside the boardwalk.
The psalmist today looks out at the world and has a similar reaction to mine when I watched this woman approach this massive animal. You are going to get hurt! Turn around, you fool! But the psalmist is not watching a woman approach a large land mammal of North America. He is watching evil people abuse the poor. They foolishly think that God is not noticing. They even may foolishly think that there is no God (see yesterday’s devotion). But this is a terrible mistake. God is very real, and he is very aware of what they are doing.
The psalmist wonders if those who devour God’s people like bread really have no understanding. Do they not see what they are doing? Do they not see the calamity that is about to befall them? With every evil deed they are winding the spring tighter and tighter on the trap which will crush them. The psalmist longs for the day that Salvation comes out of Zion and the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, when Israel and Jacob will be glad. It will be a day of great terror for those who oppress the righteous but a day of great joy for the oppressed.