Psalms 14 And 53: When In Rome (Part 2)

Last time in Psalms 14 and 53, we looked at the psalmist David in his struggle with the workers of evil and with corrupt and perverse people everywhere in his midst. The Lord of great fortune was with him and with the righteous people of God. No abominable siege would be victorious but would inevitably be scattered into the wind. David rested on the Lord’s laurels; he knew he was on the side of the righteous.

Surely all of Israel would have believed themselves to be on the side of the righteous. They belonged to the Lord as children of Abraham and students of Moses. “We are on the right side of history!” Perhaps you have grown up in the church or consider yourself in the right. “Surely, I am on the side of the righteous,” you might say. Though it is true that someone can really and truly be on the side of the righteous (thanks to Christ), this does not come automatically.¹ Your place of birth or your connection to a people or church does not confer this. Remember David’s own words: “In sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51:5). So the question behind this predicament is: If born in sin (i.e., unrighteous), how does one become righteous such that one can cry out to the Lord as David did in Psalms 14 and 53?

None, I Say, None Does Righteously Good

The apostle Paul knew the Scriptures. He was a top Hebraist and a Pharisee’s Pharisee (Phil 3:5). He was fully righteous under the law, upmost in zeal (Phil 3:6). But he ran into true righteousness on the Damascus road when he encountered Jesus. This completely changed Paul, and he was awakened to his sin and misplaced trust.

Paul wrote about this righteousness in his letter to Roman believers. In the opening, Paul declares that he is unashamed of the gospel of God which alone has the power to save, revealing the righteousness of God to Jew and Gentile alike (Rom 1:16–17). Then abruptly, pausing his gospel summary, Paul goes into the problem.² From this point up through much of chapter 3, Paul describes the human ailment of sin and rebellion against their Creator, and the Creator’s just wrath and judgment. Both Gentile and Jew are condemned, falling far short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23).³ Only the Righteous One has the right to deem a people righteous, which is what occurs through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:22). “Every human is in a state of unbelief and sin [and] therefore cannot think, will, or do any saving good including faith.”⁴ The triune God must do this work if any are to be redeemed, since all fall short, no one does good, and none are righteous.

Romans 3:10–12

Paul’s summary argument in verses 10–18 of chapter 3 uses Scripture to demonstrate that all—both Jew and Gentile—are under sin (Rom 3:9; Westminster Larger Catechism [WLC] 24; Westminster Shorter Catechism [WSC] 14). While considering the overarching context of Romans 1:18–3:9, our focus will be on verses 3:10–12, which have Psalms 14 and 53 in view. Paul says, “It is written”:

¹⁰ None is righteous, no one;

¹¹ none has understanding;

none is a God-seeker.

¹² All have turned away; together, they are depraved;

none is a doer of good,

none is, [not] even one. (translation mine)

By his use of this psalm, Paul seeks to demonstrate the plight of all humanity from the Scriptures.⁵ The words of David in the psalm reveal this, Paul says, quoting Psalm 14 (among other Old Testament texts) as proof of what he has said in his argument so far (Rom 1:18–3:9).⁶ “God through the psalmist testifies to humanity’s universal guilt.”⁷ David may have in view both the pagans around him and the covenant community, but Paul utilizes this for his own purpose of showing that all are under wrath, condemned due to sin—Jews under the law and Gentiles without (Rom 3:19–20).⁸

David cries out, “None is good!” Paul, utilizing David and building upon the Spirit’s testimony says, “None is righteous!”⁹ The prosecution rests. David is guilty. Israel is guilty. All of the covenant people know that Gentiles are guilty, but the gavel drops for them as well.¹⁰ People within the covenant can easily forget their gracious standing in that covenant. They are the righteous because their covenant-keeping God has declared it so and keeps them so.

Thus, it is not only the Gentiles who are in danger. Paul declares that Jews also do not seek after God or do good with understanding but are altogether depraved. Both groups, making up all of humanity, are on equal footing before the Lord.¹¹ In fact, Jews have received more benefit as the covenant people of God, but without the claim of bragging rights. True covenant people humbly realize this—there is no room for boasting (Rom 3:27). David understood this:
“Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” (Ps 143:2).¹²

Toward a Theological Reading of Scripture

David knew even as one of God’s “righteous” that no one alive is righteous before the Lord. Paul knows this and has realized this truth when he takes all of redemptive history into account in Romans 1:18–3:20. By this, he renders the catchphrase of Stuart Smalley powerless: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” Recall from part 1 what the culture around us usually cries out? “I am a good person.” These common tropes are wishful thinking. Instead, a saying like this is more accurate: “Humanity will never educate, discover, or invent its way out of its bondage to sin.”¹³ It is impossible. We all are slaves to sin, Jew and Gentile alike.

It is not enough to say that David was looking outward to those outside of the covenant community, that those out there are the wicked.¹⁴ “No,” says Paul; and David would agree (Ps 143:2). All are under sin and are therefore unrighteous without the possibility of making themselves righteous; unrighteousness equals condemning judgment. All, therefore, are in need of a righteousness they cannot muster on their own in order to stand before their Creator on his day of judging. The biblical-theological testimony is that there is only one way: “God’s righteousness is available only through faith in Christ—but it is available to anyone who has faith in Christ.”¹⁵ Not only is this the only way to withstand judgment, but this also carries with it the ultimate benefit of everlasting blessing in this world and in the world to come.¹⁶ The saying is trustworthy, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15).

Who is Your Life?

In the final analysis, every human being since the fall of Adam and Eve are in sin and thus are worthy of the just condemning punishment of God their Creator (HC 8, 10). From David’s viewpoint in Psalms 14 and 53, the raging heathen nations stand condemned (Ps 2:1–2, 12; e.g., Ps 59:5, 12–13). David knows this to be true for everyone unless the Lord lift them up (e.g., Ps 7:6–9; Ps 143:2; cf. Ps 130:3). Those who plot and rage will only know God as Creator and Judge, and Paul says that is all, for none do righteous good (Rom 3:10–12). Due to sin, all of our faculties are altogether corrupt—our mind, will, and affections (WLC 25).¹⁷

There is a way to know the Lord in a much greater blessed and life-giving way—through the Way, the Truth, and the Life (HC 12–18). The gospel is God’s display to all. Every sinner must heed the call. The people of God do. They know their triune Lord as Creator and Judge, but through Christ Jesus, the also know him as Redeemer and Savior, the great Consummator of the ages and their everlasting life. The whole biblical paradigm is summed up well by Cornelius Van Til:

Man is and always will be a creature. The fall did not draw him toward non-being. Through the fall, man became a sinner. He hates his Maker. As such he is guilty and polluted. As such he is under the condemnation of his Creator and Judge. Through the atoning death of Christ, those who believe and therefore put their trust in Christ by the Spirit are, in principle, free from guilt and pollution and therefore free for the service of their Redeemer.¹⁸

Yes, free indeed and with abundant, never-ending life (John 8:36; 10:10). This is the work of God for helpless sinners: “The gates of hell cannot frustrate the work that Christ has done for them and the work that the Holy Spirit, in applying the work of Christ to them, has done and is doing within them.”¹⁹ As Christ himself said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). A sinner must accept this: Christ has accomplished your salvation. “Do you believe this?” Jesus asks (John 11:26). Each and every human sinner, that is, every human being, must renounce their own will and autonomy and cling to Christ by faith: “I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ” (HC 1). David, inspired by the Spirit says, with Paul’s words echoing through, “Kiss the Son” and “take refuge in him”––receive “peace with God” (Ps 2:12; Rom 5:1; cf. Ps 18:2; 4:8).

Notes

J. V. Fesko, Romans (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2018), 78.
Douglas Moo sums up Paul’s “interruption” of this section (Romans 1:18–3:20) between the righteousness of God and gospel discussion nicely: “We must consider 1:18–3:20 as a preparation for, rather than as part of, Paul’s exposition of the gospel of God’s righteousness.” In a sense, the bad news is preached before the good. Douglas Moo, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1996), 92.
“Paul caps his argument by demonstrating the universal sinfulness of all humanity, Jew and Gentile.” Fesko, Romans, 72.
Daniel Hyde, Grace Worth Fighting For: Recapturing the Vision of God’s Grace in the Canons of Dort (Lincoln, NB: The Davenant Press, 2019), 216.
“A string of loosely related OT quotations confirms the universality and describes the variety of the sin that so characterizes all humanity (vv. [3:]10–18). Finally, in vv. 19–20, Paul draws out the implications of this universal bondage to sin: all stand condemned before the divine bar of judgment and are unable to escape that condemnation by anything they do. This is the way prepared for the proclamation of God’s righteousness in Christ (vv. 21–26).” Moo, Romans, 198. Likewise, Fesko says, “To support his point Paul draws on the Old Testament, particularly the book of Psalms, to prove humanity’s universal guilt.” Fesko, Romans, 73.
“Paul is referring to the comprehensive indictment of humanity in 1:18–2:29, as first the Greek or the Gentile (1:19b–32) and then the Jew (2:1–29) were brought before the divine bar and found wanting.” Moo, Romans, 201.
Fesko, Romans, 73.
“Paul’s actual intention is probably more subtle: by citing texts that denounce the unrighteous and applying them, implicitly, to all people, including all Jews, he underscores the argument of 2:1–3:8 that, in fact, not even faithful Jews can claim to be ‘righteous.’” Moo, Romans, 202–3. Whereas Moo argues that Paul is “implicitly” stating the argument, Fesko argues that Paul’s argument is “explicitly clear” for all. Fesko, Romans, 72.
Paul changes the terms of the argument, from the unbelieving pagan in David’s Israel to every Jew and Gentile, all human beings under the sun. Moo, Romans, 203.
Douglas Moo ably reminds us, “We must remember that Paul’s chief purpose throughout Romans 1:18–3:20 is not to demonstrate that Gentiles are guilty and in need of God’s righteousness—for this could be assumed—but that Jews bear the same burden and have the same need.” Moo, Romans, 206.
“Given this twofold testimony from the books of nature and Scripture, Paul confidently concludes that everyone is under God’s law, and given humanity’s sinful condition, all people stand accountable before the divine bar.” Fesko, Romans, 75.
For more on the allusion to this psalm and Paul’s use in Romans 3:20, see, Moo, Romans, 206–10; Fesko, Romans, 75–6. Allan Harman cites Paul’s use of the Psalms as quite accurate: “The apostle Paul presents the whole world as guilty and condemned by God.”
Fesko, Romans, 78.
See my part one and the comment from James Mays commentary on Psalm 14.
Italics in original. Moo, Romans, 226.
Moo, Romans, 86–7.
W. Robert Godfrey, Saving the Reformation: The Pastoral Theology of the Canons of Dort (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust, 2019), 128.
Cornelius Van Til, “The Significance of Dort for Today,” Crisis in the Reformed Churches: Essays in Commemoration of the Great Synod of Dort, 1618–1619, Peter De Jong ed. (Grandville, MI: Reformed Fellowship, 2008), 216–7.
Van Til, “The Significance of Dort for Today,” 217.

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Post authored by:

Charles Vaughn
Charles lives in San Diego county with his wife and four covenant children. He has a B.A. in Biblical & Theological Studies from Regent University and an M.A. in both Biblical and Theological Studies from Westminster Seminary California. Charles works as a Junior High history teacher at a Christian school in Escondido, CA.
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