14:1-3 The true atheist is either foolish or wicked—foolish because he ignores the evidence that God exists or wicked because he refuses to live by God’s truths. We become atheists in practice when we rely more on ourselves than on God. The fools mentioned here are aggressively perverse in their actions. To speak in direct defiance of God is utterly foolish according to the Bible.
14:3 No one but God is perfect; all of us stand guilty before him (see Romans 3:23) and need his forgiveness. No matter how well we perform or how much we achieve compared to others, none of us can boast of his or her goodness when compared to God’s standard. God not only expects us to obey his laws, but he wants us to love him with all our heart. No one except Jesus Christ has done that perfectly. Because we all fall short, we must turn to Christ to save us (Romans 10:9-11). Have you asked him to save you?
14:3, 4 David applies these observations to his enemies when he says the evildoers “eat up my people as they eat bread” (14:4); “they are all gone aside . . . there is none that doeth good” (14:3). By contrast, David said, “Thou hast proved mine heart; . . . thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing” (17:3).
There is a clear distinction between those who worship God and those who refuse to worship him. David worshiped God, and under his leadership Israel obeyed God and prospered. Several hundred years later, however, Israel forgot God, and it became difficult to distinguish between God’s followers and those who worshiped idols. When Isaiah called Israel to repentance, he, like David, spoke of people who had gone astray (Isaiah 53:6). But Isaiah was talking about the Israelites themselves. Paul quoted Psalm 14 in Romans 3:10-12. He made the image of straying sheep even more general, referring to all people. The whole human race—Jew and Gentile alike—has turned away from God.
14:5 If God is “in the generation of the righteous,” then those who attack God’s followers may be attacking God. To attack God is utterly futile (see 2:4, 5, 10-12). Thus, while we may feel we are losing the battle, we can be absolutely sure that our ultimate victory is in God.