Monday Reflection – November 02, 2020 No Good

Monday Reflection – November 02, 2020
No Good

They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. Psalm 14:3

To better appreciate today’s Watchword, let’s hear the two preceding verses: “Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.”

David outrightly rejects those who deny the existence of God and declare that they are fools, because they reject God. David says this because of the plain evidence that there is a God: evidence in both creation and human conscience. The fact that some people insist on denying the existence of God does not erase God from the universe; it instead speaks to their own standing as fools. The God-denying person is a fool because he/she denies what is plainly evident, especially because the universe reveals the creator God, the designer God, the relational God, and the governing God of morality. What is worse is when such a person denies God in his/her heart.

David then considers the result of denying God. It leads people into corruption and abominable works. There is a marked difference in moral behaviour between those who take God seriously and those who do not. More than that, as David considers the sin of the God-denier, he looks out over the landscape of humanity and concluded that there is no one who does good. It is not 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. And while we may wish to forget about God, God never forgets about us. He is always observing, looking down from heaven upon the children of men. 

Continuing in this same vein, David says in today’s Watchword, “They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.” When God looks, he finds that we have turned away from him, grown sour, and have become perverse and corrupt. David observes and remembers that humans are truly, profoundly, deeply fallen. David’s use of “there is no one who does good” suddenly broadens the scope beyond the atheist to include us. We may not be atheists, but we all have gone astray, and are perverse. 

What a picture of our condition as humans! Charles Spurgeon says, “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.” Yet, today’s New Testament lesson of Romans 3:24 offers hope – We are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 

May we graciously receive God’s gifts of redemption, salvation and justification and live each day bearing the image of Christ. 

Jermaine Gibson