Summary of my sermon, based on Psalm 14. Preached at Greenhills Christian Fellowship Toronto on November 12, 2023.
Last week, our series on the Old Testament, He is Greater, concluded on a somber note. Despite the Israelites’ return from 70 years of Babylonian exile, marked by the rebuilding of Jerusalem and their Temple, Malachi highlighted the Lord’s disputes with them. Their halfhearted worship in the rebuilt temple mirrored the absence of God’s Glory within it.
Haggai 2:3 questions the temple’s diminished glory, setting the stage for a sober end to the Old Testament, transitioning into the 400-year “Intertestamental Period,” marked by God’s silence in biblical revelations. In this period, often bridged by the Apocrypha in some religious texts, there’s a theological gap preceding the Gospels’ narrative.
However, the silence doesn’t imply a void in the historical timeline. Empires, from Assyrians to Seleucids, successively held sway over Israel, shaping the spiritual and political landscape. Amidst this silence, Psalm 14 vividly describes a worldview resonating through the ages.
Psalm 14:1–2 portrays the concept of a ‘fool,’ not as an individual denying God’s existence—a concept almost foreign in biblical times—but as someone acting as if God doesn’t matter. This resonates even today, debunking the assumption that atheism existed in ancient times. There weren’t atheists but many gods and various beliefs.
The fool’s context isn’t intellectual stupidity; rather, it’s about rejecting God’s role in life. This distinction aligns with biblical wisdom—where true knowledge stems from the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7). Richard Dawkins and his New Atheist contemporaries, while perceived as intelligent, miss out on true knowledge by denying God.
Psalm 14:3–4, reiterated by Paul in Romans 3:9–11, declares the universality of human shortcomings. The psalm encapsulates Paul’s early chapters in Romans, outlining humanity’s inclination to act as if God doesn’t exist. However, even in their denial, people intrinsically recognize God’s presence (Romans 1:20).
The rejection of acknowledging God leads to darkened hearts and a pursuit of counterfeit gods—anything taking the central place in life, steering emotions, finances, and actions. This counterfeit pursuit is not confined to the primitive but extends to modern times, where individuals turn to idols that promise fulfillment but fall short.
In a world surrounded by counterfeit gods, Jesus stands as the true beacon. His words in John 12:32–33 and Matthew 11:28–30 extend an invitation—to find rest and fulfillment in Him. Despite humanity’s attempts to deny God or replace Him with idols, Jesus draws us back to Himself, offering genuine fulfillment and rest.
The ancient silence may have echoed for 400 years, but it wasn’t devoid of God’s presence or implications for human behavior. Today, amidst a cacophony of beliefs and pursuits, the call to find genuine solace and meaning remains—within Jesus, the only true source of fulfillment.
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