The Foolish One The personal lamentation of David’s could have been written when Absalom rebelled against him. Psalm 53 is only a repetition of this psalm, but there is some difference. in this psalm the name Jehovah is used four times, whereas in psalm 53 it wan mentioned only once as Alohim. This psalm, we well as its identical psalm 53, has focused on the foolish man. The ‘foolish one’ has been mentioned in the book of Psalms five times. Here as well as in psalm 53 he says (Ps. 14: 1; 53: 1) “There is no God”. The foolish scorns the righteous and he makes fun of him (Ps. 39: 8). What is even more evil, it that he scorns God’s name (Ps. 74: 18, 22) 1. The psalmist imagines the world as being divided into two teams of people. The foolish (Ps. 14: 1-3) and the righteous people, or God’s afflicted people. the psalmist complains of the wicked people’s persecution of the righteous ones, whereas God is watching them from the heavens. David expresses his great hope in God, who will be coming from His sepulcher to punish the wicked and to strengthen the believers2. The foolish does not as for God, but the wise one asks for Him. Basic Words (the key to the psalm) 1. The Hebrew synonym for the word ‘foolish’ in the psalm is ‘Napaal’,. Some scholars think it is derived from a verb that means ‘to fade’ or ‘to dry up’ as the falling autumn leaves. Linked to this meaning, is the idea of behavior debasement, and lack of principles with the foolish man. In 1Samuel 25, we have a true image of Napaal’s ignorance, Abigail’s husband. This word has formerly been liked to the abhorred behavioral attitude, and then later on it referred to the desacrement of what is holy. At the beginning, the stupid behavior touched very harmfully the entire group, and was linked to sexual corruption (Gen. 34: 7; Dent. 22: 21; Judges 19: 23; 1Sam 13: 11). Recently, the word Napaal was used when there was a threat against the people, as in (Prov. 30: 21-23). When concerning the prophets, it referred to the betrayal of the nation at large to the covenant with God, as well as their betrayal to each other (Is. 9: 15-17; Jer. 17: 11; Neh. 3: 6) during the long history of Israel. Ignorance, therefore, which is (Napaal) has been linked to the family looseness, the society and the local promises. Ignorance at first, had disastrous impact on the family in the world. This impact was transferred to the religious society that was more pure3. 2. The Hebrew word ‘esah’ means ‘advice’, wehre the decisive decisions were taken. The idea moved from the environmental family society to the political arena, then to the religious assemblies to express God’s judgments and decisions. Despite this, it was usually affected by the political aspect and the social justice (Is. 28: 29). The foolishness joined together with the good counsel in this psalm confirms God’s dominance and authority over the family ties, politics and the state affairs4. This means that even though man has behaved foolishly, and has resisted God’s counsel, 1 A new Catholic Comm., Nelson, 1969, p. 447. 2 The Collegeville Bivle Comm., 758. 3 Stuhl,ueller, p. 109. 4 Ibid. https://coptic-treasures.com/ 24 yet God in His goodness uses even the weakness of man and his wickedness to save His children. out of evil, He has brought out goodness, and He has changed the hardships to the joy of salvation for His children, and constant rejoicing and praise giving. The General Frame 1. The corruption of the wicked ones 1-3 2. The enmity of the wicked ones to those who are righteous 4-6 3. The Savoir, the Liberator and the Rejoicing One 7 1. The Corruption of the Wicked Ones (Ps. 14: 1) “The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, There is none who does good”. Verses 1-3 comprise a strong lamentation about the corruption of the wicked who say three is no God. These words do not mean an atheist creed, but a practical atheism, for, to do sin insistently is foolishness and practical atheism. During their Ignorance a- The wicked ones cannot convince themselves there is a God, but they wish there is no God. With this imagination that it s possible there is no God, they rejoice. They are atheists by means of their desire. b- The wicked ones ignore God in their behavior, and so they live as if there is no God and they give Him no honor whatsoever in any of their projects. in their life and heart they have the attitude as if God was non-existent, even though there is no greater foolishness than that of forgetting God in the daily life. c- They do not ask for the divine help; they are theists because their foolish hearts have become darkened, and their conscience has deviated. Their minds and thoughts have deserted the life with God, by their denial of His care and guidance to thm. They show strong enthusiasm for their own thoughts, their strength, their authority, and even their willingness to de for their won personal opinion and beliefs. d- The wicked ones ignore their corrupt nature. e- In their ignorance, the wicked ones harm God through His children. they eat them greedily just as they eat bread, and they disregard the counsel of the poor ones. The heart, or the inner man, is the one that discovers man, whether he is foolish or wise a saint or wicked one. Man’s heart is the center of all goodness or vice. In it you have Christ’s kingdom or the anti-Christ’s kingdom established. Collective Corruption God’s assessment for mankind is that no man is righteous, for there is no one who asks for God. St. Paul adopted these words in (Prov. 3: 10-12). “There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one”. St. Paul wished to prove that the Jews and the Gentiles were on equal footing, all under the yoke of sin. It is not only the atheists who are sinners, but all humanity as well. The entire world is guilty before God. This leads us to understanding the issue in a general aspect regarding the human natural. Our entire nature that is centralized in the heart needs a renewal. https://coptic-treasures.com/ 25 “The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good”. In such a way the foolish have become defiled in their attitude, their deeds and their deviation. Their sacrifice and their increase are undesirable to the Lord, even their feasts and their celebrations are defiled (Prov. 15: 8; Is. 1: 13). The vicious may be doing good deeds but their inward motives are evil. They do not anything that is counted as good in the Lord’s eyes, and “Love is the fulfillment of the law”, for the vicious ones have no love. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and the evil ones deviate from the faith. Sin destroys and shatters every deed of the evil ones1. They have become corrupted and have done abominable deeds; this means that as they love the world and do not love God, these deeds that corrupt the soul and blind it, this leads the foolish one to say in his heart there is no God. (Rom. 1: 28) “28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting”. St. Augustine Because they are stupid in their thinking, their deeds are manifested to be evil; for the lord says (Matt. 12: 34) “How can you, being evil, speak good things?” they were evil because they were thinking of what is evil. How could these make righteous deeds whereas their minds are established on deceit and wiles2? St. Athanasius the Apostolic Ho could be he wise, if he does not look upon his maker3? St. Ambrosios When he says, “The Lord looks from the heavens” he describes his full knowledge of everything in a metaphorical way, taken from mankind4. St. John Chrysostom The evil ones do not understand, neither do they ask for God. If their minds had not been darkened, they would have witnessed the beauty of the Divine, and would have loved Him. When humans love the godliness, then they know something and even a lot about its beauty; for we cannot witness beauty unless we love it. We can never give a vital and joyful concern about any subject unless we have the readiness to embrace this subject. The phrase ‘any who understand’ in this passage was mentioned in many other places in the Holy Book, having the meaning of ‘wise, reasonable, experienced, skillful’ (Dan. 12: 10; Amos 5: 13; Jer. 1: 9; Dan. 1: 4). It is also signifies ‘to teach, to behave wisely’ (2Cor. 30: 22; 1Sam. 18: 14, 15). The meaning also implied ‘to consider, to refresh, to be cultured, to obtain good success, to deal intelligently’ (Job 34: 27; Jer. 10: 21; 20: 11; 23: 5; Neh. 9: 20; Prov. 21: 11; Josh. 1: 8; Is. 52: 13). The wicked are not adorned with wisdom or experience or smartness. They do not behave sensibly, and neither do they afford good and truthful edification. They have not been taught good or correct education, and they are not successful in their life, neither do they prosper and 1 Plumer, p. 192. 2 Paschal letters, 19:6. 3 Duties of the Clergy 1: 24: 117. 4 In 2 Cor., hom. 3: 6. https://coptic-treasures.com/ 26 thrive. They are all selly, and not blessed with one element of any wisdom in any of their attitude, regarding their commitment and their loyalty. As for the word ‘to ask’ or to investigate, this implies to ‘inquire’ (Deut. 13: 14) or ‘to search’ (Jer. 29: 13), or ‘to take care of’ (Job 3: 4) or ‘to be careful about’ (Deut. 11: 12; Is. 142: 4). The evil ones do not care about God and do not lift up their faces to Him. they do not search for God or ask for Him. the verb equivalent to it is ‘to struggle hard’ for the real wisdom is founded on asking for God and finding Him1. “They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does well, No, not one” (Ps. 14: 3). It is like a unity or an agreement among themselves; because they have all gone astray and became corrupted. All of them have become defiled and regressed! The Need for Renewing our corrupt Nature Adam and Eve have sinned, and are responsible for their personal mistake. But they have both lost the goodness of nature; therefore we have inherited from them its corruption. We find this issue even in the little children, because they get fretful and jealous without being taught this. It was necessary for an able Savior to re-make the creation of our nature, or to renew it. God has created man, and He wished him to remain incorruptible. But mankind were scornful and rejected to meditate on God. They invented and plotted evil for themselves. Thus they obtained the death sentence with which they were warned. Since that time, they no more continued to be in the way they were created. Rather, they have become corrupted according to their plotting. When the ‘Word’ saw that man’s corruption cannot be wiped by any other way than by death as an essential condition, which is why he became incarnate in the flesh, so as to accept death. By the unity of this body with the Word who is above everyone, He would be worthy to die on behalf of everyone. And because the Word has come and dwelt in Him He remains incorruptible. Thus corruption is cast out of everyone, by means of the grace of the Resurrection. It was essential that no one else become incarnate except God the Word Himself (Heb. 2: 10) “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings”. St. Athanasius the Apostolic 2. He Enmity of the Wicked Against the Righteous (Ps. 14: 4-6). “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes”. The above excerpt is not mentioned in the Hebrew version, but in the seventies translation, and some other translations derived from it such as the Coptic version. This applies to what was mentioned in Rom. 3: 13-19. The wicked one is not only ignorant of any wisdom, and his denial of God’s existence in his practical life, and his not asking for God’s help and his counsel, and the 1 Plumer, p. 192, 193. https://coptic-treasures.com/ 27 corruption of his deeds, but he also feels a lot of hatred towards his brother. His pleasure is to have his mouth a device for the adversary, full of deceit. The adversary changed it to the serpent’s mouth that is full of poison and is a tomb for killing the innocent ones and burring them. He also has great love for shedding blood, for hatred and spite. They work with no fear of God and ignore His law. The enmity of the ignorant against God’s believes is addressed to God Himself. This is why it is considered practical atheism. They eat up the church of God by provoking the saints, by torturing them and murdering them for no other reason than being God’s men (Ps. 14: 4, 5). “Who eat up my people as they eat bread, And do not call on the Lord? There they are in great fear”. They feared losing the earthly kingdom whereas there is no need for any fear. Now they are losing the heavenly kingdom which they should have feat lest they lose it. St. Augustine This happened at the time Jesus Christ, when all plotted against Him. They believed that by His presence they would lose their power, their honor and their money, Pilate asked Him if He were the King. As for Jesus the Lord of glory who has become for our sake a poor One, He declared that His kingdom was not in this world. What occurred to Jesus Christ constantly happens with the poor church that does not ask for any worldly glory, and so the world believes it is taking away its glories. At any rate, the plots of the stupid ones against their poor brethren angers God Himself, and the righteous ones who are unjustly treated these have no refuge except God Himself. The enemies attempt to eat up God’s children and devour them, those who are called ‘poor ones’. But God is glorified in their midst throughout the difficult times, and He declares His presence and His dwelling in their midst because (Ps. 14: 5) “For God is with the generation of the righteous”. Due to the annoyance of the wicked ones God’s children are called ‘poor ones’. But the Savior Himself, who is so rich, He has become poor, so that with His poverty, that is, with His righteousness He makes them rich. The wicked ones may laugh at the poor ones, but this is only for a little while, for God Himself becomes refuge for the poor! The Savior, the Liberator and the Rejoicing One (Ps. 14: 7) After the psalmist has rebuked the wicked ones, he concludes the psalm with a look that full of hope for God’s help and His Salvation. For God is the Savior of His church ‘the spiritual Zion’. God grants her liberty from Satan’s imprisonment. With God’s grace He shows her the way that exalts her from darkness to light. In future, He would come to her and transforms her tears to joy and praise. “Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad” (Ps. 14: 7). The freedom from bondage means to be free from any evil and woe, or any great hardship. We have been in Satan’s bondage until the Son came and set us free by His cross, and He granted us joy and salvation. The Jews kept referring to this last verse as a prophecy of the Messiah’s time, as a Redeemer to them. This salvation has been fulfilled by means of the church, the new Zion. The entire picture has been changed, from weakness to outcries of joy as a declaration of victory over the enemy. But as for the Jews, they have clung to the fatal https://coptic-treasures.com/ 28 literacy, and they still keep asking for the materialistic salvation, and for a temporal kingdom of a Zionist concept, far away from the true written concept. prayer Oh true Wisdom, dwell in my depths, and take away the spirit of ignorance from me! You have impoverished Yourself, so I be rich. Grant me to accept all suffering with You, so I become rich with Your grace! Oh Lord, change my tears and the sighs of my heart to joyful praises and songs.
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