Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 3-121 Sunday 29 Jun 2003

Psalms on Sundays Reading: Psalm 14 - ACT AS IF GOD EXISTS

When did someone last declare their beliefs to you, honestly and clearly? Talk to God about the experience, good or bad.

In our own day agnosticism, if not assured atheism, seems to be the default position when it comes to declarations of belief. A couple of centuries ago it would have been scandalous, eccentric or hardly thinkable.

We think of biblical times as great ages of faith compared to our own. Maybe not. Verse 2 has God searching to find someone who understands, or who at least is seeking God. What would be the test? Back in the 17th century they identified 'speculative atheists' those who didn't think a supreme being created the world. Not many admitted it then; a lot more are around now, but even so people are reluctant to dismiss God so completely. On the other side were the 'practical atheists' those who acted as if God did not exist. Those are the real targets of this psalm.

In Christian thinking, what you desire and what you do shade into one another and so we must keep our thoughts in check (eg Matt 5:28). Yet this is not a condemnation of speculative thinking, so much as of the rather darker assumptions that go on in the heart, as in verse 1, which is the classic path to corruption - 'No one will know'.

The psalmist's response to this expose is not to gloat in the expectation of the wicked finally getting impaled on the devil's toasting fork. No, his response is two-fold. First, it is to restate his belief in God, as someone who is present and someone who acts (vs 5,6). A working creed is not just a compendium of correct formulations; it is an active witness to the reality of God. And then, secondly, it is to pray for salvation and restoration (v 7).

'Pray as if everything depended on it; work as if everything depended on your effort.' What's wrong with that advice?

- Roger Pooley

Copyright Scripture Union, 2003, Encounter with God

To order your quarterly edition of 'Encounter with God' or to enquire about other SU publications, contact the office nearest your region:

Australia - or http://www.su.org.au East Asia - Pacific - USA - or http://www.scriptureunion.org Canada - or http://www.scriptureunion.org.ca UK - or http://www.scriptureunion.org.uk International Office - http://www.su-international.org or