Read & explore together
The Fool Says There Is No God
Psalm 53 is a song that speaks plainly about denying God, the spread of evil, and the hope that God will save his people. Its strong poetry moves from corruption and fear to a final prayer for rejoicing.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
This passage stays within poetic language. It begins with the fool’s inner claim that there is no God, describes God looking down to find any who understand and seek him, speaks of people who harm God’s people, and ends by longing for Israel’s salvation from Zion.
Psalms 53:1–6Main takeaway
Psalm 53 says that rejecting God is bound up with corruption, while hope for God’s people rests in God’s saving action.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01The fool’s claimThe poem starts inside the heart: “There is no God.” The speaker calls this person a fool.
Explanation
The poem starts inside the heart: “There is no God.” The speaker calls this person a fool. The verse then links that claim with corruption and “abominable iniquity”. The point in the verse is not abstract debate, but the moral condition that appears with this denial.
02God searches and seesGod is pictured as looking down from heaven on humanity. He is looking for any who understand and seek after God.
Explanation
God is pictured as looking down from heaven on humanity. He is looking for any who understand and seek after God. The next verse answers that search bleakly: all have turned back together, become filthy, and none does good.
03Evil against God’s peopleThe “workers of iniquity” are asked if they have no knowledge. They consume God’s people “as they eat bread” and do not call on God.
Explanation
The “workers of iniquity” are asked if they have no knowledge. They consume God’s people “as they eat bread” and do not call on God. The image shows how normal and easy their wrongdoing seems to them, even while they ignore God.
04Fear and hopeThe poem says these enemies were in great fear, and that God scattered the bones of one encamped against his people, bringing shame because God rejected them.
Explanation
The poem says these enemies were in great fear, and that God scattered the bones of one encamped against his people, bringing shame because God rejected them. Then the psalm turns to hope: a longing for Israel’s salvation from Zion and for Jacob and Israel to rejoice when God restores his people.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does the fool say, and what is linked with that claim?
Read the two halves of the verse together: the inner statement and the corruption that follows it.
02What was God looking for when he looked down from heaven?
Name the two qualities given in the verse.
03How does the psalm move from judgement to hope at the end?
Compare the fear, shame, and rejection with the prayer for salvation, rejoicing, and gladness.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Psalms 53:1–6
1The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good.
2God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God.
3Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
5There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
6Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.