Psalm 14 (LXX 13) is not mainly about intellectual atheism. It is about practical atheism, the heart saying “There is no God” while the life becomes corrupt, violent, and careless toward the poor. The Septuagint text contains the expanded language that St Paul uses in Romans 3 to show that sin is universal and that no one is healed by self-justification. Orthodox reading hears both the sickness of fallen humanity and the hope of Christ, the salvation of Israel who comes from Zion and restores joy to His people.
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 14 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | LXX Psalm 13. The Septuagint combines MT/NKJV Psalms 9 and 10 as LXX Psalm 9, accounting for the chapter-number difference here. |
| Accepted author | David by superscription: “For the end, a Psalm of David.” |
| Period in author’s life | No precise life event is given. The Psalm fits Davidic wisdom and lament over corruption, violence, and oppression, but no source-backed episode should be assigned. |
| Christ prophecy status | Directly New Testament-cited through Romans 3, where St Paul uses the Psalm’s language to diagnose universal sin. It is also Christological through the final hope for salvation from Zion. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | A dated Matins witness for August 27, 2023, Third Sunday of Mesra, contains the opening of this Psalm with Luke 24:1-12. Its selection and the conflicting annual-cycle assignment are qualified below. |
| Numbering issue | NKJV Psalm 14 corresponds to LXX/Coptic Psalm 13. The embedded text follows Brenton’s LXX Psalm 13, including its longer verse 3. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
Psalm 14 (LXX 13) stands in the first book of the Psalter as a severe wisdom-lament. It is wisdom because it names the fool. It is lament because corruption is not abstract. The workers of iniquity devour God’s people as if eating bread.
The Septuagint form of this Psalm is especially important because Romans 3 gathers its language into the apostolic diagnosis of sin. The open sepulchre throat, deceitful tongue, poison of asps, cursing, bitterness, bloodshed, misery, and lack of peace all become part of St Paul’s argument that both Jew and Gentile need the righteousness of God revealed in Christ.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
Zion is the major place-name. In the Old Testament, Zion is Jerusalem as the place of God’s dwelling and royal rule. In Christian reading, Zion opens toward the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the place from which salvation comes in Christ.
The Characters 👥
David. The accepted Psalmist. He speaks as king, worshipper, and prophetic witness against corruption.
The fool. Not merely someone with weak intellect, but the person whose heart lives as if God does not see or judge.
The workers of iniquity. Those who devour God’s people and do not call upon the Lord.
The poor. The vulnerable whose counsel is shamed, yet whose hope is the Lord.
The righteous generation. Those among whom God is present, even when corruption appears widespread.
Christ. The only truly righteous Man, the salvation from Zion, and the One in whom Israel and the nations are restored.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 14 (Brenton/LXX 13), the fool in the heart
13:1 For the end, a Psalm of David. The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They have corrupted themselves, and become abominable in their devices; there is none that does goodness, there is not even so much as one.
The fool speaks first in the heart. The Psalm is not describing a philosophical debate in a classroom. It describes a hidden interior posture that then becomes visible in corruption. The heart says, “There is no God,” and the life begins to act without reverence, accountability, repentance, or mercy.
This matters spiritually. A person may confess God with the mouth but still live as if He is absent. Practical atheism can hide inside religious life when prayer is formal, repentance is postponed, and the poor are ignored.
The final line is severe: there is none that does goodness, not even one. The Church does not read this as despair, but as diagnosis. The wound must be named before it can be healed. Christ alone stands as the truly good and righteous Man, and He enters the world of fools to heal it from within. He shares our humanity without sharing our sin.
St Athanasius gives this Psalm a practical use in prayer: when others speak against God’s providence, he directs the hearer not to join them but to intercede with God using this Psalm. His ancient Alexandrian counsel turns denunciation away from contempt and toward prayer for others.1
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “The fool speaks first in the heart.” “The wound must be named before it can be healed.”
- Emphasize: This is practical atheism, not only intellectual unbelief.
- Avoid: Using the Psalm to mock nonbelievers while ignoring corruption in religious hearts.
Psalm 14:2-3 (Brenton/LXX 13:2-3), the Lord looks down and finds universal sickness
13:2 The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there were any that understood, or sought after God. 13:3 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become good for nothing, there is none that does good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used 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 Lord looks from heaven. This is not curiosity. It is judgment, grief, and mercy. He sees humanity as it is.
The Septuagint expansion is striking. Sin is described through the body: throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, eyes. The whole person is disordered. Speech is death-filled. Movement runs toward bloodshed. Vision lacks the fear of God. St Paul draws on this language in Romans 3 because it is not only David’s complaint about enemies. It is the human condition apart from grace. The longer anatomy passage in Brenton’s verse 3 is not present in MT/NKJV Psalm 14:3; the shared verse number does not make the two texts identical in extent.
The Orthodox reading refuses two errors. It does not say humanity is healthy enough to save itself. It also does not say humanity is hated by God. The Physician looks down because the sickness is real and because the healing must come from Him.
This moral diagnosis does not mean that every person has committed every violent act named here. Nor does it make illness, trauma, or anxiety evidence of personal guilt. The Psalm exposes our need for grace, not a reason to accuse the wounded.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “The whole person is disordered.” “The Physician looks down because the sickness is real.”
- Emphasize: Romans 3 uses this Psalm to humble everyone, not to create a superior group.
- Avoid: Turning universal sin into hopelessness. The diagnosis prepares for salvation.
Psalm 14:4-6 (Brenton/LXX 13:4-6), devouring the poor and fearing where there is no fear
13:4 Will not all the workers of iniquity know, who eat up my people as they would eat bread? they have not called upon the Lord. 13:5 There were they alarmed with fear, where there was no fear; for God is in the righteous generation. 13:6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his hope.
The corruption of the fool is not private. It becomes oppression. The workers of iniquity eat God’s people as bread. The image is brutal because exploitation can become casual. What destroys the poor may feel ordinary to those who profit from it.
“Will not all the workers of iniquity know” is a question of judgment. Those who treat God’s people as disposable will have to reckon with the God who is among them. Their victims may appear powerless, but they are not abandoned. “For God is in the righteous generation” supplies the reason the predators’ confidence cannot stand. God is present with those they despise, and their violence is accountable to Him. This does not promise that the righteous are already free from harm; it denies that their oppressors have the final word.
The workers do not call upon the Lord. Here, their refusal of God belongs to their predatory way of life. It is not the same as the faithful person’s struggle to find words in exhaustion or spiritual dryness. Wordless exhaustion can still be faith.
The ones alarmed with fear are these oppressors, not every anxious person. They fear where there is no fear, yet they have disregarded the God whose presence with the righteous they must face. St Augustine, commenting on this Psalm in the Latin tradition, reads the question as a warning of judgment and connects it with God’s presence among the righteous. He also offers a reading of distorted fear as attachment to passing possessions and power, not a diagnosis of ordinary anxiety.2
Verse 6 is one of the Psalm’s tender lines. The poor have counsel. The poor have hope. The wicked shame that counsel because the Lord is the poor man’s hope. Christ fulfills this by standing with the poor, blessing the poor in spirit, and judging every system that treats vulnerable people as consumable.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “Exploitation can become casual.” “Their victims may appear powerless, but they are not abandoned.”
- Emphasize: Sin wounds real people, especially the poor. God’s presence with the righteous is both their consolation and a warning to their oppressors.
- Avoid: Making poverty only a metaphor. Include the spiritually poor, but do not erase material vulnerability. Do not turn the predators’ fear into an accusation against anxious people.
Psalm 14:7 (Brenton/LXX 13:7), salvation from Zion
13:7 Who will bring the salvation of Israel out of Sion? when the Lord brings back the captivity of his people, let Jacob exult, and Israel be glad.
The Psalm ends with a question that is also a prophecy of hope. Who will bring salvation out of Zion? The answer is the Lord Himself.
In Christian reading, salvation from Zion is fulfilled in Christ. He comes to Jerusalem, suffers outside the gate, rises from the dead, and sends the apostolic preaching from Zion to the ends of the earth. The captivity of God’s people is not only political exile. It is captivity to sin, death, fear, and corruption.
The final note is joy: let Jacob exult, and Israel be glad. The Psalm begins with the fool’s heart and ends with restored worship. This is the whole movement of salvation: the diseased heart is exposed so that joy may be restored.
Lesson Guide
- Key phrases: “The Psalm begins with the fool’s heart and ends with restored worship.” “Salvation from Zion is fulfilled in Christ.”
- Emphasize: Judgment and diagnosis serve healing and joy.
- Avoid: Ending the lesson at corruption. The Psalm ends in salvation.
The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪
CopticChurch.net’s dated readings for August 27, 2023, identified as the Third Sunday of Mesra, place the opening of Psalm 14 (LXX 13) at Matins with Luke 24:1-12. The source prints “Psalm 14:1-3.” Its actual selection corresponds to the opening of Brenton/LXX Psalm 13, without the superscription, and ends at “No, not one.” It does not include the throat, tongue, lips, and feet passage that continues in Brenton’s verse 3.3
In that dated pairing, the exposure of human corruption is heard beside the announcement of Christ’s Resurrection. The Psalm names the captivity from which we cannot free ourselves; the Gospel announces the living Savior. This is a fruitful connection, but the dated witness conflicts with a separate annual-Sunday cycle that assigns the holy-mountain Psalm, Psalm 15 (LXX 14), to the nominal same Matins occasion. It should not be treated as a settled universal or current appointment.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
Psalm 14 (LXX 13) fits icons of the Crucifixion and the Harrowing of Hades. The Crucifixion shows the righteous One surrounded by corrupt speech and violence. The Harrowing of Hades shows salvation from Zion reaching captives who could not free themselves.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Look for practical atheism in yourself first. Where do you behave as if God does not see?
- Let Romans 3 humble every claim to superiority. The Psalm diagnoses all humanity, not only obvious sinners.
- Watch your speech as a sign of the heart. Open sepulchre speech belongs to death, not to Christ. Refuse a deceitful word, and repair harm your words have caused.
- Do not shame the counsel of the poor. Listen for the hope God has placed in those the world dismisses. Give someone materially vulnerable your attention and practical help, not only advice.
- End in Zion, not in despair. The Psalm exposes corruption so the soul can receive salvation.
Teaching Notes
Suggested timing: 50 to 60 minutes.
- 5 minutes: NKJV/LXX numbering and Brenton’s longer verse 3.
- 10 minutes: verse 1, practical atheism.
- 15 minutes: verses 2-3, Romans 3 and universal sin.
- 15 minutes: verses 4-6, oppression of the poor, judgment, and God’s presence with the righteous.
- 10 minutes: verse 7, salvation from Zion.
Where to linger: Verse 3 and the Romans 3 connection; then let the question in verse 4 lead into God’s presence with the righteous.
Where to compress: The dated Matins connection. Its spiritual value does not depend on resolving the conflicting annual-cycle assignment.
Key phrase to say slowly: “The Psalm begins with the fool’s heart and ends with restored worship.”
Pastoral warning: Do not let the language about the fool become contempt. The Psalm is meant to produce repentance, not smugness. The fear in verses 4-6 belongs to the oppressors; it is not a measure of an anxious person’s guilt or faith. Difficulty speaking in prayer is not the predators’ deliberate refusal of God.
Accuracy notes: NKJV Psalm 14 is LXX/Coptic Psalm 13. Brenton’s verse 3 includes expanded lines also found in Romans 3. Keep the dated Matins source’s printed reference distinct from the extent of Brenton’s text. The Psalm’s movement toward joy is not permission to hurry a suffering person out of lament.
Glossary
- Psalm 14 (LXX 13): The same Psalm identified by MT/NKJV and Septuagint/Coptic chapter numbering.
- Fool: In biblical wisdom, one who lives without reverence for God, not merely someone lacking intelligence.
- Practical atheism: Living as if God is absent even if one claims belief.
- Zion: Jerusalem as the place of God’s dwelling and royal promise, fulfilled in Christ and the Church.
- Agpeya: The Coptic Orthodox book of canonical hours.
- Pascha: Holy Week services in the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Translation and Source Notes
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX), public domain. The title gives MT/NKJV Psalm 14 first, followed by its Septuagint counterpart, Psalm 13. Brenton includes the superscription within verse 1 and the longer anatomy passage within verse 3.
St Athanasius supplies an ancient Alexandrian direction for praying this Psalm in intercession. St Augustine supplies a distinct witness from the Psalm’s wider Latin reception, especially on judgment and God’s presence with the righteous. Their interpretations are not presented as a claim of unanimous patristic agreement.
Fr Tadros Y. Malaty’s modern Coptic pastoral commentary helps illuminate practical atheism, the oppression of the poor, and the closing movement toward salvation. It is a modern commentary, not itself an ancient patristic witness.
The worship connection is limited to the identified dated Matins source. Its conflict with the separate annual-cycle assignment remains unresolved.
Sources
Scripture
- Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton, The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament, Psalm 14 (Brenton/LXX 13), complete Psalm.
- Romans 3:9-20, St Paul’s diagnosis of universal sin, including language found in Psalm 14 (LXX 13).
- Hebrews 4:14-16, Christ’s sinlessness and His mercy toward human weakness.
- Ephesians 2:8-10, salvation by grace and the good works formed in Christ.
- Luke 24:1-12, the Resurrection Gospel paired with the Psalm in the dated Matins witness.
Ancient Christian interpretation
- St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms, direction to intercede when hearing speech against God’s providence, using Psalm 14 (LXX 13). English translation consulted in the Fish Eaters text; paraphrased here.
- St Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, exposition of Psalm 14 (LXX 13), especially §§5-7. The New Advent page is headed “Exposition on Psalm 14,” while its biblical lemmas identify Psalm 13. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8, edited by Philip Schaff, 1888.
Coptic worship and modern pastoral commentary
CopticChurch.net, Readings for August 27, 2023, Third Sunday of Mesra, Matins: printed Psalm 14:1-3 and Luke 24:1-12. This is the dated witness discussed above, not a resolution of the conflicting annual-cycle assignment.
Fr Tadros Y. Malaty, Psalms, chapter “Psalm 14: The Foolish One,” printed pp. 23-28 in the consulted English PDF. Modern Coptic pastoral commentary on Psalm 14 (LXX 13); paraphrase only.
Footnotes
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St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms, practical directions for intercession when others speak against divine providence, including Psalm 14 (LXX 13). English text. The counsel is paraphrased. ↩
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St Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 14 (LXX 13), §§5-7, on judgment, temporal fear, and God’s presence in the righteous generation. NPNF, First Series, vol. 8, 1888; New Advent text. ↩
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CopticChurch.net, Readings for Sunday, August 27, 2023, Third Sunday of Mesra, Matins, printed Psalm 14:1-3 and Luke 24:1-12. The Psalm selection ends at “No, not one,” before Brenton/LXX Psalm 13:3’s anatomy expansion. ↩