Psalms 14:1

PSALM 14

THE JUDICIAL HARDENING OF MANKIND (FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN. A PSALM OF DAVID).

REGARDING: JUDICIAL HARDENING

The title we have chosen here is our own, and it is derived from the apostle Paul's use of this psalm in his description of the Judicial Hardening of Mankind in the first three chapters of the Book of Romans. A study of this phenomenon is of fundamental importance in the understanding of God's ultimate prophecies concerning the repeated apostasy and final destruction of the Adamic race.

We have devoted many pages to this subject in Romans, Amos, Genesis and Revelation.

The great Biblical type of God's hardening men is of course the example of Pharaoh, whose heart the Lord hardened, but not till Pharaoh had hardened his own heart no less than ten times. The three centers of this phenomenon called judicial hardening are (1) in wicked men themselves, (2) in God who hardens men's hearts in the sense of allowing it, and (3) in Satan himself who, with the proper advantage afforded by the conduct of the wicked is able to "blind men," (2 Corinthians 4:4).

What happens when men are hardened? (1) They are blinded (2 Corinthians 4:4), meaning that they are incapable of seeing or understanding the plainest truth. (2) "Their foolish heart (the scriptural heart is the mind) is darkened (Romans 1:21), with the meaning that an essential element of human intelligence has been judiciously removed by God Himself. (3) They become vain in their reasonings (Romans 1:21). (4) They become fools (Romans 1:22), and (5) God gives them up (Romans 1:22,26,28).

The universal hardening of mankind has already occurred three times: (1) in the total apostasy that preceded the Great Deluge; (2) in the conceited trust of mankind in their tower of Babel; and (3) again in the universal wickedness and rebellion against God described by Paul in Romans first three chapters. God's response to that shameful and reprobate condition was epic in all three instances. The first was terminated by the flood; the second resulted in the call of Abraham and the introduction of the device of a Chosen People who, in God's purpose, were to keep the knowledge of God and his commandments before all the world, and in the fulness of time to deliver to the human family the Messiah himself. God's response to the third judicial hardening of the race (so vividly described by Paul in Romans) was the First Advent of Christ, the coming of the Messiah. This, of course, was a mission of mercy.

There will yet be a fourth and final judicial hardening of mankind, as categorically stated in Revelation 15-16, fulfilling the prophecy of the apostles that, "Wickedness would wax worse and worse" (2 Timothy 3:13), and the searching question of Christ himself, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

God has already revealed what his response to the fourth and final hardening of the Adamic race will be: namely, the Second Advent of Jesus Christ; and contrasted with the first Advent, which was a mission of mercy, his Second Advent will be a mission of judgment on that Day which God has appointed (Acts 17:31).

The determination that the fourth judicial hardening of Adam's race will be the terminal one is derived from the remarkable prophecy of Amos who in eight successive prophecies of God's judgments upon the wicked prefaced each one with the word:

For three transgressions of Damascus, yea for four ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Gaza, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Tyre, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Edom, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Ammon, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Moab, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Judah, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

For three transgressions of Israel, yea for four, ... JUDGMENT.

- Amos 1:3-2:6.

The inability of any man to identify the "three transgressions" or the "four" in a single one of these cases is the only proof needed that something far more important than the destruction of ancient nations was in view here. It is our conviction that these "three" and "four" transgressions are references to the four times that human morality and love of God shall virtually perish from the earth; and the "yea for four" indicates that the fourth such instances of it will usher in the Final Judgment itself.

But does this psalm actually prophesy such a judicial hardening. Romans 3:10-18 is quoted verbatim from this psalm; and while it is true that the last five verses of Paul's quotation are not in our version, there is all kinds of evidence to the effect that the five verses do indeed belong. "They are in the LXX, and the Latin Vulgate, in the Syriac and in another ancient version, the PBV."[1]

There is very little likelihood that the apostle Paul could have found that language anywhere else except in this psalm; and his statement that, "It is written," at the head of his quotation is the only proof of this that is needed.

Furthermore, as many scholars have pointed out, this psalm is repeated almost verbatim in Psalms 53, where the name God is used instead of the word Jehovah, proving, of course, that the Jews used the words interchangeably.

In that passage in Romans from Paul, there is no doubt whatever that the universal judicial hardening of the human race is Paul's theme; and it appears to us that this is the best of reasons for our conviction that the same subject is the focus here.

Psalms 14:1

"The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works; There is none that doeth good."

"The fool." This word, in the singular, is actually a word for the whole race of Adam, as indicated by the next three lines. The atheist here is not a single individual but the whole rebellious race of Adam. Again in Zephaniah 1:2, we have the whole Adamic race referred to in the singular "man." It is the same here.

The Hebrew word for "fool" here is [~nabal], which does not mean a simpleton, but one whose moral thinking is perverted and who has deliberately closed his mind against the reality of God and to the imperatives of God's moral government.[2]

We believe that Kidner struck a note of solemn truth when he wrote that, "This might well be twentieth century man.[3]

We have already pointed out that atheism is not the product of knowledge, education, intelligence, or discernment of any kind, but the child of corruption. "Atheism is the essence of ingratitude, injustice, pride, hatred and selfishness."[4]