Psalm 14 is a particularly potent piece of Hebrew poetry.
The opening line of the Psalm ("The fool says in his heart 'There is no God'") is often misunderstood to mean that atheism or agnosticism is foolish or ill-informed. In fact, the psalmist is making a much stronger statement.
The entire psalm, structurally, stands as a definition for the word "fool." In addition to lacking fundamental faith, the fool is one who fails in acting out this faith through bringing about justice for the poor. The psalmist goes farther, asserting that according to this definition, God seems to be trouble finding anybody who ISN'T a fool.
You want to know what a fool looks like? Take a look in the mirror (says the psalmist). Your failure to love the needy is tantamount to denying the very existence of God.
The psalmist closes by crying out for God to renew the hearts of his people, to awaken them from their foolishness.
I love Eugene Petersen's rendering of this Psalm in The Message:
1 Bilious and bloated, they gas, "God is gone."
Their words are poison gas,
fouling the air; they poison
Rivers and skies;
thistles are their cash crop.
2 God sticks his head out of heaven.
He looks around.
He's looking for someone not stupid—
one man, even, God-expectant,
just one God-ready woman.
3 He comes up empty. A string
of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
Sheep, taking turns pretending
to be Shepherd.
The ninety and nine
follow their fellow.
4 Don't they know anything,
all these impostors?
Don't they know
they can't get away with this—
Treating people like a fast-food meal
over which they're too busy to pray?
5-6 Night is coming for them, and nightmares,
for God takes the side of victims.
Do you think you can mess
with the dreams of the poor?
You can't, for God
makes their dreams come true.
7 Is there anyone around to save Israel?
Yes. God is around; God turns life around.
Turned-around Jacob skips rope,
turned-around Israel sings laughter.
