Psalm 14:5
There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is in the company of the righteous.
There they are, overwhelmed with dread
This phrase captures a moment of profound realization and fear. The Hebrew word for "overwhelmed" is often associated with sudden terror or panic. In the context of Psalm 14, this dread is not merely a human emotion but a divine response to the folly of denying God. Historically, this reflects the fate of those who oppose God, as seen in various biblical narratives where enemies of Israel experience sudden fear when confronted with God's power. This serves as a reminder of the ultimate sovereignty of God and the futility of opposing Him.

for God is in the company of the righteous
The phrase "God is in the company" emphasizes God's presence and favor among His people. The Hebrew word for "company" can also mean "generation" or "assembly," indicating a collective group of the faithful. This is a powerful assurance for believers, highlighting that God dwells among those who are righteous. In a historical context, this reflects the covenant relationship between God and Israel, where His presence was a source of protection and blessing. Scripturally, it underscores the theme of God's faithfulness to His people, providing comfort and strength to the righteous amidst a world that often denies Him.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Fool
In the context of Psalm 14, the "fool" is someone who denies God and lives in moral corruption. This person is contrasted with the righteous.

2. The Righteous
Those who live in accordance with God's will and are in a covenant relationship with Him. They are the ones in whose company God is present.

3. God
The central figure in this verse, whose presence brings dread to the wicked and comfort to the righteous.

4. David
Traditionally attributed as the author of this Psalm, David often contrasts the wicked with the righteous in his writings.

5. Israel
The nation often seen as the collective "righteous" in the Old Testament, representing God's chosen people.
Teaching Points
The Reality of God's Presence
God's presence is a source of dread for the wicked but a comfort for the righteous. This should encourage believers to live in a way that aligns with God's will.

The Security of the Righteous
The righteous can find peace in knowing that God is with them, even when surrounded by those who deny Him.

The Consequences of Denying God
Denying God leads to moral corruption and ultimately to fear and dread. This serves as a warning to those who live without acknowledging Him.

The Importance of Community
Being in the "company of the righteous" implies the importance of fellowship with other believers, which strengthens faith and provides mutual support.

The Fear of the Lord
Understanding the fear of the Lord as a reverent awe that leads to wisdom and righteous living.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the presence of God bring comfort to the righteous and dread to the wicked, and how can this understanding impact your daily life?

2. In what ways can you ensure that you are in the "company of the righteous" in your community and personal relationships?

3. How does the message of Psalm 14:5 relate to the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament about the Kingdom of God?

4. Reflect on a time when you felt God's presence in a challenging situation. How did it change your perspective or actions?

5. How can the themes of Psalm 14:5 encourage you to share your faith with those who may be living in denial of God?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Psalm 53
This Psalm is almost identical to Psalm 14 and reiterates the themes of the folly of denying God and the security of the righteous.

Romans 3
Paul references Psalm 14 to emphasize the universality of sin and the need for God's righteousness.

Proverbs 1:7
Highlights the fear of the Lord as the beginning of knowledge, contrasting the wisdom of the righteous with the folly of the wicked.
A Fool IndeedA. Roberts, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
An Infidel SilencedA. T. Pierson, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
AtheismJ. H. Hitchens. D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Atheisms and AtheismsGeorge Dawson, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
Belief in the Being of GodR. Palmer, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Conflict Between God and the WickedC. Short Psalm 14:1-7
Infidelity IllogicalThe Young ManPsalm 14:1-7
Is There a GodW. R. Graham.Psalm 14:1-7
On the Atheism of the HeartJ. Jamieson, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
Practical AtheismF. Wayland.Psalm 14:1-7
Practical AtheismS. Charnock, B. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Practical AtheismN. W. Taylor, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Religion and MaterialismR. N. Storey, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Right Views of God's GovernmentW. Forsyth Psalm 14:1-7
The Being of a GodT. Mortimer.Psalm 14:1-7
The Character Reasonings, and Folly of the FoolGeorge Townsend, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
The Creed of AtheismD. Merson, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
The Depravity of a Godless World, Viewed by GodC. Clemance Psalm 14:1-7
The Existence of GodS. Charnock, B. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly and Impiety of InfidelityR. Shittler.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly and Wretchedness of an Atheistical InclinationJ. Balguy.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly of AtheismR. South, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly of the FoolJ. O. Keen, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Fool's Denial of God's ExistenceJohn N. Norton.Psalm 14:1-7
The Heart Speech of a FoolF. Tucker, B. A.Psalm 14:1-7
The Moral Condition of MankindHomilistPsalm 14:1-7
The Practical AtheistJ. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Practical Denial of God the Root of All EvilA. Maclaren, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Unreasonableness and Mischief of AtheismW. Talbot, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Withered HeartJoseph Parker, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Theoretical AtheismF. Wayland.Psalm 14:1-7
ConscienceW. L. Watkinson.Psalm 14:4-6
People
David, Jacob, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Company, Dread, Fear, Feared, Generation, Present, Righteous, Terror, Upright
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 14:5

     1110   God, present everywhere
     8158   righteousness, of believers

Library
Are You Mocked?
"Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge."--Psalm 14:6. GOD'S Word divides the whole human race into two portions. There is the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman--the children of God, and the children of the devil--those who are by nature still what they always were, and those who have been begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There are many distinctions among men, but they are not much more than surface-deep.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

Letter Xliii a Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey.
A Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey. There is no reason to mourn a son as lost who is a religious, still less to fear for his delicacy of constitution. 1. If God makes your son His son also, what do you lose or what does he himself lose? Being rich he becomes richer; being already high born, of still nobler lineage; being illustrious, he gains greater renown; and--what is more than all--once a sinner he is now a saint. He must be prepared for the Kingdom that has been prepared for him
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Knowledge of God Stifled or Corrupted, Ignorantly or Maliciously.
1. The knowledge of God suppressed by ignorance, many falling away into superstition. Such persons, however, inexcusable, because their error is accompanied with pride and stubbornness. 2. Stubbornness the companion of impiety. 3. No pretext can justify superstition. This proved, first, from reason; and, secondly, from Scripture. 4. The wicked never willingly come into the presence of God. Hence their hypocrisy. Hence, too, their sense of Deity leads to no good result. 1. But though experience testifies
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Luther's Fourth Preface
To Valentine Bapst's Hymn-book, Leipzig, 1545. The xcvi Psalm saith: "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." The service of God in the old dispensation, under the law of Moses, was hard and wearisome. Many and divers sacrifices had men to offer, of all that they possessed, both in house and in field, which the people, being idle and covetous, did grudgingly or for some temporal advantage; as the prophet Malachi saith, chap. i., "who is there even among you that would shut
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—The Hymns of Martin Luther

Communion Broken --Restoration
Cant. ii. 8-iii.5 "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest happly we drift away from them."--Heb. ii. 1 (R.V.). At the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at rest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would never be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride. But, alas,
J. Hudson Taylor—Union and Communion

Introduction. Chapter i. --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple
St. Hilary of Poitiers—The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers

Second Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 12, 6-16. 6 And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; 7 or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; 8 or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting; he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Of the Way to Attain Divine Union
Of the way to attain Divine Union It is impossible to attain Divine Union solely by the activity of meditation, or by the meltings of the affections, or even by the highest degree of luminous and distinctly-comprehended prayer. There are many reasons for this, the chief of which are as follow:-- First, According to Scripture "no man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, and even of active contemplation, while esteemed as the summit and end of the
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Covenanting a Duty.
The exercise of Covenanting with God is enjoined by Him as the Supreme Moral Governor of all. That his Covenant should be acceded to, by men in every age and condition, is ordained as a law, sanctioned by his high authority,--recorded in his law of perpetual moral obligation on men, as a statute decreed by him, and in virtue of his underived sovereignty, promulgated by his command. "He hath commanded his covenant for ever."[171] The exercise is inculcated according to the will of God, as King and
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Exegetic.
(i) As of the De Spiritu Sancto, so of the Hexæmeron, no further account need be given here. It may, however, be noted that the Ninth Homily ends abruptly, and the latter, and apparently more important, portion of the subject is treated of at less length than the former. Jerome [472] and Cassiodorus [473] speak of nine homilies only on the creation. Socrates [474] says the Hexæmeron was completed by Gregory of Nyssa. Three orations are published among Basil's works, two on the creation
Basil—Basil: Letters and Select Works

Perhaps There is no Book Within the Whole Canon of Scripture So Perplexing and Anomalous...
Perhaps there is no book within the whole canon of Scripture so perplexing and anomalous, at first sight, as that entitled "Ecclesiastes." Its terrible hopelessness, its bold expression of those difficulties with which man is surrounded on every side, the apparent fruitlessness of its quest after good, the unsatisfactory character, from a Christian standpoint, of its conclusion: all these points have made it, at one and the same time, an enigma to the superficial student of the Word, and the arsenal
F. C. Jennings—Old Groans and New Songs

For which Cause Our Lord Himself Also with his Own Mouth Saith...
4. For which cause our Lord Himself also with His own mouth saith, "Cleanse what are within, and what are without will be clean." [1813] And, also, in another place, when He was refuting the foolish speeches of the Jews, in that they spake evil against His disciples, eating with unwashen hands; "Not what entereth into the mouth," said He, "defileth the man: but what cometh forth out of the mouth, that defileth the man." [1814] Which sentence, if the whole of it be taken of the mouth of the body,
St. Augustine—On Continence

Excursus on Usury.
The famous canonist Van Espen defines usury thus: "Usura definitur lucrum ex mutuo exactum aut speratum;" [96] and then goes on to defend the proposition that, "Usury is forbidden by natural, by divine, and by human law. The first is proved thus. Natural law, as far as its first principles are concerned, is contained in the decalogue; but usury is prohibited in the decalogue, inasmuch as theft is prohibited; and this is the opinion of the Master of the Sentences, of St. Bonaventura, of St. Thomas
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice.
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

But Concerning True Patience, Worthy of the Name of this virtue...
12. But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there are some [2650] who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it hath by Divine assistance, but which it hath of free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, "A scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the proud." [2651] It is not therefore that "patience of the poor" which
St. Augustine—On Patience

The Manifestation of Holy Love.
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us." --1 John iv. 16. The question which now presents itself is: In what way is the divine, majestic act of making man a partaker of true love accomplished? We answer that this is-- 1. Prepared by the Father in Creation. 2. Made possible by the Son in Redemption. 3. Effectually accomplished by the Holy Spirit in Sanctification. There is in this respect, first a work of the Father, which the Heidelberg Catechism designates, "Of God the Father
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 13, 8-10. 8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. CHRISTIAN LOVE AND THE COMMAND TO LOVE. 1. This, like the two
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Second Sunday Before Lent
Text: Second Corinthians 11, 19-33; 12, 1-9. 19 For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. 20 For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. 21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Second Sunday after Easter
Text: First Peter 2, 20-25. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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