Psalm 14:1

The context

Psalm 14 opens with a line spoken about a person rather than to God, then moves into a description of corruption that is echoed almost verbatim in Psalm 53. The psalm surveys humanity, finds no one who does good, and turns to a wish for salvation from Zion. Paul draws on it in Romans 3.

What it establishes

The verse characterizes the denial of God as folly located in the heart, the seat of intention rather than of intellect alone. It is a moral judgment on a stance, framed as the beginning of the psalm's wider indictment of human corruption.

What it does not establish

It does not describe the modern atheist. The term rendered “fool” names a person who is morally obtuse and practically godless, not someone who holds a position after argument. Nor does it show that denial is always dishonest; the psalm denounces a society.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• Do MIRACLES exist?
• Atheism is just a lack of belief. I lack belief in God, so the burden of proof is on you.

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.