"None Righteous"

After that wild ride within those six verses of Psalms Thirteen, we get to partake of something that is a little more direct and down to earth; a Psalm that calls it like it is! The title for this Psalm in my Bible makes that point: "The Sinfulness of Men". Some have said that David my have written this while being persecuted by Saul, while others say it could have been when Absalom rebelled against him; however, neither one of these brief ordeals can measure up to the degree or the magnitude of that which is expressed within this Psalm. The apostle Paul, in in quoting portions of this Psalm in Romans 3:10-18, makes this point very clearly, saying, 'that none are righteous, no not one; and that there are none that fear God'. All the world is guilty before God, and there are none who are exempt from needing His forgiveness. And as we look at the introduction to this Psalm, again we see this general opening, "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David", which in and of itself may not mean anything at all; however, I am beginning to suspect that the generic meaning has something to do with what David sees within his own heart. In other words, it is hard to attribute something to someone else, when it also includes yourself. The lesson learned from the last Psalm, which was how that God is merciful towards us in our weakness, is continued into this Psalm which expresses the condition of, and the depravity of human nature, and that which we all were born into; for we all were born into sin, and into a fallen world. There is no illusion of a great warrior who has conquered sinfulness and obtained righteousness; for we all fall short in the category, and we all are in need of a Redeemer! As the apostle John says, in 1 John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us"; because all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God! This is just a fact that we must come to terms with; and until we understand just how frail we really are, we will continue to lean upon our own understanding, and not passionately desire God's rich mercy and grace. Another way that we can look at this, is that how we know sin to mean 'missing the mark', the mark being the holiness of God; of which we all have fallen short... "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." (Romans 3:19 & 20)