Psalm 14

Psalm 14

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 LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD. There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

Psam 14 speaks of no one having the ability to save themselves since they are all sinners, yet by the grace of God there is redemption when the law has fulfilled its punishment, mercy comes in; now under grace and through the choice made in the image of God we may be saved that only God can save and provide His indwelling Holy Spirit. God waits for those who choose Him, predistinated by foreknowledge of their free-choice.

"Terror will grip them, for God is with those who obey him" (v.5).

To obey is to abide in God's offer of grace by choosing Him and grow spiritually instead of remaining fleshly and a babe in Christ. It is conditional and unlimited, resistable and without depravity in preservation of the saints. Not of self, but according to God's stipulated conditional offer of John 3.16,18 though which we may receive God's grace by the choice afforded us because we were graced and gifted with being made in His image to be able to choose.