November 24 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Psalm 14:

¹The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
²The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
³They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
⁴Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
⁵There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.
⁶Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
⁷Oh 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.

Devotional

So the fool says in his heart, "There is no God." How does our fool arrive at such a conclusion? Can he prove that the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God of the Bible does not exist? Does he have infinite knowledge so that he can prove that a God who knows all things does not exist? If he did have infinite knowledge, then he would be God and not man, and he would surely not want to prove to us that he himself does not exist! Has he been around from all eternity so that he can know that there is no eternal God? If he has been, then he would himself be eternal and uncreated, and he would be God and not man. And we would surely not hear him denying his own existence!

But of course our fool is a finite and sinful human being, and he cannot prove that there is no being infinitely superior to himself. And furthermore, he had better realize that unless the infinite and sovereign God of the Bible does exist, there is no basis for knowledge, for assurance, for certainty about anything. Unless there is a God who knows all things and who rules all things, and who has revealed the truth about Himself to men, no man can be sure of knowing anything aright.

Apart from the infinite God, no finite being can make any valid assertion or denial of anything. Our fool would not even exist to deny God if God did not exist. And his denial of God's existence would be utterly meaningless if God did not exist to give meaning to all things, including denials.

Yes, O fool, when you say in your heart that there is no God, please take a look at your credentials!

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For January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021, we are planning to post Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a full-year daily devotional, with each month devoted to a particular theme (January—Your Kingdom Come, February—Living with God, March—Sharing the Suffering of Christ, etc.).

So that we can begin the Kuyvenhoven postings on January 1, we are re-posting until then devotional selections from Think on These Things, a daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)