No One is Righteous

We have all heard the phrase “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” Many, including most Protestants, take this to be a universal, divine description of humanity.

Well, it isn’t; at least not as either Paul or the writer he's quoting meant it.

In our chapter 3 of Romans, Paul is speaking to Jewish disciples in Rome. He has recently eliminated any claim to the priority they might have presumed based on having the Law or circumcision as signs of being ‘in.’ Then he moves to a rhetorical question, ‘If we are God’s people, is he unjust to punish us?’ Paul’s answer is that God is not unjust to punish Israel or Jews. He even has to address a silly assertion that we will have seen multiple times. It is this, should we sin more so that God can show even more grace? Paul’s answer is an understandable ‘Nope!”

Then we get the next question, ‘Are we Jews any better off – because we are Jews?’ Again the answer is ‘nope.’ Why is that? Paul is going to justify his statement by using Israel’s own Scriptures against her. He now quotes nine texts to demonstrate that Israel has been and is just as bad as anyone else they might want to compare themselves to. This is where we get our opening text. It is a quotation from Psalm 14. He uses it not to make a universal statement of mankind, but to include Israel – supported by her own Scripture – as corrupt. She isn’t pristine; she isn’t in a special place; she is guilty.

But doesn’t the psalm say that no one is righteous nor does anyone seek God? Well, it does use those words, but let’s look closer at the Psalm. The first clue we have is that it is being written by David. David will declare of himself or will associate himself with, the righteous; someone who does the will of God and keeps the Law. So we know right from the start that this poem is not a universal statement of mankind or even of Israel because it does not include David.

But what else do we find in this devotional poem? We find this: ‘Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers (Israelites who do not follow God) who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call on the Lord?’ We see here that there are two groups of people – the evildoers and the people of God. The emphasis here is the evildoers as those who don’t seek God. The people of God are not in that category.

‘They (the evildoers) are in great terror because God is with the righteous.’ Wait, what? David acknowledges in this Psalm that there are righteous people. The righteous people do seek God and because they are righteous, we know they 'do good.' That is, after all, what 'righteous' means.

The psalmist is bemoaning the condition inside Israel. The evildoers seem to have the upper hand and the poet is describing this condition. The last part of the poem is a plea for the rescue of the people of God from the evildoers. The righteous to be rescued from the unrighteous.

So what do we find? We find that the poem – the text that is quoted by Paul – does not intend to be a universal indictment of humanity. We find that there are righteous people of God.

We find in Romans where Paul quotes this poem, he means to indict Israel, not all of humanity by using her own Scripture against her.

When using proof texts without understanding the context or purpose, we open ourselves to ridiculous statements and create realities that don’t exist. It simply is not true that either Psalm 14 or Romans 3 is arguing that all of humanity is corrupt or that absolutely no one seeks God.

The Psalter is a collection of someone else’s devotional poetry and must be read in that light. To read it flat, to pick out preferred statements disconnected from the poet’s situation or even the rest of the poem, is to do violence to Scripture. The Psalter is not a legal text nor is it a prose discussion of anything. It is devotional poetry written in a specific situation to a specific audience – often God.