Bad practices are the fruit of bad principles and bad principles are the natural fruit of denial of God.
Atheists, whether in opinion or practice, are the biggest fools of earth.
There cannot be right living where there is not right believing.
Psalm 1
1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good.
2 God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.
3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
4 Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
5 There were they in great fear, where no fear was: for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: thou hast put them to shame, because God hath despised them.
6 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 53 – Sinners All
That Psalm 53 should be a repetition of Psalm 14, with very few variations, suggests, as does the “verily, verily” of Christ, that the truths contained in these words are worthy of special attention. They supply the Apostle, in Romans 3, with his phraseology for describing the state of the ungodly before the searching eye of Omniscience.
We have here a photograph of the human heart. Jew and Gentile are alike in their innermost texture. There is nothing to choose between the Pharisee and the publican, except when either turns the balance by humble confession, as in Luke 18:9, etc. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 53:6—God bringeth back the captivity of his people.
It is wonderful to notice the many ways in which God brings us back to Himself. We may have been carried into captivity by a troop of anxieties or a horde of worries; by temptations like the sons of Anak; by pride and other evils, as when David found that the Amalekites had carried off his belongings into captivity. Then God comes to the rescue: sometimes by a drawing felt throughout the soul; sometimes by a little word dropped by another; sometimes by an incident from a biography. Any one of these acts upon us as the sunbeams on frost—there is a meeting and yielding, a desire to get alone, confession of waywardness and wandering, and earnest petitions for renewal of the blessed past. Thus God bringeth back the captivity of his people.
Are you a captive, pining in some distant bondage? It is not surprising that you hang your harp upon the willows, and weep as you remember Zion—how you went with the throng, and even led them to the House of God, with the voice of joy and praise. And as you contrast the past and the present, it is well that your soul is cast down. But when the Lord brings again your captivity, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
Would it not be well to look out for your brother Lot if he has been carried off down the long Jordan Plain? Should you not arm and go to his rescue, as Abraham did? Perhaps the Lord would turn your captivity, if you sought to turn the captivity of others; and Melchizedek would meet you with the bread and wine.
“O my God!
Draw me still nearer, closer unto Thee
Till all the hollow of these deep desires
May with Thyself be filled!” —Our Daily Homily