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"God looks down from heaven on the entire human race. He looks to see if anyone is truly wise; if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away" (Psalm 53:2,3).

This psalm is almost a total repeat of Psalm 14. There are a few minor differences, but the two psalms sing the same song. Why repeat what has already been sung? Nobody really knows; but maybe it's because the message is so difficult to receive.

What's the message? A poet once wrote, "We have met the enemy and he is us." That's this psalm in a nutshell.

Follow the flow of the psalm: there is the fool, the enemy everybody hates. The fool is, of course, the one who has turned his back on God (1). Then there is God, who looks down from heaven to see if there is anyone who is not a fool (2).

Guess what? God can't find anyone. "All have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good; not a single one" (3). I think that's call a burn. We get caught by our own trap. We thought we could escape, that we were different, not fools. But alas, fools we all are!

It's a hard truth to receive. "We have met the enemy and she is us." The apostle Paul uses this verse in his indictment of the entire human race. He puts it this way, 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one" (Romans 3:9-12).

From here, neither the Psalm nor Paul gets any easier to handle. They both articulate a deep truth. Because we all have turned away from God, we all turn against each other. Without the restraints of God's grace and love, peace turns to violence and love to hatred.

None of us are exempt. We are all fools. In some Christian communities, this appears to be the only part of our story which gets sung. The earth, and the whole human community with it, is going to hell in a handbasket. God is angry. End of story. Sure, there is that story about Jesus, but the way it gets told, redemption is rare.

In our community, we tell the story differently. This psalm only tells part of the story. We are people immersed in Christmas and Easter. Jesus came because of the truths lamented in Psalm 53. The point of this lament is not that we are all as evil as could be. Its message is that we all need help. We all need redemption. Because of that need, Jesus’ entrance into our story is good news. He came to save us from our foolishness.

There's another picture in the Bible of God looking down and searching the earth and all its human inhabitants. Its 2 Chronicles 16:9: "the eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." The worst kinds of fools are those who don't know they're fools. They can't be helped. But God delights in those who know they are fools. He strengthens them. The only fools God doesn’t help are those who won't ask for help.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (that’s the fool); “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10). All we must do is ask. To pray is to ask for help. The only fools Jesus doesn’t save are those who won't pray. There are fools, and there are fools. Which kind are you?