◄ Psalm 14:6 ►
You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed, yet the LORD is their shelter.
Study Bible
You sinners frustrate the plans of the oppressed,

This phrase highlights the actions of the wicked, who actively work against the vulnerable and marginalized. In biblical context, the "sinners" are those who live in rebellion against God's laws, often exploiting others for personal gain. The oppressed, frequently mentioned throughout Scripture, include widows, orphans, and foreigners, who were particularly vulnerable in ancient Israelite society. The frustration of their plans can be seen as a broader commentary on the injustice and corruption prevalent in societies that turn away from God's righteousness. This theme is echoed in other parts of the Bible, such as in the prophetic books where God condemns the mistreatment of the poor and calls for justice (e.g., Isaiah 10:1-2, Amos 5:11-12).

Isa 10:1-2 Woe to those who enact unjust statutes…
Psa 10:2 In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught…
Job 5:12 He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands…

yet the LORD is their shelter.

Despite the actions of the wicked, this phrase affirms God's protective and providential care for those who are oppressed. The term "shelter" conveys a sense of refuge and safety, suggesting that God is a reliable protector against the injustices of the world. This assurance is a recurring theme in the Psalms, where God is often depicted as a fortress or stronghold (e.g., Psalm 18:2, Psalm 46:1). Theologically, this reflects the covenant relationship between God and His people, where He promises to be their defender. This also points to the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who embodies God's justice and mercy, offering spiritual refuge and salvation to all who trust in Him.

Psa 9:9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold…
Psa 61:3 For You have been my refuge, a tower of strength…
Psa 46:1 For the choirmaster. Of the sons of Korah.…

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Sinners
These are individuals who act wickedly and oppose God's ways. In the context of Psalm 14, they are those who deny God and act corruptly.

2. The Oppressed
This refers to those who are marginalized, afflicted, or suffering under the weight of injustice. They are often depicted as righteous individuals who trust in God despite their circumstances.

3. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant name of God, emphasizing His faithfulness and protection over His people. He is portrayed as a refuge and shelter for the oppressed.

4. The Psalmist (David)
Traditionally attributed to King David, who often wrote about themes of justice, righteousness, and God's protection.

5. The Context of Israel
The historical and cultural backdrop of Israel, where themes of justice, oppression, and divine protection were prevalent.
Teaching Points
God's Protection for the Oppressed
Despite the schemes of the wicked, God remains a steadfast refuge for those who are oppressed. Believers can find comfort in knowing that God is aware of their struggles and provides shelter.

The Futility of Wicked Plans
The plans of the wicked are ultimately frustrated by God. This serves as a reminder that human schemes against God's people will not prevail.

Trust in God's Justice
Believers are encouraged to trust in God's justice and timing. While oppression may seem overwhelming, God's justice will ultimately prevail.

Call to Righteous Living
Christians are called to live righteously and advocate for the oppressed, reflecting God's heart for justice and mercy.

Encouragement in Trials
In times of personal trial or societal injustice, believers can take solace in God's promise to be their shelter and advocate.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding God as a "shelter" influence your response to personal or societal injustice?

2. In what ways can you actively support and advocate for the oppressed in your community, reflecting God's heart for justice?

3. How does the assurance of God's protection impact your faith during times of trial or persecution?

4. What are some practical steps you can take to ensure that you are not inadvertently frustrating the plans of the oppressed?

5. How can the themes of Psalm 14:6 encourage you to trust in God's justice and timing, especially when facing opposition or witnessing injustice?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Psalm 9:9
This verse also speaks of the LORD as a refuge for the oppressed, highlighting God's role as a protector.

Proverbs 18:10
This proverb describes the name of the LORD as a strong tower, where the righteous find safety, paralleling the idea of God as a shelter.

Isaiah 25:4
Isaiah speaks of God as a refuge for the poor and needy in distress, reinforcing the theme of divine protection.

James 5:4
James addresses the oppression of workers by the rich, echoing the theme of injustice and God's awareness of the plight of the oppressed.
Sermons
Are You Mocked?Charles Haddon Spurgeon Psalm 14:6
A Fool IndeedA. Roberts, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
An Infidel SilencedA. T. Pierson, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
AtheismJ. H. Hitchens. D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Atheisms and AtheismsGeorge Dawson, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
Belief in the Being of GodR. Palmer, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Conflict Between God and the WickedC. Short Psalm 14:1-7
Infidelity IllogicalThe Young ManPsalm 14:1-7
Is There a GodW. R. Graham.Psalm 14:1-7
On the Atheism of the HeartJ. Jamieson, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
Practical AtheismF. Wayland.Psalm 14:1-7
Practical AtheismS. Charnock, B. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Practical AtheismN. W. Taylor, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Religion and MaterialismR. N. Storey, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Right Views of God's GovernmentW. Forsyth Psalm 14:1-7
The Being of a GodT. Mortimer.Psalm 14:1-7
The Character Reasonings, and Folly of the FoolGeorge Townsend, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
The Creed of AtheismD. Merson, M. A.Psalm 14:1-7
The Depravity of a Godless World, Viewed by GodC. Clemance Psalm 14:1-7
The Existence of GodS. Charnock, B. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly and Impiety of InfidelityR. Shittler.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly and Wretchedness of an Atheistical InclinationJ. Balguy.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly of AtheismR. South, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Folly of the FoolJ. O. Keen, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Fool's Denial of God's ExistenceJohn N. Norton.Psalm 14:1-7
The Heart Speech of a FoolF. Tucker, B. A.Psalm 14:1-7
The Moral Condition of MankindHomilistPsalm 14:1-7
The Practical AtheistJ. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Practical Denial of God the Root of All EvilA. Maclaren, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Unreasonableness and Mischief of AtheismW. Talbot, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
The Withered HeartJoseph Parker, D. D.Psalm 14:1-7
Theoretical AtheismF. Wayland.Psalm 14:1-7
ConscienceW. L. Watkinson.Psalm 14:4-6
People
David, Jacob, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Afflicted, Cause, Confound, Counsel, Frustrate, Plan, Plans, Poor, Refuge, Shame, Shamed, Stink, Support, Thoughts
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 14:6

     5449   poverty, remedies
     5917   plans

Library
Are You Mocked?
"Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge."--Psalm 14:6. GOD'S Word divides the whole human race into two portions. There is the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman--the children of God, and the children of the devil--those who are by nature still what they always were, and those who have been begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. There are many distinctions among men, but they are not much more than surface-deep. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

Letter Xliii a Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey.
A Consolatory Letter to the Parents of Geoffrey. There is no reason to mourn a son as lost who is a religious, still less to fear for his delicacy of constitution. 1. If God makes your son His son also, what do you lose or what does he himself lose? Being rich he becomes richer; being already high born, of still nobler lineage; being illustrious, he gains greater renown; and--what is more than all--once a sinner he is now a saint. He must be prepared for the Kingdom that has been prepared for him …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Knowledge of God Stifled or Corrupted, Ignorantly or Maliciously.
1. The knowledge of God suppressed by ignorance, many falling away into superstition. Such persons, however, inexcusable, because their error is accompanied with pride and stubbornness. 2. Stubbornness the companion of impiety. 3. No pretext can justify superstition. This proved, first, from reason; and, secondly, from Scripture. 4. The wicked never willingly come into the presence of God. Hence their hypocrisy. Hence, too, their sense of Deity leads to no good result. 1. But though experience testifies …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Luther's Fourth Preface
To Valentine Bapst's Hymn-book, Leipzig, 1545. The xcvi Psalm saith: "Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth." The service of God in the old dispensation, under the law of Moses, was hard and wearisome. Many and divers sacrifices had men to offer, of all that they possessed, both in house and in field, which the people, being idle and covetous, did grudgingly or for some temporal advantage; as the prophet Malachi saith, chap. i., "who is there even among you that would shut …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—The Hymns of Martin Luther

Communion Broken --Restoration
Cant. ii. 8-iii.5 "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest happly we drift away from them."--Heb. ii. 1 (R.V.). At the close of the first section we left the bride satisfied and at rest in the arms of her Beloved, who had charged the daughters of Jerusalem not to stir up nor awaken His love until she please. We might suppose that a union so complete, a satisfaction so full, would never be interrupted by failure on the part of the happy bride. But, alas, …
J. Hudson Taylor—Union and Communion

Introduction. Chapter i. --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple …
St. Hilary of Poitiers—The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers

Second Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 12, 6-16. 6 And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith; 7 or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry; or he that teacheth, to his teaching; 8 or he that exhorteth, to his exhorting; he that giveth, let him do it with liberality; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Of the Way to Attain Divine Union
Of the way to attain Divine Union It is impossible to attain Divine Union solely by the activity of meditation, or by the meltings of the affections, or even by the highest degree of luminous and distinctly-comprehended prayer. There are many reasons for this, the chief of which are as follow:-- First, According to Scripture "no man shall see God and live" (Exod. xxxiii. 20). Now all the exercises of discursive prayer, and even of active contemplation, while esteemed as the summit and end of the …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Covenanting a Duty.
The exercise of Covenanting with God is enjoined by Him as the Supreme Moral Governor of all. That his Covenant should be acceded to, by men in every age and condition, is ordained as a law, sanctioned by his high authority,--recorded in his law of perpetual moral obligation on men, as a statute decreed by him, and in virtue of his underived sovereignty, promulgated by his command. "He hath commanded his covenant for ever."[171] The exercise is inculcated according to the will of God, as King and …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Exegetic.
(i) As of the De Spiritu Sancto, so of the Hexæmeron, no further account need be given here. It may, however, be noted that the Ninth Homily ends abruptly, and the latter, and apparently more important, portion of the subject is treated of at less length than the former. Jerome [472] and Cassiodorus [473] speak of nine homilies only on the creation. Socrates [474] says the Hexæmeron was completed by Gregory of Nyssa. Three orations are published among Basil's works, two on the creation …
Basil—Basil: Letters and Select Works

Perhaps There is no Book Within the Whole Canon of Scripture So Perplexing and Anomalous...
Perhaps there is no book within the whole canon of Scripture so perplexing and anomalous, at first sight, as that entitled "Ecclesiastes." Its terrible hopelessness, its bold expression of those difficulties with which man is surrounded on every side, the apparent fruitlessness of its quest after good, the unsatisfactory character, from a Christian standpoint, of its conclusion: all these points have made it, at one and the same time, an enigma to the superficial student of the Word, and the arsenal …
F. C. Jennings—Old Groans and New Songs

For which Cause Our Lord Himself Also with his Own Mouth Saith...
4. For which cause our Lord Himself also with His own mouth saith, "Cleanse what are within, and what are without will be clean." [1813] And, also, in another place, when He was refuting the foolish speeches of the Jews, in that they spake evil against His disciples, eating with unwashen hands; "Not what entereth into the mouth," said He, "defileth the man: but what cometh forth out of the mouth, that defileth the man." [1814] Which sentence, if the whole of it be taken of the mouth of the body, …
St. Augustine—On Continence

Excursus on Usury.
The famous canonist Van Espen defines usury thus: "Usura definitur lucrum ex mutuo exactum aut speratum;" [96] and then goes on to defend the proposition that, "Usury is forbidden by natural, by divine, and by human law. The first is proved thus. Natural law, as far as its first principles are concerned, is contained in the decalogue; but usury is prohibited in the decalogue, inasmuch as theft is prohibited; and this is the opinion of the Master of the Sentences, of St. Bonaventura, of St. Thomas …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

"They have Corrupted Themselves; their Spot is not the Spot of his Children; they are a Perverse and Crooked Generation. "
Deut. xxxii. 5.--"They have corrupted themselves; their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation." We doubt this people would take well with such a description of themselves as Moses gives. It might seem strange to us, that God should have chosen such a people out of all the nations of the earth, and they to be so rebellious and perverse, if our own experience did not teach us how free his choice is, and how long-suffering he is, and constant in his choice. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

But Concerning True Patience, Worthy of the Name of this virtue...
12. But concerning true patience, worthy of the name of this virtue, whence it is to be had, must now be inquired. For there are some [2650] who attribute it to the strength of the human will, not which it hath by Divine assistance, but which it hath of free-will. Now this error is a proud one: for it is the error of them which abound, of whom it is said in the Psalm, "A scornful reproof to them which abound, and a despising to the proud." [2651] It is not therefore that "patience of the poor" which …
St. Augustine—On Patience

The Manifestation of Holy Love.
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us." --1 John iv. 16. The question which now presents itself is: In what way is the divine, majestic act of making man a partaker of true love accomplished? We answer that this is-- 1. Prepared by the Father in Creation. 2. Made possible by the Son in Redemption. 3. Effectually accomplished by the Holy Spirit in Sanctification. There is in this respect, first a work of the Father, which the Heidelberg Catechism designates, "Of God the Father …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
Text: Romans 13, 8-10. 8 Owe no man anything, save to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law. 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; love therefore is the fulfilment of the law. CHRISTIAN LOVE AND THE COMMAND TO LOVE. 1. This, like the two …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Second Sunday Before Lent
Text: Second Corinthians 11, 19-33; 12, 1-9. 19 For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. 20 For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. 21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

Second Sunday after Easter
Text: First Peter 2, 20-25. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye sin, and are buffeted for it, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye shall take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. 21 For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22 who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23 who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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