The practical atheist is not so much a person who flat-out rejects the idea of God, but rather a person who lives as if God doesn’t exist. It is that sort of person the psalmist calls a “fool” in Psalm 14.

Psalm 14

For the director of music. Of David.

1 The fool says in his heart,
    “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
    there is no one who does good.

Because the fools don’t believe God will hold them to account, they behave in wicked ways.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven
    on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
    any who seek God.
3 All have turned away, all have become corrupt;
    there is no one who does good,
    not even one.

4 Do all these evildoers know nothing?

The Lord is searching for faithful people in the midst of a faithless generation—don’t these foolish people know that nothing is hidden from the Lord?

They devour my people as though eating bread;
    they never call on the Lord.
5 But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
    for God is present in the company of the righteous.
6 You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor,
    but the Lord is their refuge.

People are being eaten up by the wicked, but God has not abandoned the poor and vulnerable—he is with them.

7 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
    When the Lord restores his people,
    let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!

Zion is the little mountain on which the Temple was built in Jerusalem, and the Israelites liked to think of it as the Lord’s particular place. Jacob was the Old Testament patriarch who was renamed Israel; thereafter, the entire nation of the Israelites was often called “Jacob” or “Israel”.

Nearly all the psalms end, like this one, on a note of hope.

Be hopeful today! The Lord sees.