Reading: Psalm 14 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Folly and Wickedness of Men.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

14 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable [a]deeds;
There is no one who does good.
2 The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men
To see if there are any who [b]understand,
Who seek after God.
3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt;
There is no one who does good, not even one.
4 Do all the workers of wickedness not know,
Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon the Lord?
5 There they are in great dread,
For God is with the righteous generation.
6 You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted,
But the Lord is his refuge.
7 Oh, that the salvation of Israel [c]would come out of Zion!
When the Lord [d]restores His captive people,
Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.
Text: Romans 3:9-20 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

9 What then? [a]Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already
charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; 10 as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
11 There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood,
16 Destruction and misery are in their paths,
17 And the path of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are
[b]under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may
become accountable to God; 20 because by the works [c]of the Law no flesh
will be justified in His sight; for [d]through the Law comes the knowledge of
sin.