God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one.
– Psalm 53:2–3
You might recognize these verses because Paul quotes from them in Romans 3, when he is recounting the sinfulness of man, the depravity of every single person in the world.
Psalm 53:2–3 Shows us the Tragic State of Humanity without God
There is none who does good, not even one. That is the commentary on all of humanity. There are none who seek after God, all have fallen away. All that includes you and me. This is our state. The state of our hearts left to ourselves. None of us seek after God on our own. None of us have any good in and of ourselves. We have all fallen away, which means we all need grace.
We all need God in his holy mercy to seek after us. None of us seeks after God on our own. None of us does good on our own. Everything that is good in us is a result of God’s grace to us and through us and in us, and any desire to seek after God is the result of him seeking after us. These verses are so humbling and so awe-inspiring that God had choose to seek after you and me, even though we were running from him. I think of a Thai believer, new believer in Thailand that I met one time who’d just been baptized and he was so excited. He said, “I didn’t even know to seek after God, but God came seeking after me.” And this is the story of every follower of Jesus. So we pray, oh God, thank you for seeking after us.
God, thank you for seeking after me, despite myself, despite my sin. When I was running away from you, God, I praise you for running after me. God, I praise you for how that story’s played out, not just in my life, but in the lives of every single person who’s listening to this right now who has been saved by your grace from our sin through Jesus. God, we praise you for running after us. We praise you as the author of everything good in us.
Psalm 53:2–3 Reminds Us that Salvation Comes Only from the Lord
We confess that left to ourselves, there is not one of us who does good, which means we don’t deserve credit glory for anything good in our lives. You are the one who brings everything good in our lives about all glory. All glory be to your name, and we pray that you would produce more good in us. We pray for more grace.
Not that your grace to this point has not been enough, but, God, we know that today left to ourselves, we are prone to still turn away from you. We are still prone to not trust in you. Oh God, by your grace, keep us close to yourself. Draw us into closer and closer relationship with you and produce in us and through us good works that bring glory to your name. Oh God, we seek you right now in prayer as the overflow of your seeking after us. This is awesome. Oh God, and we pray, we pray for people who don’t know you as the seeking God, don’t know you yet as the one who sent your son to die on a cross for our sins.
Praying for the Spread of the Gospel
Lord, when we pray for all these unreached people in the world in this podcast each day praying for people who right now are in their sin, running from you, and they’ve never heard the good news of how you have come running after them, God, we pray for the spread of the gospel, the good news of your seeking love to all the peoples of the earth, all the nations of the earth.
God, send out laborers into the harvest field to tell the good news that God has sought after sinful men and women and children. God, we pray for the salvation of the nations. What Psalm 53:6 talks about salvation coming out from your presence in gladness and rejoicing. God, we pray that over all the nations of the world that they might be saved. You might use our prayers and our giving and our going, our lives for that purpose in the world. We pray all of this in light of your word in Psalm 53:2–3. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
