This psalm was composed by David, for the director of music– This psalm is very similar to Psalm 53, in fact the first and last verses are the same word for word and both have that same idea throughout both psalms.
Why are both of these psalms in the Bible when they are saying essentially the same thing?
David recognizes the folly of atheism in v 1, “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” Notice the wording here, “the fool says in his heart there is no God”. We need to be careful to not question the existence of God, not even in our hearts. Or what I think the Scriptures are telling us here is to not live-like-there-is-no-God. The Hebrew word rendered ‘fool’ in Psalms denotes one who is morally deficient. Righteous living always comes from the heart. Left unattended, “weeds” will spring up in your heart. And just like that cute, little, sign in my sister’s garden says, “Remember… every weed is your enemy!”
My Dad used to tell a story about an atheist neighbor who said something about there not being a god. To which the Believer replied, “The fool says in his heart there is no God, but you just blurted it out!”
Verses 1 – 3 are a characterization of the wicked.
Verses 4 – 6 the folly of the wicked is shown.
He concludes (in v 7) by longing for salvation to come out of Zion, and when it does to let Israel be glad. This last verse has a longing for the Messiah.