In Hebrew thinking, the concept of “fool” is someone devoid of moral perception. Almost every other human talent can be present in abundance, but without using God’s revelation as a reference point, you cannot possibly be acceptable to Him. The opposite is humility before God’s Word. Specifically, it refers to moral reasoning in the Hebrew intellectual traditions. You can’t understand God’s revelation until you embrace the mindset of the people through whom He spoke. In general terms, David refers here to those under Moses who reject covenant demands, and those outside of Israel who rejected Noah’s Covenant. You cannot pretend the Creator has no interest in human affairs.
The popular English translation of the first phrase is misleading. We cannot imagine a human in that time and place embracing philosophical atheism. There was plenty of cynicism about divine character, but outright atheism would be incomprehensible in that context. Rather, it defines as a fool anyone who is insensitive to God’s stated concerns. It’s not as if you couldn’t get good information on those concerns if you cared. Without that frame of reference, there is no way to understand how Creation works.
Dramatic overstatement as a poetic expression indicates something fundamental to fallen human nature. David recognizes that people do not naturally seek God, but tend to avoid Him. We are born in sin, in the sense that we cannot turn to God without His direct intervention.
It stands to reason such people would hardly be honest friends of Israel. At every point in Old Testament History, we note a significant presence of outsiders who understood all too clearly that this nation was a project of the Almighty. Resistance was plain stupid. Attacking Israel might seem to pay off in the near term, but God never forgot. Sooner or later He rose to defend His Covenant, and the offender was crushed.
Yet by the same token, God eventually defended others from His people when the former were righteous and Israel was wrong. Again, He defended the poor of this world from oppression at the hands of sinners among the ruling class. How idiotic it was to ignore God’s promises! In this sense, the name “Israel” was restricted to those who embraced the full demands of the Covenant. This is the Israel that God defends. Let the Lord fulfill His promises to those who love Him.
