Christ ChurchINTRODUCTION
We live in a warzone. The world, the flesh, and the devil are enemies prowling to take us out. This is why we must be continually armed and on guard. And every day when you wake up you are either acknowledging this war and preparing for battle, or else you are constantly unprepared and regularly caught off guard. And central to this war is learning to hate like God hates.
The Text: “To the chief musician upon nehiloth, a psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry…” (Ps. 5:1-12).
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
This psalm of David (like a number of others) was part of a collection for the choir director and was played (probably) on wind instruments (“nehiloth”). The psalm begins with a plea for God to hear his words, and he prays because God is his King and God (Ps. 5:1-2). This is a prayer offered “in the morning,” at the beginning of the day, and the center of David’s meditation is that no evil can dwell with God, folly cannot stand before Him, and He hates all workers of iniquity (Ps. 5:3-5). God destroys liars because He hates their violent ways (Ps. 5:6).
Instead of making peace with evil, David goes into the Lord’s house by God’s mercy, and he worships in reverent fear (Ps. 5:7). He asks God to lead him in righteousness because of his enemies because their mouths and throats are foul open graves (Ps. 5:8-9). Finally, David asks God to destroy the wicked by letting them destroy themselves with their sin, but he asks that God would fill those who trust in Him with great joy, surrounding them like a great shield with piercing spikes on it (Ps. 5:10-12).
WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE MORNING
David says “in the morning” twice in a row (Ps. 5:3), underlining the fact that before he does anything else, He looks up to His King and His God (Ps. 5:2-3). In many ways, whatever you “look up to” first thing in the morning is what you are reckoning your King and your God. Your King and your God is what orients your life, your mission, your day. Is it your work? Your house? Friends? Social media?
We’re not told the exact circumstances of this psalm, but David particularly asks God to hear his “groaning” – which is apparently related to the evil and enemies around him (Ps. 5:1). Sometimes our days are filled with groaning because we have not brought our groaning to the One who can handle all of it. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Pet. 5:6-7). Beginning your day with prayer is an act of humility: He is God. He is King.
One of the reasons you need to talk to God in the morning is because you are in a war zone. In 1 Pet. 5:8, the very next verse after the command to cast all your cares on God, it says to be vigilant because the devil prowls. seeking whom he may devour. This is one of the reasons we need to pray and sing the psalms regularly: we have enemies and the psalms remind us of this fact. We are at war, and many of our enemies are aiming at our souls.
GOD HATES WORKERS OF EVIL
Sometimes Christians says things like “hate the sin not the sinner,” but this is a platitude that doesn’t quite capture what the Bible teaches. Part of the problem is that we have been catechized by the world (our enemies) to believe that love and hate are mutually exclusive. But that is simply not true. God clearly hates all workers of iniquity (sinners) and has loved all of them to some extent, granting them life, causing the sun to shine on them and the rain to fall on their crops. Likewise, we are to learn to do this as well. We ought to hate evildoers, and we are to love our enemies (Mt. 5:43-45).
The only place where God has determined to distinguish between sinners and their sin is in the cross of Jesus Christ. God does not merely send lies to Hell; He sends liars to Hell. He does not merely send lust to Hell; He sends adulterers to Hell. And the hatred of God is often to give people over to their evil demands: “The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein” (Prov. 22:14). “When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened… Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves” (Rom. 1:21-24).
NO PLEASURE IN EVILDOING
Part of the insidiousness of sin is that it flatters us (Ps. 5:9). Flattery is a destructive lie that masquerades as goodness, justice, or pleasure. It says, even though my parents don’t approve, it’s really fun and God approves of fun. It says, I have to do this because it’s not fair and God cares about justice. Or it is entertained by filth and says, I just really like the acting, the story, the soundtrack, etc.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov. 27:6). This is the primary weapon of our enemies and all evil: the kisses of enemies – flattering lies. Evil is foolish because it doesn’t actually work in God’s world, but more than that it is violent and bloody (Ps. 5:5-6). It comes packaged as being cool, being smart, being sexy, being relevant, but it’s an open grave of reeking rot. God takes no pleasure in it, and therefore neither may we. He will destroy all of it, and we must not long for it like Lot’s wife or we may be destroyed with it.
CONCLUSION
God hates wicked people in the world, but God also hates wicked people in His church. Jesus says that there will be some who ate and drank with him, who listened to His teaching, and He will say to them: “I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth…” (Lk. 13:27). God’s wrath is against all sin, all workers of iniquity, and therefore, the only safe place is in Christ, where God’s wrath has already been satisfied.
In another place Jesus says that if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out – it would be better for you to go to heaven with one hand or one eye than to be cast into everlasting fire with both your hands and eyes (Mt. 18:8-9). This kind of repentance requires you to hate your sin. Get rid of your computer, your smart phone, your credit card, Netflix; quit your job, move, stop hanging out with those friends. Burn the ships. Treat your sin like Samuel treated Agag the King of the Amalekites and hack it to pieces.