Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O
God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee
wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O
Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against
thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps.
139:19-24).
(I)
Prof. Herman C. Hanko
[Source:
The Mysteries of
the Kingdom: An Exposition of the Parables (RFPA, 1975), p. 79]
The
calling of God’s people is surely to hate those who hate God. David sings of
this in Psalm 139: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I
grieved with those that rise up against thee?” (v. 21). This is the calling of
God’s people because it is impossible that the child of God loves those who
hate God. And this hatred of those who hate God must be revealed by keeping
them outside our fellowship. We can have no communion with them. We must
condemn their sin and point them to the path of righteousness. We may not take
them into our house nor go into their home to commune with them. The perfect
fellowship of love is impossible between God and Satan, between the people of
God and the people of the world. For what fellowship hath light with darkness,
what concord hath Christ with Belial? (See II Cor. 6:14-18.) In fact, the man
who professes to love God and still loves the world and seeks fellowship with
the world shows clearly that he does not love God at all. The apostle John
writes in I John 2:15: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
…
Although we must surely hate those who hate God, this hate is after all a
manifestation of love. God loves Himself. And in loving Himself He hates all
the workers of iniquity. Should He deny Himself and love those who hate Him, He
could no longer love Himself. The Scriptures know of no universal love of God.
But so it is also with the Christian. Loving God, the Christian hates the
world. And the love of God fills him with hatred for the world.
--------------------------------------------
(II)
Prof. David J. Engelsma
[Source: Hating the
Haters of the Lord]
To say that the attitude
expressed in the text [Ps. 139:21-22] is unpopular with Christians today is an
understatement. There is simply no place in present-day Christianity for the
sentiments found here. We must love everyone; we may hate no one.
Does a notable heretic
arise in the church, overthrowing the most basic doctrines of the Christian
faith and gaining adherents to his lie? We must love him and not hate him. Does
someone openly walk in gross disobedience to the law of God? We must love him
and may not hate him. Is there a cult that practices the vilest immorality and
that shamelessly blasphemes the name of God? We must show love to them and may
not hate them. So it is said and so many firmly believe.
It seems that nothing is
unchristian except hating someone and no one is hated except the man who hates
the evildoer. On everyone’s lips are the words: “Love your enemies,” as if the
Bible said nothing more than this.
As regards this and
similar passages of Holy Scripture that teach the saints hatred of some men,
such passages are simply ignored. If someone has the courage to raise these
passages, what the passages teach is dismissed.
Some say that these
passages belong to the Old Testament, as though the life of the Old Testament
saint was not the life of Christ and as though the New Testament did not
require the very same attitude of the New Testament Christian. Others reject
these passages as uninspired. Some dare to say that our text and the passage in
Psalm 137 that speaks of the blessedness of those who dash the little ones of
Babylon and similar passages are merely the unsanctified, personal feelings of
the writer, not the inspired word of God.
In the end, those who
are determined to hold the position that the Christian should hate no one must
come to this conclusion, namely, that all these passages are not inspired. The
seriousness of this is that it is an attack upon Scripture. Our feelings are
allowed to contradict the plain testimony of the word of God.
Apart from all other
considerations, the folly of this is plain with regards our text. Psalm 139 is
a beautiful and well-known Psalm. In the opening verses, it confesses that we
cannot flee from God. In the closing verses, it calls upon God to search the
believer and to know him. Are we then to suppose that the Spirit inspired David
in all that precedes and all that follows the text but that He failed David in
verses 21-22?
It is of great
importance that we heed the word of God in our text (for this is what it is—not
the word of David). We must not be seduced by the popular notion that we may
hate no one. This is the inspired word of God and, as such, it sets forth the
experience and the calling of every child of God.
It is a sore evil in the
church that there is no hatred for anyone. Why do they not hate those who hate
the Lord? There is a reason for this and the reason is the sad spiritual
condition of the church today. Since they hate no one, neither do they count
anyone their enemy; and if the wicked is not an enemy, he is a friend, a friend
of the church. And this destroys the churches today.
The Character of This Hatred
The hatred of the text
is a real hatred. It is to regard someone with loathing, as a disgusting
person, and to will his destruction. Hatred is the exact opposite of love and
love is to have delight in someone to wish him well. Hatred in the text is not “lesser
love.” Such an explanation is a popular way of evading Scripture’s teaching
that God hates some men and we do also. Try to read the text this way once,
substituting “love less” for “hate.” Immediately, you sense the utter folly of
such an explanation.
The hatred of the
Psalmist for certain men is the same as the hatred of those men for the Lord
and their hatred of the Lord is not “lesser love” but real hatred. What
the Psalmist means by this hatred is brought out in what follows: “and am not I
grieved with those that rise up against thee?” His being grieved with these men
explains his hatred of them. The word translated “grieved” is even stronger
than our version would indicate. The word means “loathe,” so that we may read
the text, “Do not I loathe those that rise up against thee?”
This is how the word is
translated, for example, in Ezekiel 20:43: “and ye shall loathe
yourselves in your sight for all your evils that ye have committed.” To loathe
someone is to regard him as disgusting and to abhor him. Only if hatred is real
hatred does it follow that you count the one whom you hate as your enemy. You
do not count for an enemy one whom you love with a “lesser love” but one whom
you hate. And the Psalmist concludes in verse 22: “I count them mine
enemies.”
This hatred, according
to the text, is a “perfect hatred.” Perfect hatred is not, as is commonly
supposed, a hatred “uncorrupted with sin,” a “holy” hatred. This is true, of
course. Our hatred of the wicked must be holy. It must not be contaminated by
sinful passions such as envy, desire of revenge or the like. The text makes
plain how the hatred of which it speaks is holy and how it remains holy.
Nevertheless, this is not what is meant by “perfect.” Perfect hatred is hatred
that is thorough, complete and extreme. It is not half-hearted hatred.
We see those whom we hate as completely disgusting and we firmly regard them
with abhorrence. We will their destruction, their eternal destruction, as God
reveals this to be their just punishment in His word.
“Is this right? Is this
Christian?” you ask. We must let the Psalmist himself answer the question. The
Psalmist shows that, in taking this attitude of hatred, he is perfectly
confident that he is right with God, that he is pleasing to God. He is
criticised today for being “unspiritual” here. But he breathes the confidence
that his spiritual condition is good. For the confession that he hates some men
appears in a question that he asks of the Lord: “Do not I hate them, O Lord,
that hate thee?” He asks this question of the Lord as a man who is sure that
the Lord will find this praiseworthy in him. In the very next breath, he
invites the Lord to search him, whether there be any evil way in him. He is
supremely confident that in hating the wicked he has the full approval of the
Lord.
Beyond all doubt,
Scripture here teaches that hatred of the wicked by the child of God is part of
his holy life in the Spirit and not some gross iniquity. Therefore, one who
cannot present himself before the Lord as hating those who hate God is in the
wrong and displeases God. He has a serious defect in his spiritual life. The
trouble is that so many fail to acknowledge that God hates some men. Hatred of
another is condemned as such, because men believe that God loves all men and
hates no man. But hatred as such cannot be condemned as evil, for God hates—God
hates some men. Romans 9:13 teaches that God hated Esau. Psalm 5:5 teaches that
God hates “all workers of iniquity.” God’s hatred of some men is clearly
brought out in the verses that precede our text. Verse 19 says, “Surely thou
wilt slay the wicked, O God.” This is the most extreme expression of hatred:
God will kill them, not only temporally but also eternally. God loathes
them and wills their destruction. This is little heard of in the church
today. It is all but ignored. At the same time, the truth of eternal punishment
of hell is silenced. God hates and, since He hates, hatred is not
“an evil thing.”
The question is: Whom do
we hate and why do we hate? The object of our hatred is persons,
flesh-and-blood persons. We hate not just the sins of wicked people but the
people themselves. A notion that passes for wisdom is that we must “love
the sinner but hate the sin.” Men even say this of God. Now it is true we must
hate sin. It is even true that our hatred of certain persons stems from our
hatred of their sins. But it is not true that we hate only the deeds of men and
not the men themselves, anymore than it is true of God that He hates sins only
and not sinners. God, after all, is going to cast sinners into hell, not
only sins. You simply cannot so easily separate the person and his sins. A
man’s sins cling to him and stain him, unless they are washed away by the blood
of Jesus. The text does not say, “Do not I hate the sins, O Lord,
of those that hate thee?” But it says, “Do not I hate them, O LORD,
that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against
thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine
enemies” (Ps. 139:21-22).
These are persons who
hate God. They loathe God and will God’s destruction. As much as in them lies,
they try to accomplish His destruction also. They rise up against God,
according to the text, that is, they go to war against Him as enemies. How do
they do this? The preceding verse shows: “For they speak against thee wickedly,
and thine enemies take thy name in vain.” They blaspheme God, curse and swear,
oppose His truth and worship. Especially do they despise and attack His Christ
and the gospel of Christ. The text uses the covenant name of God, Jehovah.
These men hate Jehovah as He is revealed in Jesus. They rise up against God by
violence against their neighbours. Not only do they break the first table of
the law, but they also break the second table. Verse 19 calls them “bloody men.”
They are violent rebels against the authority of their parents, of the state
and of the employer. They are cruel deserters of wives and children. They are
thieves and robbers. They are slanderers and backbiters—they have bloody tongues.
In short, they are men, women and children who do not believe or obey the law.
They are the wicked—the impenitent wicked.
Note well, however, that
it is possible that they be pleasant people in the judgment of men—courteous,
helpful, decent, friendly. But they hate God. Note too, that they may be next-door
neighbours, a parent, a child or some other close relative. Of such, of all
such, the believer says, “I hate them; I hate them with a perfect hatred.” The
description of those whom David hates is at the same time the ground of
his hatred of them.
The Ground of This Hatred
The reason for David’s
hatred of these men is their hatred of God. We may read the text this
way: “Do not I hate them, O Lord, because they hate thee? Do
not I loathe them, because they rise up against thee?” This
comes out even more strongly in the original Hebrew. Literally, we read: “Is it
not so, them that hate thee, O Jehovah, I hate?” Their hatred of God is put
first in the text, as the cause of our hatred of them. Therefore, there
is nothing carnal, nothing selfish and nothing “personal” in our hatred. It is
not due to any injury that they did to us. Even though in their hatred of God
they probably cursed, mocked and hurt us, it is not what they did to us
that explains our hatred. We are not being vindictive in hating them. The
reason is this only: they hate God. Thus, our hatred is a holy hatred.
We must be sure of this.
It is so easy to corrupt our hatred with personal and carnal motives. In this
light, we can see how our hatred for God’s enemies is to be harmonized with our
calling to love our enemies. In Matthew 5 and Luke 6, Jesus tells us to
love our enemies. We read in Matthew 5:43-44: “Ye have heard that it hath been said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and
pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” We must not hate
our enemies but love them. These are people who bear a personal grudge against
us. But they are people who are also our enemies for Christ’s sake, for
they persecute us.
It might seem that there
is conflict between Psalm 139 and Matthew 5, between our calling to hate God’s
enemies and our calling to love those who persecute us. This is, in fact, the
position of those who say that we may never hate anyone. They view Matthew 5 as
contradicting Psalm 139 and they use Matthew 5 to set Psalm 139 aside.
We hold, however, that
the two passages do not contradict each other. Both are Scripture and both must
be true in the life of Christ’s disciple. There is harmony between the
passages, and the harmony is this: We love men who are our enemies, but
we hate men who are God’s enemies. This can be one and the same person.
Insofar as a man hates, curses and harms me, I love him and I show this
by doing acts of kindness to him. Inasmuch as the same man hates God and
opposes him, I hate him and count him my enemy. The trouble often is that
we do opposite: we readily hate our personal enemies, but go on loving those
who hate God.
The ground of our hatred
of some men is their hatred of God. Ultimately, the ground of our hatred
of them is our love of the God whom they hate. Our hatred for those who
hate God is an aspect of love—love for God. We love this God. We love him with
all our heart and mind and soul and strength. Our love for God, by grace, is a “perfect”
love, that is, a thorough, complete, extreme love. We love Him as the only God.
We love Him as our maker, as verses 13-16 of this Psalm confess. We love Him as
Jehovah, the God of our salvation in Jesus Christ. Because we love Him, we hate
those who hate Him. This is the high spiritual plane that the Old Testament
saints stand on in our text.
Would God that the
church today stood so high. Why is it that so many, today, can love those that
hate God? Is it not because they themselves do not love God as they ought?
Who cares, really, about God? Who cares, really, about God’s name? Who cares,
really, about God’s commandments? The child of God hates those who hate the God
he loves. He loathes those who loathe the God he adores. He wills the
destruction of those who will the destruction of the God he blesses. He is an
enemy to the enemies of the God who is his friend.
The Expression of This Hatred
We express our hatred of
those who hate God by counting them our enemies. So we read in verse 22:
“I count them mine enemies.” This is an act of the believer. Those who hate God
may still feign friendship with us. They may even seem to seek our friendship.
But we, on our part, refuse that friendship and regard them as our
enemies. We make this known to them also: “Depart from me therefore, ye bloody
men,” we say to them, according to verse 19. We have no communion with them. We
do not help them in their wicked course of life. We condemn them and their
evils.
This applies to the
church. The church may not have communion with God’s enemies in the World
Council of Churches. Nor may the church help the ungodly in their lawless,
revolutionary enterprises, whether financially or morally. The question of Jehu
the seer to King Jehoshaphat, when Jehoshaphat had leagued himself with
apostate Ahab, applies here: “Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them
that hate the Lord? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord” (II
Chron. 19:2).
Nor may the believer
personally include the wicked in his fellowship, in his family visits, in his
games and in his festive meals. There may be contact, but it consists of the
admonition, “Repent!” This holds even though the wicked is a close relative.
All should know—including my parents, my children and my wife—that for them to
leave God is to leave me; to become God’s enemy is to become my enemy.
Did not Jesus say in Luke 14:26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” We have friendship with those who
are friends of God. This is the implied teaching of the text. They are not
necessarily the nicest personalities. They may even sometimes treat us
unkindly. Nevertheless, I count them my friends. Those who love God, I love.
Those who bless God, I bless. Those who are friends of God shall be friends of
mine.
--------------------------------------------
(III)
More to come! (DV)
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