Heart of a Psalmist - Worshipping Christ Through The Psalms

IV

DESTROY THE WICKED - 19-24

God is All-Just

“O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! They blaspheme you, your enemies take your name in vain. O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you! Shouldn’t I de- spise those who resist you! Yes, I hate them with complete hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.” (19-22) We are not allowed to ‘hate’ anyone in the New Testament era. Hate is an emotion almost as intense as love and when we focus our hatred upon an individual they control our life in a totally negative and destructive way. The antidote to hatred is to love and pray for our enemy. The psalmist describes the enemies of God in six ways: 1. Wicked- They have not turned from their inner iniquity 2. Murderers- Hatred is the stem of murder, they desire to kill all that is good. 3. Blasphemy- They express this hatred for God with horrible and malicious words, dragging his name into their own darkness. 4. Hatred for God- This is divine recompense, God is responding to their aggressive rebellion against him. 5. Resistance- All efforts of grace have been denied by the wicked multiple times, they irrepara- bly seal their fate. 6. Enemies- They have chosen to oppose everything that God stands for and overthrow his rule in the universe. There will come a time at the end of the age, when the perfect mercies that Jesus showed his en- emies from the time of the cross will turn into judgment. It is not personal but positional, they have made an eternal choice to reject and oppose the God so lovingly presented in this psalm. Only Jesus is ca- pable of such righteous judgment as he is free from personal anger towards anyone. He will “hate them with complete hatred, (‘perfect’ NIV) ; despising and rejecting all that has opposed the merciful rule of his Father. Our author is stunned by the all-inclusiveness of God’s knowledge concerning his life; he is awed by the coming judgment upon those who persist in their wickedness and opens himself to God’s com- plete examination of all that he is. He asks for a test of his motives, thought patterns and habits of life to make sure he is on the Lord’s side when God makes the eternal divide between good and evil. The New Testament encourages us to undergo regular spiritual examinations to avoid major diseases of the soul and heart: • “That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking from the cup.” (1 Cor. 11:28) • “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. Test yourselves. If you cannot tell that Jesus Christ is among you, it means you have failed the test.” (2 Cor. 13:5) “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (23, 24)

Search me, O God and know my heart!

1 Scroggie 2 Keil & Delitzsch 3 Scroggie 4 Keil & Delitzsch 5 Scroggie 6 Keil & Delitzsch 7 Keil & Delitzsch

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