If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Psalms 139:19-22 - David may have gone a bit too far in His zeal for God’s honor, but his intense loathing of sin was commendable.
An AI representation of the vengeful Old Testament God slaying the wicked. Created using Dall-E 3.
“If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.”
Psalms 139:19-22 NIV
After the rather gentle tone of the rest of this psalm, verses 19-22 come as a bit of a shock. From the Old Testament view, asking God to “slay the wicked”, hating “those who hate you, Lord”, “abhor those who are in rebellion against you”, and having “nothing but hatred for them” sounds like asking God to kill your enemies and then hating anyone who isn’t a believer. This is a bit shocking to our New Testament sensibilities, as we tend to follow Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 5:44 to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Up to this point in Psalm 139, David has been filled with wonder at God’s creation, His omnipotence and His omniscience. Then “POW!”, out of nowhere comes this diatribe. What’s David doing? Well, he loves God so much that his zeal for the honor of God is being displayed. These three short remarks from Enduring Word look at David’s words:
i. “The abrupt change in the psalm from reverie to resolve is disturbing, but wholly biblical in its realism.” (Kidner)
ii. “Crimes committed before the face of the Judge are not likely to go unpunished.... God who sees all evil will slay all evil.” (Spurgeon)
iii. “A faithful servant hath the same interests, the same friends, the same enemies with his Master, whose cause and honor he is, upon all occasions, in duty bound to support and maintain.” (Horne)
(Those providing the commentary are Derek Kidner, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and George Horne).
David wants to show God that he is on His side, to the point that he hates those who hate God. He was rebelling against something that we see too often today, loving God without hating evil. Many Christians and even mainstream denominations are so tied up in the “everyone is welcome” theme that they end up ushering some of the worst sinners into the congregations and eventually into leadership positions in the church.
Another David — David Guzik of Enduring Word — said this: “It is entirely possible for a person to be too loving, and it corrupts his claimed love for God.” When Christians try too hard not to be called “haters”, they can go too far in being accepting of blatant sin.
George Horne made these two comments on the quandary of loving God without hating evil:
ii. “A good man hates, as God himself doth: he hates not the persons of men, but their sins; not what God made them, but what they have made themselves.” (Horne)
iii. “We are neither to hate the men, on account of the vices they practice; nor to love the vices, for the sake of the men who practice them.” (Horne)
Horne seems to be advocating the “Love the sinner, hate the sin” point of view, which is a very New Testament position. Sadly, in our time some mainstream Protestant denominations have twisted this into “Love the sinner, and celebrate the sin”. That does nothing to encourage those who have allegedly accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior to repent of their sin and emulate Jesus.
David may have gone a bit too far in His zeal for God’s honor, but his intense loathing of sin was commendable. I’ll end today’s devotional with these words from John Piper on Desiring God:
We will grant to the psalmist (usually David), who speaks, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the foreshadowed Messiah and Judge, the right to call down judgment on the enemies of God. This is not personal vindictiveness. It is a prophetic execution of what will happen at the last day when God casts all his enemies into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). We would do well to leave such final assessments to God, and realize our own corrupt inability to hate as we ought. While there is unforgivable sin for which we are not to pray, we are told to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us, and return good for evil. This is our vocation by faith. Let us tremble and trust God, lest we fail, and find ourselves on the other side of the curse.
By John Piper. © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Today’s prayer on these verses comes from Pastor Don Patterson:
Dear lord,
I've always had a hard time reading David's words how he hates the wicked with a perfect hatred. But I understand what it means to be loyal to you. You are the one who made me. You are the one who saved me. You are the one who helps me grow and protects my life. When people use your name lightly or as an expression of astonishment, or as a curse word or they say things about you that are demeaning or minimizing, I do get disturbed in my heart. I know they don't know you. I know they don't care about you either. I always want to be sensitive about you because I love you with my heart. But I also want to be careful to reach out to even your enemies with love and respect. You tell me that it gives them the best opportunity to repent. Help me strike the balance between inner loyalty to you at all times and outer gentleness toward those to whom you send me to confront with your love.
Amen