Psalm 34: The Lord’s Face
Psalm 34:16 - Evildoers face God’s wrath, but He wants us to do everything we can to bring them to Him.
“The face of the Lord is against evildoers,
To cut off the memory of them from the earth.”
Psalms 34:16 NASB1995
While the eyes and ears of the Lord are turned toward His beloved saints, His face is set against evildoers. The eerie photo above is like the path that evildoers choose. So how can we define what is evil? Gotquestions.org has a pretty good answer to this question:
Evil behavior includes sin committed against other people (murder, theft, adultery) and evil committed against God (unbelief, idolatry, blasphemy). From the disobedience in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9) to the wickedness of Babylon the Great (Revelation 18:2), the Bible speaks of the fact of evil, and man is held responsible for the evil he commits: “The one who sins is the one who will die” (Ezekiel 18:20).
Essentially, evil is a lack of goodness. Moral evil is not a physical thing; it is a lack or privation of a good thing. As Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland has noted, “Evil is a lack of goodness. It is goodness spoiled. You can have good without evil, but you cannot have evil without good.” Or as Christian apologist Greg Koukl has said, “Human freedom was used in such a way as to diminish goodness in the world, and that diminution, that lack of goodness, that is what we call evil.”
God is love (1 John 4:8); the absence of love in a person is un-God-like and therefore evil. And an absence of love manifests itself in unloving behavior. The same can be said concerning God’s mercy, justice, patience, etc. The lack of these godly qualities in anyone constitutes evil. That evil then manifests itself in behavior that is unmerciful, unjust, impatient, etc., bringing more harm into the good world that God has made. As it turns out, we lack a lot: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’” (Romans 3:10).
Moral evil is wrong done to others, and it can exist even when unaccompanied by external action. Murder is an evil action, but it has its start with the moral evil of hatred in the heart (Matthew 5:21–22). Committing adultery is evil, but so is the moral evil of lust in the heart (Matthew 5:27–28). Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person” (Mark 7:20–23).
Those who fall into evil behavior usually start slowly. Paul shows the tragic progression into more and more evil in Romans 1. It starts with refusing to glorify God or give thanks to Him (Romans 1:21), and it ends with God giving them over to a “depraved mind” and allowing them to be “filled with every kind of wickedness” (verses 28–29).
Those who practice evil are in Satan’s trap and are slaves to sin: “Opponents [of the Lord’s servant] must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25–26; see also John 8:34). Only by the grace of God can we be set free.
The Lord not only sets His face against evildoers, He wants to cut off the memory of those evildoers from the face of the Earth. Here are the Charles Spurgeon Exposition/Explanatory notes from Precept Austin:
EXPOSITION
Ver. 16. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. God is not indifferent to the deeds of sinners, but he sets his face against them, as we say, being determined that they shall have no countenance and support, but shall be thwarted and defeated. He is determinately resolved that the ungodly shall not prosper; he sets himself with all his might to overthrow them. To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. He will stamp out their fires, their honour shall be turned into shame, their names forgotten or accursed. Utter destruction shall be the lot of all the ungodly.
It sometimes seems like the ungodly do prosper in this lifetime. But God loves them just like He loves those who have repented and believed. He wants them to come to Him and will give them every chance before they die. They may live a prosperous life now but God’s plan is for eternity. Gotquestions.org has a good answer to this question, too:
Perhaps the best answer to the question “Why do the wicked prosper?” is this: because God loves sinners (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). He is compassionate, merciful, and patient with wicked people because He wants them to be saved. Second Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
God is slow to anger, abounding in love. He is a compassionate God who gives certain blessings to all people (Matthew 5:45) and who desires all to be saved. His patience with the wicked is an opportunity for them to be saved: “And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved” (2 Peter 3:15, NLT).
We might want to see the wicked destroyed immediately, but God has a sovereign plan that needs to move forward. And in His love and grace, He wants them to be saved. God’s patience with the wicked is an opportunity for us to pray for them and witness to them so that they will know God’s heart toward them. We are called to tell the wicked of His wonderful salvation and to warn them of the punishment that they can expect if they remain hardened toward God and don’t turn from their stubborn path.
Evil has reared its ugly head in recent days in our nation but we meet this evil best by increasing our prayer presence before God and asking for His grace and love to abound.
My next devotional examines Psalm 34:17: The righteous cry and the Lord hears.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Please help me to reach out and pray for those who are ungodly, with the hopes that they can know the endless bounty of Your love. Amen.
Gotquestions.org was accessed on 09/02/2025 to ask the questions, “How is evil defined?”, “Why do the wicked prosper?”
Precept Austin was accessed on 09/02/2025 to review commentary for Psalm 34: 16.