Evil People Hate God's People

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“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.” (Psalm 139:21-22).

David has no other response to God’s enemies than that of hatred, i.e., he is not neutral towards them nor will he ever ally himself with them. Of the psalmist Spurgeon says that “he was a good hater, for he hated only those who hated good.” The psalmist could not remain neutral on the matter of those who hate God. And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? He was disgusted with, nauseated by, and loathed those men who unjustly raised their hatred against God. I count them mine enemies.

Once a conscious choice has been made to reject God’s truth and love, an individual begins to hate God and the people of God. The Scriptures are replete with these insights, but two references should suffice to establish the teaching—“they that hate the righteous shall be desolate” (Psalm 34:21) and “the bloodthirsty hate the upright” (Proverbs 29:10).

Don’t be surprised at the hatred of godly issues and people. “If the world hate you, you should know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).

Perhaps more alarming than the widespread evidence that many are running full-tilt into the “broad way” leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13) are the few who have found the “straight path” leading to eternal life and yet continue to remain indifferent to the crisis of evil surrounding our country, our churches, and our families.

Would God that our leaders would have the same passion the psalmist felt when he wrote, “Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law” (Psalm 119:53). Perhaps it is time that we each feel something of the godly sorrow that caused “rivers of waters [to] run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law” (Psalm 119:136) or sense an ache when we “beheld the transgressors, and [were] grieved; because they kept not thy word” (Psalm 119:158).

As our text notes, “I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.” “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me” (Psalm 101:6).

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