On Hate

This was a question presented to me by my friend based on concerns about some of the verses we had been memorizing. The latter part is my response. I hope this helps anyone struggling with these verses. If you have anything to add (or correct!) please do.

So, I have some questions.

How do these verses make sense together?

“I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.” Psalm 139:22

“You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:43-44

Are we supposed to love and hate them at the same time? They seem to contradict, but how is that possible? I don’t get it. I know we kind of already talked about this, but it just doesn’t make sense.

I’ve got a quote from John Piper that may or may not help. This quote is from an article that is rather philosophical in its language, but let’s see if it makes sense to you:

“God's emotional life is infinitely complex beyond our ability to fully comprehend. For example, who can comprehend that the Lord hears in one moment of time the prayers of ten million Christians around the world, and sympathizes with each one personally and individually like a caring Father (as Hebrews 4:15 says he will), even though among those ten million prayers some are broken-hearted and some are bursting with joy? How can God weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice when they are both coming to him at the same time—in fact are always coming to him with no break at all?

Or who can comprehend that God is angry at the sin of the world every day (Psalm 7:11), and yet every day, every moment, he is rejoicing with tremendous joy because somewhere in the world a sinner is repenting (Luke 15:7,10,23)? Who can comprehend that God continually burns with hot anger at the rebellion of the wicked, grieves over the unholy speech of his people (Ephesians 4:29-30), yet takes pleasure in them daily (Psalm 149:4), and ceaselessly makes merry over penitent prodigals who come home?”

How does this relate to our discussion? Well… the point is that God is far more complex than we can imagine. We think of being in certain moods at certain times, but it seems that just from the way things go on earth put together with what has been revealed in Scripture, it is the case that God is in every mood all the time! That’s mind boggling! As Piper points out, God “grieves over the unholy speech of His people” yet “takes pleasure in them daily.” This is even more confusing than loving something you hate. Take pleasure in someone who grieves you? Our God is an awesome God!

We should not think that God has a schizophrenic nature. He has a perfect nature. He has the ability to consistently and totally feel the right way all the time!

And what are we supposed to do with this? The best I can come up with is that we are indeed to feel two seemingly opposing ways toward the wicked. We hate them. What does that mean? It means we count them our enemies (Psalm 139:22). What do we do with our enemies? We love them (Matthew 5:43-44). What does that mean? We seek their best. We pray for them, etc. We do NOT take revenge into our own hands! Remember David says “O that You would slay the wicked, O God” (v. 19). And the Lord says, “Vengeance is mine” (Rom 12:19). Furthermore, David wants the wicked to leave him, not be around him, not affect him in a spiritually negative way. So we are not going to be spending time with the lost in such a way that we approve of what they do (Psalm 50:16-18), because doing so will affect our character toward something God hates (1 Cor 15:33).

Search Me, O God

Psalm 139 is one of those chapters that I've always known about but never really studied. I've been making an attempt at memorizing it lately, but alas, I have been lazy about the last 8 verses or so.... and I'm due to be done tomorrow! Well, I think I'll get it done, but first I needed to mention something that a good friend of mine and I realized as we were memorizing these verses. The most commonly quoted verse out of this chapter is probably verse 14 which says:

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well."

This is a great verse (of course in the end they all are). It speaks to the majesty of God. It speaks of our proper response in seeing the grandeur of His creation: praise. We should not think highly of ourselves when we realize the intricacy with which God designed us (vv. 13,15). Instead, we think highly of Him and of His works. David is humbled by the facts he is reciting on the paper rather than puffed up.

And I've missed this fact for a long time.

Before, the verse used to make me feel quite nice. As if God had made me special and that he focused so much on me because I was so valuable to Him and He loved me so much. Yet David mentions emotions that don't seem to go along with this picture: "fearfully" made? What is so fearful about my composition? It is the fact that once David realized how intimately acquainted God was with every facet of his life, he realized not only God's power, but God's exhaustive knowledge of every inch of his being.

He realized God had access to his thought life (v.2). He realized God had knowledge of his daily routine (vv.2-3). Some of these things America attributes to Santa Claus at Christmas time ("sees you when you're sleeping", "knows when you're awake"), but how often does one hear about how much God sees into our lives? Are we willing to admit that God is keeping a list that He doesn't have to check twice because He's so perfectly holy and can't miss a single sin? When we are truly acquainted with our sinfulness as David was (Ps 51:3), we begin to understand why he asks questions like

"Where shall I go from your Spirit, or where shall I flee from Your presence?" (7)

David at this time is not exactly taking comfort in the fact that God knows every minute detail about his life. God's omnipresent, omniscient power is overwhelming and David feels like he needs an escape hatch. But there is nowhere to go. David is trapped. And in fact, it is the Lord who is trapping him:

"You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me." (5)

The Lord does not let David go from His grasp. I am thankful that the Lord caught me, trapped me, and did not let me go. I would have been long gone now were it not for the grace afforded me. With all the talk about light and dark, it seems clear that God is the one who exposes, and David (men) is the one who conceals by nature. However, David does well by the end of the Psalm to plead with God to search him and reveal any "grievous way" (24). Upon realization of the truth that God sees and knows all, David has responded to the exposure of his own sin not by passively accepting it, but actively pursuing it.

How many times do you actively pursue the exposure of your own sin? I know that for me it is certainly not an exciting proposition to find out how big of a failure I am. Nevertheless, the more one pursues the light of God to shine into their lives, the more they grow. In fact I just experienced this recently, when another good friend called and apologized for wrongs committed some time ago. The relationship was not damaged further, it was healed! God is eager to forgive. Confession of sin can only mend the relationship (1 John 1:9) and never harm it, since God already knows what you've done! As the Word says:

"A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise" (Ps 51:17).

God is not looking to browbeat His children. He may chastise them, as a loving father should, but the goal is never humiliation with one of His own. It is restoration. Confession of and destruction of sin are too healthy to be neglected. If you're having trouble finding some (arrogant as that may seem, it happens. Then you realize later how arrogant it was...), pray to the Lord and ask Him to search you and show you your sinfulness. Then you can proceed with putting it to death.