“For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. 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. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:20-24
There is always something evil going on every second of the day, as a result of the fall. If you look at the news, you’ll see that every day all of the 10 Commandments are broken, and those are just the ones that are made public. We know, being humans born into sin, that you break the big ten every day way more than once in just one week. It’s also easy, when you witness the evil that goes on now and has gone on in the past, to react in an angry manner. How could they do that? How could such and evil thing happen? What kind of low life degenerate could do such a thing? All of these, and many more, are questions that I’ve experienced myself asking whenever I hear of some evil that was—or has been—done. The average person would say, without a second thought towards it, that they hate those people and what they are doing. So what is so special when David says that he hates the wickedness of this world, and aren't we supposed to love our enemies? (See Matthew 5:44) Well I’ll tell you, David had a perfect hatred towards the enemies, as opposed to just hating them.
Like I said before, it is easy to experience hatred for wickedness, it comes naturally. Think of all the people throughout history who people naturally just hate. Hitler, Ivan the Terrible, Stalin ect. People naturally hate this people, and why? Because they are evil. What if, however, you learned that moments before Hitler’s death he had actually accepted Jesus into his heart, and was then assassinated by one of his own guards? I’m sure the thought of that, for some, is unbearable, and they’d hate for that to be the case. They’d hate to get to heaven and see Hitler there. But that’s just the difference between hatred and perfect hatred. So what is this perfect hatred and how do we have perfect hatred as opposed to just plain hatred.
In Ephesians 6:12 it says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (See also 2 Corinthians 10:3) That is the key to having perfect hatred. If we look at every person who does wrong things—or has wronged us—in this way then we’ll find that our battle is not in fact against them, but against the evil powers that are energizing them to do so. All deeds done on earth have a spiritual connection. I was listening to a sermon done by my Pastor (Pastor Bob Coy of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale) about living by Faith, and he was saying how even though your Boss or your husband or your wife or your neighbor are acting like the devil, they are not the devil. He then said if there is any advisory, which there is, it is attached to a “string” and that person who you seem to think is “acting like the devil” are in fact a puppet and the puppeteer is the devil himself and he is manipulating and he is infiltrating because he can oppress and he can possess.
That’s how we can distinguish perfect hatred from hatred; by realizing that our war is not with the person who is doing the evil thing, it is not with the evil thing they are doing, but the evil one who is directing them to do the evil thing. It’s this type of thinking—this perfect unbiased purely directed hatred—that would cause one to rejoice with the thought that (if it were actually the case) Hitler became a Christian just before his death. It is once we come to discover this truth that we learn the best way to defeat our true enemy is by getting to the actual important matter of converting their hearts towards Christ.
David then finishes the psalm off by asking God to search him, to find if there is any wicked way in his own life, so that he can be a true impact in the world for Christ. For it is only after one has humbled himself in the sight of the Lord that they are able to be lifted up in the Glory of Christ’s omniscient omnipresent power. (See James 4:10)
As I finish out this study through Psalm 139 I need to make sure that I can differentiate between hatred and perfect hatred, and continually ask God to search me. I hope you enjoyed this study and learned as much as I have through it. I can’t wait to see what else God has to show me as I continue to meditate through his word.
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