“O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 97:10 ESV
Reflection: why does God have to tell His people to hate evil?
Popcorners is a “healthy chip” brand, with one of their products made just from popcorn, sea salt and some sort of seed oil, that I was introduced to a couple of years ago. It is very good. But the only problem is that, if I open a bag with the intention of having just a few chips for a snack, suddenly I find that the bag is almost empty. So after a few bags consumed over the past couple of years, I have come to this conclusion that the best approach for me is to just not open the bag; unless I plan to eat the whole bag which of course I know is not good for me.
Ok, I know it is a silly example of weakness in temptation, but I think we all relate and we have certain things we know in ourselves that we just have to stay away from. That we will have more than we should. That the “thing” almost seems to take control away from us. And there are of course some things are a lot worse than a bag of popcorners, and can lead to real bondage and slavery, such as familiar things like smoking, alcohol, drugs. But also less discussed things like gaming, pornography, eating, shopping, internet scrolling, gossip, stealing, lies and deception, manipulation and control, and many others. There is a long list of tools used by the devil, as we all know, but common to all of these is the weakness of our flesh. It is the sickness that is in all of us, and our enemy is well aware of it. And he uses this to lure us into slavery.
Just a few chips…what is the harm?
As children of God, we love what is good, what is right, what is pure and holy. We can look all around in nature, and we see His beauty, His character. We marvel at the work of His hands. The psalmist starts out psalm 97, proclaiming “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.” Psalm 97:1-6 ESV. It is unclear whether the psalmist was referring to how he experienced God all around him in the powerful nature, or if this was a vision of the future, when the Lord will appear in all His glory, majesty and might.
In the focus verse from this psalm today, we see an interesting statement by the psalmist that at first glance seems so amazingly unnecessary. I really want you to think about this. He says ““O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” Psalm 97:10a ESV. And, as we started with in the reflection today, why in the world does the psalmist remind, or actually tell God people to “hate evil”? If we love God, isn’t that a given, that we hate evil? Clearly not, otherwise it wouldn’t have been stated.
Let’s think about a few scenarios. Let’s say you are watching a movie, all seems to be going well. But suddenly the villain, the evil person in the movie does something evil, perhaps even blasphemous against God. How do you react? What do you do? Continue to watch or turn it off? What if you were watching this at a friend’s house. Do you keep quiet, or say something, that you cannot watch this? What if your friends start gossiping about another friend, do you join in the gossip, or refuse to participate?
The question is, how do we react and respond to evil? How much do we actually hate evil?
The psalmist tells us to “hate evil!” To detest all forms of evil and wickedness. I think far too often we as God’s children have been tolerating, accepting and even dabbling in evil, thinking that “we are forgiven for all sins”, right? That a little is ok, as we wait for the Lord. Dabbling in the “world”, then asking God for forgiveness. The Lord tells us to come out of her, the great Babylon. “After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.” Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”Revelation 18:1-5 ESV
Paul also reminds us “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”” 2 Corinthians 6:14-15, 17-18 ESV