“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
July 5, 2024
The moral weather vane of the character of a nation is what it hates. Surprised? It is fashionable to shout and show signs that exhort us to love, not hate. Sounds pious but crushes what it means to love. Psalm 97 celebrates the kingship of God over all the world. The awesome nature of God’s rule includes being inspired to be morally courageous and joyful as kingdom citizens, namely those who worship Jesus Christ. Those who love God will know how to live in hard times and rejoice in His protection and train themselves to hate evil. How do we know if we hate evil? “First, if our hatred of sin is universal. That is, the one who hates sin truly, hates all kinds of sin. Secondly, if our hatred of sin is fixed. There should be no appeasing of sin but rather an abolishing of the thing hated. Thirdly, if our hatred of sin is a more rooted affection than anger. Anger may be appeased, but hatred remains and opposes the hated object.”***
We will continue this in our next Morning Minute. We are learning something vital about what it means to radiate God’s righteousness in an evil world.
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*** Credit is given to the Puritan, Richard Sibbes as cited in Spurgeon’s Treasury of David.