SAMECH. The double-minded have I hated; but thy law do I love.
Two of the strongest words a person can use meet in this verse: hate and love. Older translations read "I hate vain thoughts," while the ESV reads "I hate the double-minded," and commentators draw value from both.
One writer weighs the two words side by side.
Notice the contrasts in this verse: Hate — Love! These are very decisive expressions. He certainly has deep convictions!
On the older reading, the hatred falls on thought itself. One commentator says the word "vain" was added and has no authority behind it.
I would ask the reader to think over Psalm 119:113 together with Psalm 139:17. In the first of those psalms the word "vain" was inserted, and there is no authority for it. Two things stand contrasted here: "thoughts" and "your law." The word of God is the opposite of those thoughts, and the writer prefers it to them.
Another writer names which thoughts are meant, and where the soul goes instead.
"I hate vain thoughts, but I love Your law" — thoughts, I suppose, of man's understanding and reasoning. But God's word he loved. So the soul turned away from man's reasonings to God.
Commentators differ here. Others take the word to describe people rather than ideas — those who never settle which side they are on.
"I hate the double-minded," begins the psalmist; "but I love Your law." His own honest heart cannot put up with people who waver. One moment they are for Jehovah, the next for Baal. They have no real conviction. When opinions clash, they follow only their own will.
Their verdict on good and evil keeps shifting. The law the psalmist loves never shifts.
Being double-minded, they will praise what is good at one time, and condemn it in the next breath. Or they condemn evil at one time, then side with it when it suits their purpose. But the believer can say at all times, "I love Your law" — the law that always loves good and hates evil.
Hating man's thoughts leaves a gap. The same writer asks what fills it, and answers from another psalm.
We will then understand the words as they stand: "I hate thoughts." But what do we have instead of our own thoughts? Psalm 139 gives the answer: "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" We have God's thoughts to occupy us, and it is the Word that gives them to us. They are recorded nowhere else.
This stand costs the psalmist something. One writer shows what it brings on him, and where he then turns.
In contrast to such people he loves the Word that reveals the mind of God. This hatred of man's thoughts, and love of God's Word, stirs up the hatred of man. Under that opposition, God and His Word are the soul's only resource and confidence: "You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word."
Unwanted thoughts arrive uninvited. One writer separates what we cannot control from what we can.
The Psalmist could say, "I hate vain thoughts." No wonder. They really are hateful, and we should judge them, condemn them and drive them out. Someone speaking about evil thoughts said, "I cannot stop birds from flying over me, but I can stop them landing on me. In the same way, I cannot stop evil thoughts from entering my mind, but I can refuse to let them stay."
- Hate. Two decisive words carry the verse, hate and love. They show a man of deep convictions.
- Thoughts. On the older reading, "vain" was added to the text. The plain contrast is between man's thoughts and God's word.
- Divided. Read the other way, the hatred falls on the double-minded. They hold no fixed conviction and follow only their own wills.
- Replaced. The mind is not emptied but refilled: God's thoughts, recorded in His word, take the place of our own.
- Sheltered. Hating man's thoughts stirs man's hatred in return. God Himself is then the hiding place and shield.
Thou art my hiding-place and my shield I hope in thy word.
The psalmist has just refused the double-minded way of thinking. Now he names what God is to him — a shelter to run into and a shield to stand behind — and he ties both to God's word.
This verse follows a stand the psalmist has taken. One commentator traces what that stand costs, and where it drives the soul.
The believer hates the reasoning of the double-minded man — the one who wavers between two opinions. By contrast, he loves the Word that reveals the mind of God. This hatred of man's thoughts, and love of God's Word, stirs up the hatred of man. Under that opposition, God and His Word are the only resource and confidence of the soul: "You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word."
The two pictures are not one idea said twice.
Dangers from the hosts of evil lurk on every side. Yet God is a perfectly safe hiding place away from the danger, or a shield in the very face of it. The believer's hope, settled and secure, is in God's Word, which is forever settled in heaven.
Hebrew has more than one word for a shield.
Another word, magen, refers to a smaller shield. This is the word that appears most often in the Old Testament, and above all in the Psalms, where it speaks of God's protection — as in Psalm 28:7, Psalm 33:20, Psalm 84:11 and Psalm 119:114.
The psalmist says "my." One writer traces that word back to what he has lived through, and to the company he has had to leave.
His own integrity of heart cannot bear the wavering of those who are for the LORD one moment and for Baal the next. Such people have no real conviction. In the clash of opinion they follow only their own wills. For himself, his heart is in the path of obedience. More than that, he knows what it is to have the LORD as his hiding place and shield — a living God making Himself known in the day of trial, so that His word becomes his confidence. His path must separate from evildoers, for he is set to keep the commandments of his God.
The second half of the verse is not an add-on. One writer shows where the soul goes once it turns from human reasoning.
The soul states its own condition. But then it looks out to see God step in according to the word, and it hopes in that. At the same time it grasps God's judgment on the disobedient… The soul turned to God, away from man's reasonings. God, and God only, is his hiding place and shield; he hopes in His word.
A shelter only shelters those who stay inside it. One writer turns the verse into a direct word to the reader.
He who is the Father's delight — the One on whom He always looks with perfect pleasure — is every believer's hiding place; He is your hiding place. There you are sheltered from every storm in this life, and there too, as behind an unbreakable shield, you are safe forever. No enemy can ever break through your sure defence. They may threaten, but can do no more. Only watch, and never wander from your hiding place. Your only security is to keep behind the shield. You have everything there.
- Refuse — the verse follows a decision. First the psalmist rejects the double-minded way of thinking. Then God becomes his one resource.
- Hide — the hiding place is shelter away from the danger, out of reach of the attack.
- Shield — magen, the smaller shield of the Psalms, is protection in the face of the danger. It guards you where you stand.
- Hope — the soul turns from human reasoning to what God has said. His word is forever settled in heaven.
- Stay — the hiding place is a Person, and it shelters only those who remain in it. Never wander from it. Never step out from behind the shield.