Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee? and do not I loathe them that rise up against thee?
The words here sound harsh on a first reading: a man tells God that he hates people. They close a psalm about God knowing every thought. What does a man who lives under that gaze feel toward God's enemies? And do such words belong in a believer's mouth today?
The psalm has spent eighteen verses on God's knowledge and His presence everywhere. It has also described how He formed the body. The turn to the wicked is not a change of subject but a consequence of it.
This connection with God is a complete break with the wicked: God will slay them. And he calls on them to leave him. So he looks at the wicked with horror, because of what they are to God. And for himself, he asks God to search him right through, so that no wickedness may remain in him.
The next verse calls this hatred "complete" — older translations say "perfect." One writer takes it to mean a hatred that has ripened.
It is for this reason that the psalmist hates them. It seems these enemies have gone beyond even wanting any change. So there is no alternative but judgment. He says, "I hate them with perfect hatred" (v. 22). Does that not imply that the hatred has matured rightly? Since they are God's enemies, then the believer is expected to consider them his enemies also.
The psalmist never complains of what these men have done to him. His case rests on their stand against God, and on how long God has borne with it.
Notice here that the judgment is not asked for personal reasons. It is asked because these enemies are lined up against God. They speak wickedly against Him (v. 20), and take His name in vain. God has dealt with them long and patiently. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But they have resisted His pleading. They have set themselves in firm opposition to His gracious offers.
Behind these words is a settled agreement with God about evil. It starts at home, before it looks outward.
The believer belongs to God (1 John 5:19). So in his inner being he shares God's holy judgment on human evil. The solemn warnings of the vengeance that will fall on the ungodly come to the believer as promises of comfort... A believer hates sin. He hates it whether in himself or in the world. His flesh, instead of hating sin, delights in it. So in all God's children there is a constant conflict between flesh and Spirit... Sin is the only thing that a believer, walking in the Spirit, either dreads or hates. For that alone can cut off his soul's communion with God, who is the true and valued source of all his joy.
Commentators are careful here: the psalm's call for judgment is not a pattern for prayer now. One points to the moment two of Jesus' followers wanted to call down fire on a village that refused Him.
The Lord answered them, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of." They stood under a different order of God's dealings. It was not the order of law, but of grace, since "grace and truth" had come "by Jesus Christ." As long as grace is preached, judgment must wait. Yet judgment must eventually come for those who refuse the grace of God.
The same writer says plainly what takes its place today.
We should not pray for God's judgment against enemies today, for we live in the day of grace. We ought rather to pray for our enemies, that the Lord Jesus may so deal with them that they may be saved, before the judgment of God has to overtake them.
Something of the psalmist's spirit does carry over. One writer applies these very words to Paul's sharp letter to the Galatians: anger held in check, with vengeance left to the Lord.
It was no time for polite manners and smooth speech... But he hates those who hate the Lord, and is grieved with those who rise up against Him (Ps. 139:21-22). He counts them his own enemies for the sake of the truth, which he loves. Yet his anger is still with meekness. He wishes, but his Lord alone can act as the avenger of His name. Our day shows little of the apostle's spirit. Sound teaching and false teaching now exchange friendly greetings on the shared ground of human sympathy... Everywhere a spirit of compromise is at work.
- Nearness. Living under God's searching eye produces the break with the wicked. The horror is over what they are to God.
- Ripened. "Perfect hatred" reads as a settled judgment on those who no longer even want to change, not a flash of temper.
- Impersonal. The psalmist avenges nothing for himself. His charge is that they speak against God and have resisted His long patience.
- Inward first. The believer hates sin in himself as well as in the world, because sin alone cuts off his communion with God.
- Restrained. Judgment waits while grace is preached, so the Christian prays for enemies instead. Loyalty to truth stays; vengeance belongs to the Lord.
I hate them with perfect hatred; I account them mine enemies.
The verse closes a short, hard section (verses 19–22). The rest of the psalm is full of wonder at God knowing us and forming us. Two questions follow. How can hatred be "complete" and still be right? And what is the psalmist hating?
The hatred is not a private grudge. These people have set themselves against God, and the psalmist takes God's side.
It is for this reason that the psalmist hates them. It seems these enemies have gone past even wanting any change. So there is no option left but judgment. When it says, "I hate them with complete hatred" — older translations read "perfect hatred" — does it not imply that the hatred has matured rightly? Since they are God's enemies, the believer is expected to count them his enemies too.
The verse grows out of the psalm's main theme. Nearness to God brings a break with those God judges.
But, further, this connection with God is a complete break with the wicked: God will slay them. And he calls on them to depart from him. So he looks at the wicked with horror, because of what they are to God. And for himself, he asks God to search him right through, so that no wickedness may remain in him.
The believer shares God's judgment of evil. And that hatred of evil does not stop at the edge of his own life.
The believer belongs to God. So deep inside, he agrees with the judgment that God's holiness passes on human evil. All the thoughts of God are precious to His people… A believer hates sin. He hates it whether in himself or in the world. His flesh, instead of hating sin, delights in it. So in all God's children there is a constant conflict between flesh and Spirit. Sin is the only thing that a believer, walking in the Spirit, dreads or hates. That alone can cut off his soul's communion with God, who is the source of all his joy.
One writer sets a limit on how we use these words today, without faulting the psalmist's motive.
We should not pray for God's judgment against enemies today. We live in the day of grace. We ought instead to pray for our enemies, that the Lord Jesus might so deal with them that they may be saved before God's judgment has to overtake them. But a time will come, after the Lord comes for us and takes the Church into His presence, when it will be perfectly consistent with truth to ask for the destruction of God's enemies… Yet notice here that it is not for personal reasons that the judgment is desired, but rather because these enemies are set against God.
One writer finds the same attitude in Paul, and notes where Paul stopped.
But he hates those who hate the Lord, and is grieved with those who rise up against Him (Ps. 139:21-22). He counts them his own enemies for the sake of the truth, which he loves. Yet his anger is still with meekness. He wishes, but his Lord alone can act as the avenger of His name.
Verse 22 is not the last word. The man who counts God's enemies his own turns at once and asks God to examine him.
The psalmist is in perfect agreement with the divine sentence, and counts the enemies of God as enemies to himself. But he knows his own sickness too. God's holy presence is not only a refuge from the wickedness around him. He seeks it as a refuge from himself also, and welcomes its light, as the place where sin cannot hide.
One writer marks the change in the man himself between the psalm's opening and its close.
He was oppressed before. Now, free in spirit, he takes God's side against God's enemies (19-22), sure of their final defeat. Then the Psalm closes, but so differently from the spirit in which it opened.
- Searched — the psalm opens with God searching a man; verse 22 flows from a heart already open to Him.
- Sided — being near God means taking His side; the break with the wicked is the other face of the bond with God.
- Sin — the target is evil itself, in the world and in oneself; that is why flesh and Spirit are at war in every believer.
- Restrained — in the day of grace this cry is not ours; we pray that God saves our enemies first. A coming day will make the cry fitting again.
- Searched again — the man who counts God's enemies his own ends by asking God to examine him, welcoming a light that hides nothing.