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NASB | Psalm 5:5 The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Psalm 5:5 The boastful and the arrogant will not stand in Your sight; You hate all who do evil. |
Bible Question:
OK. I confess. I have problems with the concept of God hating people. God is not a God that has pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with him. The foolish shall not stand in his sight. He hates all workers of iniquity. He shall destroy them that speak lies. The LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. And yet it seems it is the behavior that the Lord hates and not the people. God hates “wickedness” and “evil”. He hates “workers of iniquity” because they work iniquity. It seems to me it is the fact that people link themselves with those behaviors that the Lord hates. He hates the fact, not the people. I can more easily understand the concept of man hating God (as in Deuteronomy 5:9). And yet, though he makes himself an enemy of God by working iniquity, man is nevertheless the object of God’s pity and his love. God tells us to love our enemies. He tells us to love those who hate us. Does he do any less? I read that God is angry with the wicked every day. And yet, his desire is not to destroy them. He says, (Isaiah 55:7) “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon”. Now, if God hates a person when he is in wickedness, but has mercy on him when he forsakes his wickedness, is it not his association with wickedness that the Lord hates. It is the same person. But God changes from hating the person to loving him when the person’s attitude toward wickedness changes! One wonders if God gets to hate people because they persist in their sin and will not change. And yet Nehemiah says, “our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments, and refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness. God commends his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners … And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death. He loved us so while we were his enemies! Is this a God who hates people? |
Bible Answer: We think hate is something bad ... yet like jealousy it is not always bad (never bad as something of God). He is using hyperbole, when comparing Jacob and Esau (Mal 1:2-3, Rom 9:13). Read the rest of the chapter ... He choses whom He will have mercy on. In fact, we are told to hate (Luk 14:26 - read context (vv 25-35) ... it is the cost of discipleship. In fact, we can only love one master, in constrast we do hate the other (Mat 6:24, Luk 16:13) Mind you, we are to love our enemies (Mat 5:43-44, Luk 6:27) ... love those that hate us (2Sa 19:6) |