Psalm 5:5

Note: You will notice in vs. 5 that depending on which version you are reaching for you will see primarily the verse begin either with “The boastful” or “The foolish.” Now we may say boasting is foolishness but one can possibly be foolish without boasting so that they are not necessarily the same thing. Franz Delitzsch addresses the proper use here and says, “Now there [are] specific designations of the wicked… [they] are the foolish, and more especially foolish boasters; the primary notion of the verb is not being hollow, but that of sounding, then of loud boisterous, nonsensical behavior.” With that understanding I think it would appear the NIV has this word translated most accurately into our English language when it uses “The arrogant” to translate the Hebrew word halal. The others aren’t too far off base but neither really gets the entire meaning either. These are men who are fools and are proud to tell the world they are so. Matthew Poole captures this sentiment when he says, “The foolish; or, the madmen, as the word properly signifies.”

“The arrogant shall not stand in your sight.”
¨      […] it is a very just inference from this, that iniquity is hateful to God, and that, therefore, He will execute His just punishment upon all the wicked. He calls those fools, according to a frequent use of the term in Scripture, who, impelled by blind passion, rush headlong into sin. Nothing is more foolish, than for the ungodly to cast away the fear of God, and suffer the desire of doing mischief to be their ruling principle: yea, there is no madness worse than the contempt of God, under the influence of which men pervert all right. JC
¨      Folly is the designation of boasting; and of sin generally, with the additional idea of high-mindedness here, which is especially offensive to God. JFB, A.R. Fausset
¨      Oh, how foolish are we if we attempt to entertain two guests so hostile to one another as Christ Jesus and the devil! Rest assured, Christ will not live in the parlor of our hearts if we entertain the devil in the cellar of our thoughts… A little sin is a great folly, and the greatest of all folly is great sin. Such sinful fools as these must be banished from the court of heaven. Earthly kings were wont to have fools in their trains, but the only wise God will have no fools in His palace above. CHS
¨      […] wicked men…, who are indeed morally and really madmen, in fighting with the Lord God Almighty, and exposing themselves to such dreadful hazards and mischiefs for such mean and monetary advantages. [They cannot stand in thy sight] either in battle against thee… or in judgment at thy tribunal… MP
¨      [These men] are not able to maintain their position when they become manifest before the eye of God. K&D, Franz Delitzsch

“[…] you hate all workers of iniquity.”
¨      The verbal phrases “[you are not a God] who takes pleasure” (vs. 4), “you hate” (vs. 5), and “the Lord abhors” (vs. 6) affirm three times God’s absolute hatred of evil. In Malachi’s days some argued that God “delights” in evildoers (Mal. 2:17). But in response, the Lord revealed how He will quickly judge the unfaithful people... Similarly, the negative statements “cannot dwell” (vs. 4) and “cannot stand” (vs. 5) are completed by the phrase “you destroy,” having the same root as the verb in 1:6: “but the way of the wicked will perish.” God hates both sin and those who sin against Him. EBC, W. VanGemeren
¨      It is not a little dislike, but a thorough hatred which God bears towards workers of iniquity. To be hated of God is an awful thing. O let us be very faithful in warning the wicked around us, for it will be a terrible thing for them to fall into the hands of an angry God. CHS
¨      Such men Jehovah hates; for if He did not hate evil, His love would not be a holy love. K&D, Franz Delitzsch
¨      [God has a] continued aversion to them, denying them His grace and favor, and rejecting them from all nearness to Him and communion with Him; and may include the everlasting punishment of them, by which His discipline and hatred will be made manifest: and He is impartial in it, without any respect to persons, high or low, rich or poor; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will come upon every soul of man that does evil. God's love to His own people was antecedent to sin, and was placed upon them in Christ, in whom their persons are always well pleasing to Him; and though they sinned in Adam, and became actual transgressors of His law, yet such was His love to their persons, that He saves them from their sins by the blood and righteousness of His son. JG
¨      The workers of iniquity are very foolish. Sin is folly, and sinners are the greatest of all fools; not fools of God’s making (those are to be pitied), for He hates nothing that He has made, but fools of their own making, and those He hates. Wicked people hate God; justly therefore are they hated of Him, and it will be their endless misery and ruin. MH

Personal Summary:

I think it may be wise to consider the biblical concept of godly hate. I remember a few years ago hearing a pastor, in a Reformed church, try and pawn off Rom. 9:13 as “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I loved less.” I also remember a fellow Reformed Christian trying to explain to me how God loves all men indiscriminately regardless of if they are saved or not by the fact that He has not immediately destroyed them. All of us at some point or another have heard this argument proposed.

Yet neither of these things is the biblical concept being discussed in this verse or in others such as Rom. 9:13. The word actually means God hates them! Not loves less and not dislikes, hates. Let’s look at the original words used in both passages. In Ps. 5:5 the Hebrew word is שׂנא sane’ which literally means to hate, be hateful; hater, one hating, enemy; to be hated; hater. This is the same word used in Mal. 1:3 which is what Romans 9:13 references. In the verse in Romans the meaning hasn’t changed from the Hebrew to the Greek either, the Greek word is μισεω miseo which means to hate, pursue with hatred, detest; to be hated, detested; if anything the word may have gotten stronger, not weaker. Neither are given in uncertain terms or application.

You see, the problem is that we view the clear evidence of Scripture as revealing either a flawed God or a God we are not willing to defend. The problem is not that the word of God is not clear on the matter or that the language left us was somehow too ambiguous for us to determine what is being said. It accomplishes all of that easily. The problem is that our sinful hearts cannot fathom the thought that God hates someone and we don’t feel capable of reconciling that He can both perfectly hate one and perfectly love another; as if the two stand opposed to each other, which they do not. A holy God must hate sin or He fails to be holy. To be actually holy He must hate sin as a personal affront to His very being and accordingly He must hate those who frolic in sin in opposition to His declared will and His holy nature. But God, through His Son, took pity on some that His mercy and love might shine forth in those whom He saves. That doesn’t mean those men weren’t filthy sinners as well, they were and are, but they are no longer viewed in light of their own depraved hearts but through the prism of the imputed righteousness of Christ. As such they cease to be hated by God for they are no longer wretched sinners that hate God in His eyes, but justified saints being sanctified until He calls them home in glory.

The one attribute and action of God does not threaten or contradict the other. The two work in perfect harmony and put the holy loving God of heaven on full display for the world to see. We do not need to be apologists for who He is, we do not need to rewrite His inerrant word to make it fit our sinful sensibilities; we need to proclaim Him just as He has revealed Himself to us and glorify Him for who He actually is. When we start trying to manipulate the God of the Bible into a god made in our own image, a god without offense or opposition to sin and sinners alike, we cease to worship the God of the Bible and it is certain not one man guilty of this has ever made God more perfect than He already is. In other words, you have accomplished nothing except sin itself. Is it not enough that He has saved us from our sin and given us the immense honor to proclaim Him to the world? Can we not rest easy there and bathe in the warm glow of His holy character?

Understand the actions and attributes of God all work together in one cognitive holy theme. Just as God hates both the sin and the sinner He likewise, as Francis Turretin says, justly, “[imposes punishment] not only on sin but also on the very person of the sinner… Justice demands necessarily that all sin should be punished, but does not equally demand that it should be punished in the very person sinning or at such a time and in such a degree.” (Institutes 1.19) Here we see the theme is constant and steady regardless of how we approach it (or from what point the matter is being considered from). God hates sin and thus He has to punish sin. God hates the sinner who commits sin and thus justice determines that the sinner be punished as well. In the case of the elect their sins have been equally punished, and more so, through Christ who was the propitiation for their sin. He stood in our place, but our sin was still punished. Justice suffered nothing; in fact justice got more than it ever deserved in the person of Christ Himself who knew no sin. Accordingly, there is no confusion between a God that shows mercy through His Son and a God that punishes the wicked for their evil, all sins have or will be paid for in time.

God hates sin and therefore we too must hate sin, especially in our own lives. God loves His children because of Christ, not because of something special in them. This causes no contradiction to how He relates to the reprobate and we cannot be found in contempt for having convinced the world it does through our repeated attempts to make them think God loves them when He does not. It is better for us to proclaim the actual message of this verse and others like it: “God hates your sin and He hates you; in fact, He hates you so much that He will not even allow you stand in His presence. Repent wicked man! You have lived your life as an affront to a holy God and He has no choice but to punish you for your sin! Repent wicked man! Put your faith in Christ who died on the cross for the elect and is risen from the dead seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Anything less will assure you of facing God’s wrath and in that you are to be pitied, in that you stand no chance, in that you will perish in your sins and spend eternity in hell.” Woe to the man that faces the wrath of God! But in your empathetic outreach, in your obedience to the Great Commission to gather the elect, you cannot step outside the parameters we have been given and make God into something He is not. Proclaim His word bluntly and allow the Spirit to work in whom He will according the to will of God and may the sinner be saved with truth.

Dear Lord I pray:

“Be thou my breastplate, sword for the fight;

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight;
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tower:
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.”

Men may reject you, ridicule you, persecute you for the truth, but may we stand sure and unwavering regardless of what the cost may be. May the richness of God’s glory shine forth forever more!