This is part 5 of a 6-part series. View the entire series here.
O God, if only You would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! They blaspheme You; Your enemies misuse Your name. O LORD, shouldn’t I hate those who hate You? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose You? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for Your enemies are my enemies. – Psalm 139:19-22 NLT
This section of Psalm 139 seems to come a little bit out of left field. After 18 verses of David expressing his adoration for God who knows him so intimately and loves him so deeply, he shifts to an aggressive condemnation of people who hate God.
So why such a sudden and dramatic shift?
These verses mirror many of David’s other imprecatory psalms (see Psalms 35, 58, 59, 69, 109, and 137). An imprecatory psalm is one that calls for God’s judgment on the wicked and the unjust. These poems were born out of a longing for justice and righteousness that are inherent in those who love God and, out of that love, hate the evil that God hates. It’s never about taking justice into our own hands or inflicting our own punishments on our enemies or the enemies of God—after all, justice belongs to God alone. Rather, it’s a way of venting frustration and anger to God, but ultimately leaving justice up to Him. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans, “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘I will take revenge; I will pay them back,’ says the LORD” (12:19 NLT).
As children of God, we should love what God loves and hate what He hates. We should be angered by abuse, injustice, mistreatment. We should be bothered when we see people misrepresenting Christ, exploiting the weakness of others, or using His name as a means to further selfish ambition and justify cruel behavior. As children of God, whose primary purpose is to bring honor to God’s name, we should be filled with passion when we see that name being dishonored—in any way.
In fact, the inherent desire for justice that we find buried deep in our hearts—or, for some of us, right at the surface, always ready to pounce at a moment’s notice—is part of the way God designed us. We were made in His image, which means, for the person in Christ, all of the qualities present in God are present in them. In an entirely imperfect, sin-stained way, yes, but still present. God’s love is perfect, ours is flawed. God’s holiness is perfect, ours is a lifelong pursuit. God’s justice is perfect, ours is nowhere near it.
David’s imprecatory psalms were included in Scripture for a reason. Since perfect justness is a quality of God’s character, it’s right for us to desire justice, too. I love the question David poses in verse 21: “O LORD, shouldn’t I hate those who hate You? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose You?” He’s asking if he’s right to feel hatred toward acts of hatred against God, and the answer is a resounding yes. Of course, it’s never right to hate the person; God never hates the person, only the evil acts they commit, and in this, as in all things, we are to live according to God’s standard.
However, we have to view our desire for justice from a proper perspective. We must acknowledge that we are not the ultimate judges of peoples’ hearts. Even our earthly judicial system, as complex as it is, is still fatally flawed, because we’re fatally flawed. The guilty regularly walk free and the innocent are all-too-often locked away. The imperfections of this system serve as a constant reminder of how desperately we need a perfect Judge.
So, yes, it’s right for us to long for justice. We wouldn’t be image-bearers of God if we didn’t. But justice is ultimately up to God. He alone sees our hearts—and that’s a good thing, because He is a perfect Judge, and He will never deliver an unfair sentence.
