“O God, you take no pleasure in wickedness; you cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked. Therefore, the proud may not stand in your presence, for you hate all who do evil. You will destroy those who tell lies. The Lord detests murderers and deceivers.”
Psalm 5:4-6 NLT
David started this Psalm groaning and crying for help. But after praying he waited on God expectantly, waiting for an answer to his woes. In the meantime, he reminded God of some things, perhaps to help Him along to reaching a decision over what was making him groan. In the three verses today, David mentioned things that God cannot accept – sins, wickedness, pride, evil, murderers and deceivers. None of these character traits found in human beings will ever be found in Heaven, in God’s presence. In fact, they will be judged and punished long before the people concerned got anywhere near God’s domain. God knows that He is holy and pure, and there is no way anything will be allowed to violate who He is. He knows all about these things so why was David reminding Him about them? Probably because listings them will act as a warning both to himself and to others. All types of sin, regardless of what they are and where they have come from, will one day be dealt with.
David lists some reactions of God to his list of sins. God takes “no pleasure in wickedness”, He “cannot tolerate the sins of the wicked”, the proud will not “stand in [His] presence”, He hates “all who do evil”, liars will be destroyed, and God “detests murderers and deceivers”. But in today’s more theologically liberal wings of the Christian church, such Godly sentiments would be rejected. Such doctrinal adherents say that God is love, and therefore would not have such negative emotions. Can a God of love actually hate someone, even if they are evil, they say? But such people forget that God has many attributes to add to His perfect love – righteousness, justice and holiness to name just three. David had a wonderful relationship with God and he knew God loved him, but he also knew that God’s love could not be overruled by evil.
We pilgrims are, and will be eternally, grateful for Jesus and His demonstration of God’s love and grace to a wicked and evil world. Jesus proclaimed to the world that all those who believed in Him would inherit eternal life. But His message was underpinned by David’s experience of God, in that a person’s belief in Jesus had behind it the whole message of repentance and forgiveness, grace and salvation. There is no way a believer can accept what God has rejected, so we pilgrims follow too the way of holiness and purity, in preparation for our lives in Heaven.
Dear Father God. Thank You for Jesus, Your Son, and His sacrificial death at Calvary, opening a door for mankind to walk through into Your presence, holy and forgiven. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 