GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
PSALM 119:157-158
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157 Many are the foes who pursue me,
but I have not turned aside from your testimonies.
158 I look at the treacherous and I loathe them,
for they do not keep your word.
The believer loves all of the good things God gives: peace, joy, forgiveness, security, family, home, spouse, children, prosperity, and especially the word of God and its good instruction. But we struggle and question when we are commanded to join God in the part of his holy will that condemns. We are loath (unwilling) to loathe (hate) what God loathes. But God hates sin, and the converted Christian wants to conform to God’s holy will. “For we are God’s fellow workers” (1 Corinthians 3:9), and God’s Spirit lives in us (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Christian will want to conform his own attitude about sin and about sinners that God has. In this way, when the sinner repents, even though he might have done terrible wrong to the Christian in question, there can be forgiveness and real compassion. There is no place for a grudge or even a whisper of revenge that lingers when someone repents, whatever the sin was that is being confessed. Vengeance belongs to the Lord alone (Deuteronomy 32:35), but the Lord has given the ministry of the keys to the church so that we will forgive one another and win souls for heaven (Matthew 16:19).
What does it mean in the life of the child of God to loathe the treacherous? Most importantly, it means that we will not join them in their treachery. Whatever it is that they do, we will avoid fellowship with them, or anything resembling fellowship, such as being silent while they accomplish their wicked work. Therefore, this loathing also means that the Christian will speak up when he sees someone commit a sin or a crime, keeping in mind our Lord’s warning: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3). For it is a disgrace for a Christian to point fingers at everyone else while living a life of sin.
The child of God is pursued by the devil, but he strives not to turn from the path of righteousness. But it is not possible for a person in this lifetime to be perfectly free of sin, and therefore we will want to worship regularly so that we may bring our sins, whether we know them or not, before God, repent of them, and receive forgiveness for them. Otherwise they will weigh down on the conscience and cause despair.
In our Confession, the Formula of Concord, we agree: “The unregenerated man resists God entirely and is completely the servant of sin. But the regenerated man (that is, the Christian) delights in the law of God according to the inmost self, though he also sees in his members the law of sin at war with the law of his mind. For that reason with the law of his mind he serves the law of God, but with his flesh he serves the law of sin (Romans 7:22-23, 25). In this way he can and should explain and teach the correct opinion in this matter thoroughly, clearly, and definitively” (SD II:85).
Who are the many foes who pursue us? In the life of the poet, whether he was David or not, they included pagans and false teachers, false prophets and miserly and cruel kings of other lands who rejected God and the promise of Christ. In our lives, these foes include much the same group, for the devil only has so many songs to sing or lies to tell, and he is good at reusing old arguments with new generations. They pursue us with many temptations, many accusations, they pick and they poke and they make the Christian feel as if everything wrong in the world is God’s fault. And that is where they expose their true king, the father of lies (John 8:44). For the devil hates God and everything to do with him, and the devil wants someone to assure him that everything really is just God’s fault. But there will never be a theologian clever enough to bring an argument that will convince the devil that he’s right, because the word of God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8), and cheap logic does nothing at all against the truth. Do not grieve for the devil’s hatred and unbelief. And don’t fear them. Do not be loath to loathe him, for he loathes you. But Jesus loves you, forever and ever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2024
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Psalm 119:157-158 Do not be loath to loathe