Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Hate Well | The Writings | Psalm 101

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Are Christians called to be haters? What does God want us to hate? How can we hate in a loving way? In today's episode, Keith looks at Psalm 101, reminding us that we are called to love God and hate what is evil. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 101

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Tell me what you love, and I'll tell you what you probably hate. Do you love Taylor Swift? Then you probably hate Kanye West. Do you love being organized? Then you probably hate a messy kitchen. Do you love early mornings? Then you probably hate late nights. Love and hate have a strange relationship. On the one hand, they're opposites. To love is to adore, to approve, or to worship something. to hate is to despise, to reject, to demean something. But what's interesting is that while love and hate describe two opposite feelings,

they almost always run closely together. Jesus understood this truth, which is why in Matthew 6, he tells his disciples, no one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. In Jesus's mind, love and hate go together. To love one thing means you will hate its opposite. it. This means that if we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, just like Jesus

teaches us to, then there will end up being things that we should learn to hate, especially if those things are in opposition to God. Yes, the Christian life requires us to become haters, but what are those things that God calls us to hate? In Psalm 101, King David wrestles with this question, and in this Psalm, we'll see how love and hate are woven together. We pick up in verse one, I will sing of your love and justice. To you, O Lord, I will sing praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life. When will you come to me? I will conduct the affairs of my house with a blameless heart. David begins his prayer by praising God's love and justice. Now, it's important to note that when David talks about God's love and justice here, he's specifically reflecting on God's

care and protection for his people. This is the God who heard the cries of the Israelites when they're enslaved in Egypt. He led them through the Red Sea and into the promise. He led them through the Red Sea and into the promised land. This is the God of the orphan, the widow, and the foreigner. This is the God who chose a young shepherd boy to be king over his people. David knows that God's love is always for the benefit of others. First John tells us, God is love. And not only does God love David, but David loves God. And because of that, David wants to be careful to lead a blameless life, to conduct the affairs of his house with a blameless heart. Because of his love for God, David has a desire to live a holy life. He wants to live a life worthy of the grace that he's been shown.

My guess is that you're like David. You're thankful for what Jesus has done for you. And because of your gratitude, you want to live a life that's pleasing to him. But if you're like me, it might be hard to figure out what does that life really look like? I mean, what does it look like to live a life that pleases God? Well, and the rest of Psalm 101, David gives us his idea of what that can look like for our life. But I think his answer might surprise you. So what's the secret recipe? What's David's secret to living life that pleases God? One word, hate. Listen to what he says in verse 3 through 5. I will not look with approval on anything that is vile. I will hate what faithless people do. I will have no part in it. The perverse of heart shall be far from me. I will have nothing to do with what is evil.

Whoever slanders their neighbor in secret, I will put to silence. Whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not tolerate. Do you see how love and hate's relationship plays out in David's prayer? David knows he has called to love a holy God, which means he has learned to hate sin. He wants to guard his eyes from the things that are vile, and he despises the sin he sees. David knows that he has called to love a good God, which means he has learned to hate evil. He has seen perverse hearts that seem to be bent toward wrongdoing and harming God's creation. and David knows that he is called to love a just God, which means he has learned to hate injustice. He sees the way the evil desires come to fruition.

He understands how injustice dehumanizes people that are made in the image of God, tears them down with their words and actions. Loving a holy good and just God means we are called to hate sin, evil, and injustice. I like to think of it like this. God is the cosmic black light. If ever played laser tag or bend to a roller rink, you know what a lot of. a black light is, or maybe you've seen that clip from the TV show The Office. When you wear neon clothing in black light, it makes your clothes shine brighter. But black lights don't just have

effects on your neon clothing. It's also able to reveal liquids and stains of all sorts. A black light is what you wish you had in your hotel room before you lay in that bed or drink from that barely cleaned glass. It shows you where the gross stuff is. Well, God's holiness kind of works in the same way. The more time we spend with God, the more his black light shines, and it reveals the stain of our sins and the sins of the world around us. This is why the prophet Isaiah comes before God's very own presence in Isaiah 6 and cries out, woe to me, for I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. Isaiah's proximity to God made the black light of God's holiness expose his own sinfulness. Because

Because Isaiah was in the presence of a holy, good, and just God, he was able to see his own sin, evil, and injustice more clearly. Are you able to see sin in the same way? Are you grieved by the evil you see in the world? Are you disturbed by the wickedness in your own heart? Unfortunately, I think a heart that's apathetic towards sin might also be a heart that's apathetic towards God's holiness. A heart that doesn't hate sin might be a heart that doesn't truly love God.

Isaiah had to be in God's presence to see his own sin. He had to be near a holy and just God to see the ways in which he fell short. I think this forces us to ask the question. Am I spending enough time in God's presence? Do I praise God for his love and justice? Do I appreciate His holiness? Like David, we want to love the things that God loves and hate the things that God hates. And yet, just like David, we often fall short of that ideal.

Instead of loving honesty, we love deceit. Instead of loving kindness, we love gossip. Instead of loving peace, we love division. Instead of loving our neighbor, we love to slander our neighbor. See, God calls us to be people who love him and hate sin, but since the fall, since sin entered the world, humanity has loved their sin and hated God. And because humanity rebelled against God,

it set itself up as God's opponent. We have aligned ourselves with God's enemy, meaning we deserve to be hated by God, but he didn't leave us there. Instead, in Jesus, God became the perfect human. In Jesus, God lived a Psalm 101 life. Jesus loved what's holy and he hated what's evil. Jesus loved honesty and he hated deceit.

Jesus loved kindness and hated gossip. Jesus loved peace and he hated division. Jesus loved his neighbor and he hated slander. It's this Jesus, the holy good and just God who went to the cross on our behalf. When we look at the cross, we see love itself slain by hate. In Jesus, God took our place. When we look at Jesus' cross, we see God's love reaching. out toward his enemies. When we look at the cross, we see God's holy hatred condemning sin. And yet when we

look at the cross, we see God's holy love being made sin itself on our behalf. In Jesus, we have been saved from God's holy hate because of God's holy love. Let's pry together. God, we come to you as people deserving your hatred and yet living and your love. We thank you for the grace you offer us in Jesus. We pray that your Holy Spirit would be at work in our hearts, leading us to love your glory, and hate the sin in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.