“O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
He preserves the lives of his saints;
he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name!” (Psalms 97:10-12 ESV)
In the New Testament this word “love” is most always in reference to agape love, which is based in moral preference, and which means to prefer what God prefers. For the believer in Christ it means to prefer to live through Christ, to embrace God’s will, to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power. And what God prefers is what is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, discerning, integrity, faithful and obedient to God. And all throughout the Scriptures we are taught that love for God is obedience.
So, if we truly are preferring what God prefers, then we are going to hate evil like he does, too. Yet we are not to hate evil people, but we are to love them, and do good to them, and pray for them, and say to them what will be of benefit to them, as God would regard as beneficial. But we should hate the evil that people do, and we should, thus, not desire evil in our own lives. We should have no part with evil, but we should be servants of the Lord Jesus who make righteousness and obedience to God our practice.
Now, who are the saints? They are not “good people” who some religious people decided to designate as “saints.” In the New Testament a saint is a person who has been set apart by and for God who is holy, i.e. different from (unlike) the world because he is being conformed of God into the likeness of nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he is someone who is also not conformed to the pattern of this sinful world, but he is living in obedience to the Lord in walks of faith in holy and godly living, in the power of God, by his grace.
But this is not optional for the believer in Jesus Christ. For if our faith in Jesus Christ is God-given and God-persuaded faith in him, then our faith is going to conform to the divine character and will and purpose of God for us who are followers of Christ. And we can’t be a true believer in Jesus and not be one of his followers, either. For if we are of God-ordained faith in Christ it is going to result in death to sin and living to righteousness and walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living, though not necessarily in absolute perfection. But lack of perfection should not be used to excuse willful sin.
Now what does it mean that God preserves the lives of his saints and that he delivers us from the hand of the wicked? For are we not taught in the New Testament that God is going to allow us to suffer greatly at the hands of our enemies for our walks of faith in Jesus Christ? Yes, this is true! We are taught that we will have enemies who will hate us, and who will do evil against us, and who will persecute us if we are true followers of Jesus Christ, and especially if we are those who are spreading the truth of the gospel.
So, this is not a promise to us today that we will not have to suffer at the hands of the wicked or that we will not have to suffer in all sorts of other ways because we are in flesh bodies on a fallen earth. It just means that God is our sanctuary, and he will uphold us and sustain us through the trials of our lives, if we will keep putting our trust in him and not in the flesh. If our faith is in him, he will carry us through whatever we have to go through, and he will give us the strength that we need to endure.
And with regard to deliverance, he may not always deliver us physically from our difficult circumstances, but he will deliver us through those times by teaching us to rely on him for our support, and by training us in holiness and in righteousness and in faithful endurance. He will keep us from falling if we put our trust in him and if we do not choose to run away from him, instead. So he will deliver us from the influences and the lies and the deceptions of the enemy if we will remain steadfast in him and not give up hope.
With regard to “light,” I believe this is speaking of spiritual, not physical light, though the two do parallel themselves in many respects. For spiritual light has to do with Jesus Christ, who is the Light, and with truth and righteousness and the revelation of God’s holy word and the gospel. And light helps us to see (discern) spiritually what is good and evil. And the righteous are those who are living according to God’s divine character and will and according to his word and all that God deems as right and just.
Again, this is not claiming absolute perfection, for we are all still a work in progress while we still live on this earth in these flesh bodies. But our Lord has “drawn a line in the sand” in separating “the sheep from the goats,” and it all comes down to what we practice. What the Scriptures teach, basically, is that we are what we practice. So those who make a practice of lying are liars, and of thieving, are thieves, and of adultery, are adulterers, et al. So if sin is what we practice and not obedience to our Lord, the Scriptures teach that we will not inherit eternal life with God, regardless of what we profess.
So, if you want to have the joy of the Lord, then you must hate evil and love God and his righteousness and prefer to obey him and to not obey sin.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZv3jzOTE70
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