In these three verses, David describes the enemies of God. Personally, I find similarities between David’s words and what Paul says in Romans 3 and 6 when he describes the nonbelievers. An old preacher once told me that the “Old Testament is the New Testament concealed. The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.” I like that.

Here is the video link:

The Evil, the Arrogant, and the Liars

The audio links to Spotify and iTunes is to the right, and the text used for today’s podcast is here:

5:4-6… The Evil, the Arrogant, and the Liars

4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness;

רֶשַׁע rešaʽ, n.m. [30] [√ 8399]. evil, wickedness, wrongdoing:– wickedness (16), wicked (5), ill-gotten (2), dishonest (1), evil (1), evil deeds (1), injustice (1), wicked (1 [+408]), wrongdoing

The moral quality itself. Anything that is wicked is not pleasing to God.

 with you, evil people are not welcome.

1 raʽ1, a. [350] [→ 8274, 8288; cf. 8317]. bad, disagreeable, inferior in quality (meaning – not up to God’s standards); by extension: evil, wicked in ethical quality; what is disagreeable to God is ethically evil; God’s actions of judgment are disagreeable to the wicked (Ezek 14:21), but are not ethically evil:

Evil people’s chief trait is wickedness – and they are not up to God’s standards. Wickedness describes their ethical quality. This word does not simply describe what evil/wicked people do. This word describes who evil/wicked people ARE. Evil acts proceed out of evil hearts.

5 The arrogant cannot stand
    in your presence.

3 hālal3, v. [16] [→ 2099, 2100]. [Q] to be arrogant; [Po] to make a fool of, to mock, rail against; [Poal] to be foolish; [Htpo] to act like a madman; act furiously:

From a self-appointed position of superiority, these people mock all those they deem beneath them. In fact and truth, they are NOT superior… they are a “legend in their own mind”.

You hate all who do wrong;

1 ’āwen1, n.m. [77] [→ 1077, 1204, 9303?]. evil, wickedness, iniquity; evildoer; an unfavorable circumstance: calamity, trouble, injustice; this can also refer to idols, with a focus that they are morally evil:

This word encapsulates everything we just talked about. This word is the outward expression and extension of the heart of the wicked.

6 you destroy those who tell lies.

אָבַד ’ābad, v. [184] [→ 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13; 10005]. [Q] perish, [P, H] destroy, demolish, annihilate; “to destroy the heart” means “to lose courage”:

God will completely annihilate liars. 

ר2 dābar2, v. [1137] [→ 1805, 1806, 1808?, 1821, 1825, 1826, 1830, 4498]. [Q. P, Ht] to say, speak, tell, command, promise; 

כָּזָב kāzāb, n.m. [31] [√ 3941; 10343, 10344]. lie, falsehood; by extension: delusion;

Those who “tell lies” are those who stand tall as if they were someone important, but are not. Those who “tell lies” speak words that sound important but lack real substance. They might indeed believe what they are saying, but in truth they are deluded. These are not people who can be reasoned with. They truly believe they are right in all that they say.

The bloodthirsty and deceitful
    you, Lord, detest.

דָּם dām, n.m. [357] [cf. 1956?]. blood, lifeblood; by extension: bloodshed, death; blood-colored fluids: grape juice, wine; “to pour out blood” is “to kill” since life is in the blood:

A bloodthirsty person is exactly what that word sounds like. They THIRST for blood. These are people who don’t just disagree with you – they live for and WANT the destruction of their enemies (us). Think of that fabled character Dracula, a creature whose whole existence revolves around drinking the blood of anyone he can capture. He cannot survive without the blood of his victims. The lives of the bloodthirsty are empowered by their lust for our destruction.

מִרְמָה1 mirmâ 1 n.f. [39] [→ 5328; cf. 8228]. deceit, deception, dishonesty, treachery

What makes a deceitful person so dangerous is that they deceive by looking like someone you can trust. In fact, they deceive in order to get within your circle of trust in order to betray you. They are very treacherous. Treachery is most effective because it is a picture of someone who is given authority and position within the castle guard. Using their authority and your confidence in them, they will silently open the gates at midnight, to allow their TRUE compatriots inside the castle to destroy those who are sleeping. 

תָּעַב tāʽab, v.den. [22] [→ 9359?; cf. 9290]. [N] to be repulsive, be vile, be rejected; [P] to detest, abhor, loathe, despise;

This word describes God’s feelings toward these deceitful bloodthirsty people. I get a picture of what happens when you put two magnets together. They will either attract each other, because the negative pole of one is completed by the positive pole of the other, resulting in strong and binding connection. But when the positive pole of one attempts to get close to the positive pole of the other (or negative to negative), they are both repulsed by each other, and they will NEVER come into contact with each other. The wicked and bloodthirsty people and God are equally repulsed by each other. The last place a wicked person wants to be is close to God.

If you put all these words that describe the enemies of God  – and by extension, God’s people – you can’t help but see what Paul was basing his words in Romans on where he describes the relationship of general mankind to God:

In Romans 3, Paul says:

10 As it is written:“There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”[b] 13 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d] 14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e] 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; (i.e. they are “bloodthirsty”) 16 ruin and misery mark their ways, 17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f] 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]

Then in Romans 6:

23a…for the wages of sin is death.

Death is the ultimate expression of separation. The soul is separated from the body, and, for the wicked, the soul is eternally separated from God. This being separated from God thing must be seen in its entirety. As I mentioned previously, this “repulsion” is mutual. Not only does God not want the wicked in His presence, the wicked do not want God in THEIR presence.These people prefer Hell to Heaven because the last thing they want is to be where God is.

Summary:

These seven qualities of the wicked person described in this Psalm do not describe seven people but are facets of the same person. This is an incredibly detailed description that “fills in the gaps” in Paul’s words found in Romans, chapters 3 and 6. These verses in Psalms 5 give the moral and ethical framework of all who are not in God’s kingdom. 

What follows is my opinion… based on 49 years of being a “Christ-follower”. The longer you live without God in your life, the more prevalent these characteristics become. The longer you live without God in your life, the more “cemented” you become in these qualities as an enemy of God and an enemy of His people. On the final day, you will be repulsed by God, and will be assigned by God to an eternity in Hell… and the saddest part of that is the fact that THAT will be your desire as well.

In His Grip,

Paige