Psalm 36: Hating Sin

I think that Psalms 36 is rather eye-opening, and it really makes me think about my attitude toward sin. David begins the chapter with a description of wicked people.

Psa 36:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.

Psa 36:2  For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.

Psa 36:3  The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.

Psa 36:4  He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.

Keep in mind again that all of these descriptors refer to what the wicked people do. Verse four is the one that challenged me. The wicked people do not abhor evil. In other words, if I don’t want to be wicked, I basically need to hate evil and avoid it no matter what.

That is kind of a perspective altering thing. I can’t think of any one of us who hasn’t written off something we have done as no big deal. That little white lie didn’t hurt anyone, so even though I shouldn’t have done it, it was no big deal. So what if I lost my temper and said some things that I shouldn’t have?

I’m not saying that we need to be perfect because that would be an impossible command from God, but it seems to me that we do need to really avoid doing evil at all costs and not make excuses for our behavior.

We of course can all be forgiven, and I don’t want to minimize the importance of that at all. However, we need to make sure that we aren’t just writing off some of the things we do as insignificant even if they are wrong. The size of it doesn’t change the moral nature of a given action.

We really need to develop a distaste for sin in our own lives. I’m not saying that we need to be perfect, but we need to take it like the apostle Paul.

Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

It is a heart issue. We might still mess up, but we need to work on losing our desire for sin. Like David said, the wicked people don’t hate sin. When you turn that over, it implies that if you don’t want to be wicked, you ought to start hating sin (but not the sinner; a topic for another day).