5/2/19 

Psalm 97:10A

O you who love the Lord, hate evil!
    He preserves the lives of his saints;
    he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

“You who love the Lord, hate evil!”

This is plainly a requirement for a particular named class.  This class is those who "love the Lord".  The single requirement in this verse is “hate evil”. It is not the only thing required of them.  In verse 12 they are to “rejoice and give thanks.”

There are three words in verse 10A that require definition, “love, hate, and evil”.  There is not room to define these words here. The one word that is most necessary is “evil”.  It is a simple term which represents those who practice opposition to God and His law in their thoughts, motives, and deeds.  This in total is to be the subjects of God-lovers hatred.  This hatred is at the least to be disapproval and avoidance.  God-lovers are never to be supporters of evil.

Psalm 5:5B and 11:5B are the Divine side of the same truth.  We are to hate what God hates, evil.  This evil is never neutral, overlooked, or forgotten.  It is to be hated, avoided, and to be condemned by God-lovers.  Neither time nor place can excuse it.  Baptism into churches will not cleanse it, nor will acceptance by Christians change its character.  Evil is evil and God-lovers hate it.