David’s Perfect Hatred Of Sinners Is Not God’s Opinion

Psalms 139:21-22, “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.”

I have heard Pastor Steven Anderson for decades spew hatred of sinners from his pulpit at Faithful Word Baptist Church. His favorite go-to passage is our Scripture text from Psalms 139:21-22, particularly where King David says: “I hate them with a perfect hatred.” Anderson assumes that this is the proper Christian attitude for all believers to have, that we should all vehemently hate homosexuals and wicked people.

But I was reading The Strand Study Bible this evening (which is my favorite Bible commentary), and I read Job 20:5, “That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?”

Pastor Strand gives this commentary for this Scripture passage:

It is not always true “that the triumphing of the wicked is short.” Sometimes evil men live full lives (Psa. 73:3-12). It must be remembered that the Bible often quotes the words of its characters without endorsing those words, or reports their beliefs and their statements without comment. Zophar, angry with Job for his previous remarks (Job 19:28-29), was simply attempting to vilify Job here by making “suffering” Job appear to be “wicked” Job. —Pastor Brad Strand, The Strand Study Bible, p. 831, Job 20:5

When I read this commentary, I immediately remembered Psalms 139:21-22 where David said he hated the wicked with a perfect hatred, because what David said goes contrary to everything the Word of God teaches.

Clearly, David was not thinking according to God’s thoughts. …

Matthew 5:43-48, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

In His Beatitudes (or as I like to call them, “the attitudes that should be”), Jesus taught that we should love everyone, even those who hate us. This is totally the opposite of David’s “perfect hatred” for the wicked in Psalms. You cannot show me one verse in the inspired Word of God where God teaches that we should hate people!

Jesus Christ Is My Only Righteousness

I am not sorry to disagree with the corrupt New IFB concerning their despicable teaching that Christians should intensely hate LGBTQ+ people. I have news for you, whoever you may be, you and I are just as wicked as the vilest sinner upon the earth. The only thing that makes me or you any more righteous than John Wayne Gacy, Adolf Hitler or Taylor Swift is the precious blood of Jesus Christ that washes our sins away. I have no righteousness of my own to offer God, and neither do you dear reader. Isaiah 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Our best is filth to God. The only thing that makes a child of God any more righteous than the vilest homosexual is the precious blood of Jesus that washed our sins away the moment we were saved.

God loves everyone without exception! The idea that God hates a certain group of sinners (homosexuals), when the ONLY righteousness that any Christian possesses is the imputed righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ, is preposterous! ...

John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

How could anyone, especially a pastor, read this beautiful passage of inspired Scripture and walk away thinking that God hates anyone? Kindly said, with respect, something is seriously wrong with Pastor Steven Anderson. His hateful spirit is wrong! I didn’t write this blog to be mean or rail on anybody, truly, God knows my heart; but rather, for a couple reasons:

• First, to teach you the truth that it is biblically wrong to hate anyone We can hate what people do, and hate what they become, but we ought never hate the individual whom God created in His image, and for whom Jesus died on the cross.
• Second, in hope that you won’t become a hateful person like many in the New IFB. Their horrible pastors have foolishly taught them to hate unrepentant sinners, but the inspired Holy Bible says God still loves them very much, and desires for all men to come to repentance to be saved (2nd Peter 3:9).
• Third, to teach you that the Bible is full of statements and attitudes that weren’t necessarily proper or right, so we need to be careful not to just assume that we should behave like they did. When David’s wife Michal (Saul’s daughter) mocked David after a day of dancing and rejoicing in the Lord, calling him a fool, she died barren. David held a lifelong grudge against her, which was very wrong. David held strong grudges against people. Just because he felt a perfect hatred toward wicked sinners doesn’t mean that we should.

The great God who made the universe loves you dear reader. He loves the homeless person on the street. He loves the criminal spending the rest of his or her life in prison. He loves the LGBTQ+ person who feels lonely and hated by the religious community. God sees all of our needs, burdens, suffering, loneliness and pain.

God Has No Pleasure In The Death Of The Wicked

In 2016, after a deranged 26 year old gunman shot and killed 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Pastor Steven Anderson wickedly praised the shooter and reiterated his vehement hatred for LGBTQ+ people. What saith the Scripture?

Ezekiel 33:11, “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

The faithful LORD desires for all people to be saved (2nd Peter 3:9). God loves every living human being, and so should we. I think we would all do well to remember Jesus' command in Matthew 22:39, “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is the second of Christ's great commandments, the first being to love God. No one loves God who does not love all of one's neighbours, regardless of who they are.