Well do keep your Bibles in hand and turn now with me once more to the book of Psalms. As Guy mentioned earlier, we’re working our way slowly through the one hundred and nineteenth psalm, and we’ve come today to the fifteenth section of the psalm, verses 113 through 120. You can find it on page 515 if you’re using one of our church Bibles.
It is basic to Christian discipleship that we cannot follow Jesus and live our lives on the world’s terms at the same time. Listen, for example, to James who rebuked his readers in James chapter 4 who were trying to do just that. He said to them, “You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” Friendship with the world is enmity with God. “Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, while at the same time making friends of the world, living on the world’s terms, embracing the world’s agenda, James says is spiritual adultery; it is unfaithful to God.
You’ll notice we called in the bulletin, the title of this message, we called our exposition “The Dynamics of Difference” because these verses show us how to be faithful, they show us how to be different. We are to be in the world, for sure, but we’re not to be of the world. And the psalmist here is teaching us how to do that when we are surrounded in particular by people who oppose the truth of God and reject the Gospel of God and they pressure us to do the same. How do we live a life of radical discipleship when we are surrounded by a world that rejects the good news?
If you’ll cast your eye over the passage for a moment, you’ll see that the psalmist begins in verses 113 through 115 talking about his own response to those he calls “evildoers” and he ends the stanza in 118 through 120 talking about God’s response to those evildoers. And sandwiched between those two sections, the psalmist looks to God to uphold him and preserve him in the midst of these enemies. In the first section, the psalmist shows us the discernment we must learn. The discernment we must learn if we are to live a life of discipleship that stands out from the crowd. That’s 113 through 115 – the discernment we must learn. Then in the central section, 116 and 117, he tells us about the dependence we must practice in order to live a life that is faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and His call upon us and is different from the standards and patterns of the world. So, the discernment we must learn, 113 through 115, the dependence we must practice, 116 and 117, and then in the last section of the stanza, 118 through 120, the psalmist gives us a glimpse of the destruction we must fear if we are to live God’s way and not the world’s way. And so here are the dynamics of difference. Here is how to live a life that stands out from the crowd for Jesus Christ and not according to the world. Do you see them? Here’s how to live in friendship with God – the discernment we must learn, the dependence we must practice, and the destruction we must fear.
Before we look at each of those, let’s pray and ask for the Lord’s blessing on His Word and then we’ll read the passage together. Let us all pray.
Our God and Father, Your Word is spread before us. We ask that You would pour out Your Spirit upon the reading and preaching of it, that our hearts may be enlightened, that our faith may rest on Christ, and that we might be enabled to live singly for Him, for we ask it in His name, amen.
Psalm 119 at the one hundred thirteenth verse. This is the Word of God:
“I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word. Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God. Uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope! Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually! You spurn all who go astray from your statutes, for their cunning is in vain. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross, therefore I love your testimonies. My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.”
Amen, and we praise God for His holy Word.
I wonder if you’ve seen those challenges on the internet that ask you to compare two images, usually of people’s faces, and you have to discern which is the AI generated image and which is the real photograph. Have you seen those? Do you know what I’m talking about? I looked up how to spot the difference and the advice seems to be that you should zoom in very close and examine the image at the level of the pixels on the screen. Because AI uses the original work of other people to create a realistic looking composite image, there are often actually stray pixels and misaligned shapes that are easier to spot close up. But you have to get that close and examine the images that carefully to discern the difference.
The Discipline of Discernment
In the first part of this stanza, verses 113 through 115, the psalmist is modeling for us the discipline of discernment that we need to learn if we are ever to live the life of a faithful disciple to which Jesus calls us, a life that is altogether distinct from the pattern and expectations of the world. And he’s very careful in these verses, isn’t he, examining the verses between the counterfeit and the true. But once he has identified the real thing from the false, he is decisive in his judgment and unambiguous in his commitment. Isn’t he? Do you see that in verse 113 in particular? He begins here, notice, with a word of personal testimony, reflecting on his own heart response to the two alternatives presented to him. You see what he says in 113? “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.” Here is discernment in action. He hates the double-minded.
Now let’s be honest, that’s difficult, uncomfortable language for us. Isn’t it? We remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:43. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’” That seems to run directly contrary to the psalmist’s free use of the language of hatred that we find scattered all over the book of Psalms. So for example, Psalm 26 verse 5, “I hate the assembly of evildoers and I will not sit with the wicked.” Psalm 31 verse 6, “I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.” And maybe especially Psalm 139:21, “Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? Do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies.”
And so what should we make of that? Is hatred in the Bible a virtue, as the authors of the psalms seem to think, or is it only ever a vice in the heart of a Christian? Well which is it? Like a lot of things, the answer to that question really depends on your definitions. If by hatred we mean a sort of irrational prejudice that fosters a malicious resentment toward other people – that’s usually what we mean when we talk about hatred – well then certainly it ought never to have any place in the heart of a Christian believer and Jesus clearly excludes that kind of hatred in Matthew 5:43 that we read a moment ago. But the psalmist is actually working with a different definition. His definition of hatred might be something more like the settled aversion of the godly soul that recoils from all who embrace what God rejects and who shape their lives by what God condemns. That’s what the psalmist means when he says he hates the double-minded. It is the settled aversion of his own godly soul, recoiling from all who embrace what God rejects, who shape their lives by what God condemns.
And in that sense, hatred is really just the determination in the psalmist’s heart and life to think God’s thoughts after him when it comes to wickedness and to those who embrace it. It has no place in it for spite or cruelty, and it is not incompatible with that love that prays for the unconverted, speaks kindly to them, holds out the Gospel to them, weeps over their refusal to believe. But it is a complete refusal to bind oneself to anyone or anything that rejects the Lordship of Jesus Christ. “I will not hitch my wagon to a worldly horse” – that’s what he’s saying. The apostle Paul breathes the same air as the psalmist when he tells us, 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God.” That’s exactly what the psalmist is saying about the double-minded in verse 113. He recoils from them. He is wholly averse to them. Their lives are running on opposite tracks and they will not go in the same direction. He will not allow them to be his intimate friends, to shape his thinking or influence his life. Their way will not be his way.
And before we move on, do notice the specific issue the psalmist flags as particularly repugnant to him here. What is it he is responding to? He hates the double-minded. It’s double-mindedness that he is especially responding to. One of the root words used in that expression “double-mindedness” is found in 2 Kings 18:21 where the people of Israel, in context, have turned and adopted false religion, paganism, and the prophet Elijah confronts them and 450 of the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and he says to them all, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?” Double-mindedness – limping between two different opinions. “If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, then follow him.” Now you might remember the context of Psalm 119. We said that most likely it was written during a period when the people of God were in exile in Babylon, and while in exile, many of them were assimilating into the culture surrounding them, adopting the values and the convictions of their pagan neighbors, blending it with the worship of the Lord. Like Israel in Elijah’s day, they were vacillating between two opinions; they were double-minded. They wanted to have the Lord their God, as it were, in their back pockets as an insurance policy while they dabbled in the religion and the ethics and the mores and values of the paganism all around them.
And the psalmist is horrified at it and he was right to be horrified. This kind of syncretism, this sort of blurring of worldliness with true religion is pernicious. After all, it can appear to us sometimes as a very attractive option, very comfortable. You see, it allows us to fit right in. We can have a little bit of Jesus and a lot of the world and the world will love us for it. We’ll never stand out from the crowd that way. We’ll never attract anyone’s notice. It is culturally safe, it is respectable, it is easy, but the psalmist wants you to understand it will destroy you in the end. It will destroy you in the end. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. I hate the double-minded. Double-mindedness in religion is a nice, polite, respectable route to hell.
But look at what he says next. In contrast to those who are double-minded, the psalmist himself has settled the matter, hasn’t he. He loves God’s law. He hates the double-minded but he loves God’s law. Remember “law” there means “torah,” really the teaching; it’s a synonym for holy Scripture. He’s talking about the Bible. He loves the Bible. Bible love is the antinome and the antidote for double-mindedness. The safe path of Christian discipleship loves the Word of God. In verse 114 you’ll notice he turns from this word of personal testimony, talking about his own hates and loves, to prayer directed to God. You see that in verse 114? Look at his prayer and you’ll notice why loving the Bible is so very important. “You are my hiding place and my shield,” he says. “I hope in your Word.” It’s a beautiful expression of his trust in God. “You are my hiding place and my shield.” We are kept from harm’s reach in our hiding place and we are protected from slings and arrows by a shield. It’s a picture of complete security, of perfect safety.
In Colossians 3:3, the apostle Paul writes of believers. “You died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” We are hidden away with Jesus in God. He is our hiding place, our safety, our security. He is our shield and our defender. When we are surrounded by the double-minded, evildoers, like the psalmist was, pressuring us to compromise, calling us to turn off the safe path of faithfulness, Jesus is the one to whom we must run, in whom alone there is security and rest. “Come to Me,” He says, “you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He is a safe harbor for the storm. He is a strong tower under attack; a solid rock when all other ground is sinking sand. You need Jesus, not better advice. You need Jesus. But you get Jesus only in His Word. We have access to Him through His Word. We know Him by His Word. And so no wonder the psalmist loves the law of the Lord and hopes in His Word. You are my hiding place. “You are my shield, and I hope in Your Word.” Are you swayed by the double-minded, drawn into fatal compromise? Or do you love the Lord and hope in His Word? Is He your hiding place and your shield?
And then in verse 115, interestingly, he turns – I think this is the only place in the psalm, I need to check but I think this is the only place in the psalm where he addresses the wicked directly, in verse 115. So 113 he reflects on his own response to them, in 114 he looks to God, and now in 115 he turns to the world and exhorts the wicked. “Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.” Christians ought to be friendly toward those who don’t know Jesus, but they should never find their deepest friendships or their strongest bonds with those who reject the Lordship of Christ.
As a pastor, I’ve seen the disastrous consequences of that maybe most pronounced when it comes to marriage. Very frequently, against all warnings to the contrary, I find that there are Christians who decide that he or she must marry an unbeliever. And they tell themselves all sorts of things to justify their decision. “Because of me, she’ll come to church with me sometimes.” “He seems open to talking more about Jesus because of our relationship.” Maybe over time I can influence them and they’ll eventually become Christians.” Let me warn you that I’ve almost never seen that happen, almost never. The Scriptures are crystal clear in both explicit command and in example after example that when we ignore the teaching of God’s Word and enter relationships with those who do not trust in Christ, it is they who pull us away from the path of faithfulness, not we who influence them toward the Gospel.
And if you think about it, how could it be otherwise since we began a relationship by disobeying God’s Word in the first place? “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or what fellowship has light with darkness?” You do not know better than God. And if you start by disobeying His Word, if you start with compromise and sin, you cannot reasonably hope to progress suddenly toward fidelity and blessing. No, the psalmist knows if he is to have any chance at staying faithful and at keeping the commandments of his God, he cannot allow himself to be tugged and pulled off course by the constant pressure of unbelieving relationships, people who tell him to “lighten up” and “live a little” and “stop being such a killjoy.” And so he says, “Depart from me you evildoers that I may keep the commandments of my God. I do not want to walk in your steps or fall under your influence.”
Now that might sound harsh to you, but don’t forget those words, “Depart from me you evildoers,” those are precisely the words that gentle Jesus, meek and mild will say on the last day addressing all who have refused to follow Him in life. Matthew 7:23, “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Right now, today, His call to us is, “Come to Me. Come to Me.” But if you will not listen to His invitation and accept His welcome, let me warn you most solemnly, one day He will say to you instead, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” So first of all, the discernment we must learn.
The Dependence We Must Practice
Then, look at verses 116 and 117. Here in the second place is the dependence we must practice. The dependence we must practice. If we are going to live lives that are distinct and set apart and holy and not compromised with the agenda of the world, the discernment we must learn and the dependence we must practice. These two verses, 116 and 117, are set in synonymous parallelism. That is to say, they echo each other and repeat the same point. They tell us that there is one thing the psalmist must have if he is going to make it in the life of faith. There is one non-negotiable, one essential ingredient we cannot live without if we are to be consistent Christians. You see what it is in these two verses? If he is going to live and have hope in God’s Word without shame, verse 116, if he is to be safe and have regard for God’s statutes continually, verse 117, what does he need? He says he needs the Lord to uphold him. “Uphold me,” he says. “Hold me up.”
The psalmist isn’t telling us to screw ourselves up tight, pull ourselves together, try really, really hard under our own steam and then maybe we can resist the draw of the world and live the kind of lives that will please God. That’s not what he’s saying. No, the psalmist is saying, “I will try hard. I will work in obedience. I will not give in to the compromising double-mindedness I see around me, but I can only do it if you hold me up. Only if you give me grace, O Lord, and sustain me and keep me by Your mighty hand.” He isn’t being presumptuous, do you see. He knows that perseverance is a gift, a gift of God’s grace, and so he cries out to God to give it to him.
And don’t miss though, as he prays, that he prays the promise of God. Look at verse 116. Do you see that? He says, “Hold me up according to Your promise.” That’s really important. Perseverance is the promise of God, but that promise doesn’t make the psalmist presumptuous, does it? He doesn’t presume upon God. Instead, it makes him bold to press God to keep His promise. We believe that when a person puts their faith in Jesus Christ they can never be lost. “He that began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus,” Philippians 1:6. As we read a moment ago in Romans chapter 8, “Those whom He predestined He called, whom He called He justified, and whom He justified these He also glorified,” Romans 8:30. We believe in the glorious doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. “We are being guarded by God’s power through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” 1 Peter 1:5. We believe that great truth.
But that truth, perseverance, never leads to presumption. Those who persevere pursue God. They seek Him. They call out for more grace. They depend upon His help. They never presume that having made a decision to follow Jesus in a moment of heightened emotion at camp ten years ago that it now no longer matters if they ever darken the door of a church again or crack open a Bible again or ever call out to the Lord again or strive to live a life that might honor Him. That is presumption, isn’t it? It is presumption to take God’s promise as a blank check that allows you to ignore His precepts for your day to day life. No, everyone who is truly upheld by grace looks to God for daily supplies of yet more grace. And so the psalmist here, knowing that God has promised to hold him up, pleads that God would keep His promise and hold him up, surrounded as he is by enemies.
The Destruction We Need to Fear
The discernment we need to learn. The dependence we need to practice. And then finally, look down at verses 118 through 120 and the destruction we need to fear. The psalmist knows he must shun the intimate fellowship of evildoers because ultimately, as we see here, that is how God will treat them. Verse 118 and 119, “You spurn all who go astray from your statutes, for their cunning is in vain. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross.” Now please listen to me. A day is coming when Jesus Christ will judge you. Those who profess to follow Him but who go astray from His statutes, who turn willfully to their own agenda rather than submit meekly to His Word, people like that, the psalmist says, He will spurn. He will discard like dross. It’s a chilling warning about the judgment to come. Double-mindedness in religion is eternally deadly. Do not presume upon God. Second Corinthians 5:10, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what he is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.” That’s what’s coming. Are you ready? Are you ready?
And notice in the psalm in verse 120 how the psalmist reacts to that truth. He is not double-minded. He has settled the issue of his allegiance to God and his dependence on grace. But he doesn’t shrug and yawn and move on as he thinks about the wrath of God. He knows himself to be secure and safe, God is his hiding place, his shield, he’s safe, he knows it, but even with that truth firmly bolted in place he is not indifferent to the reality of the coming judgment of God. “My flesh trembles,” he says, “for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.” He’s not talking about that awesome, reverential love of God our Father that is “the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom.” This is more than that. No, the thought of hell, the hell of God’s wrath makes the psalmist shake. God’s judgments are horrifying to him.
You know one great mark of those who likely end up falling under the eternal wrath of God is that in life they do not seem to be terribly concerned about it. The psalmist who loves the Lord and clings to His grace trembles when he thinks about the alternative. God is awesome and holy and altogether righteous. He is the judge of all the earth who will do right and all who know Him bow before Him in holy fear.
One last thing. Right after Paul says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that line we read from 2 Corinthians 5:10, he adds in 2 Corinthians 5:11, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” If you, like the psalmist, have found the Lord to be a hiding place and a shield, if you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God, safe forever, upheld by God’s gracious, redeeming hand, and you know about the wrath to come, then there is a response the Scriptures call for from you. Not only that you should tremble before God but trembling before Him, you should go to the world because you know the way of escape and hold out the only way of deliverance to a dying world facing precisely this lost eternity. You know the path of escape. No one, no one need endure the condemnation of King Jesus when He comes again to judge the quick and the dead. When He came the first time, remember, He was Himself condemned under the wrath and curse of God, in the place of sinners, so that any sinner who will trust Him might not perish but have eternal life. That is good news we have for the world!
So Christian, go to the world knowing the fear of the Lord and persuade others. If you love them, how can you not warn them? Tell them – Jesus Christ must be your Savior now or He will be your Judge in days to come. If we are to live out the radical discipleship to which Jesus calls us, there is a discernment we need to learn, a dependence we need to practice, and a destruction we really do need to fear. May God help us to do so. Let us pray.Our God and Father, this is a weighty and solemn passage and we are, I am, all too often a light, we are light and trivial. Would You forgive us for not trembling as we should before the awesome power of Your righteous judgment. O Lord, as we consider it and we tremble, we pray for those of our family, we pray for our colleagues, our classmates, our neighbors, we pray for our city, for our country with hearts that break knowing, O God, that they face the hell of Your wrath and they face it needlessly, for there is a way of escape. Grant, O God, that we might be instruments of Yours to persuade men, knowing the fear of the Lord, to persuade others, to tell them that they need not go any longer in the direction in which they are traveling towards Your destruction and judgment. But instead, if they would only but turn aside to Christ, they would find Him to be a hiding place and a shield. Teach us so to tremble before You and so to love the lost that we overcome our own insecurity to open our mouths and speak for Jesus. For we ask it in His name, amen.