The British poet John Dryden once wrote, “Truth is the foundation of all knowledge and the cement of all societies.” The God of the Bible is a God of truth, and in the list of seven things that he hates, we have already considered “a lying tongue.” But Solomon also includes in this list “a false witness who breathes out lies.” It may seem as if the Lord is repeating himself … [Read more...]
Behaving Sanely (Psalm 34:1–22)
Psalm 34 was written, according to its inscription, by David “when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.” The historical background to this psalm is found in 1 Samuel 21:1–22:2. David was on the run from Saul, who had begun to seek David’s life. He came to Nob, where he met Ahimelech the priest, and asked for food. The only food available … [Read more...]
Holy Hatred: Feet that Make Haste to Run to Evil
Four pastors were sitting down to lunch. Having just read James 5, in which James urges his readers to confess their sins to one another (v. 16), one suggested that they practice what they had read. They all agreed, and so the first pastor said, “I have been a little dishonest with the church books, labelling personal expenses as ministry expenses.” The second admitted, “In … [Read more...]
Holy Hatred: A Heart that Devises Wicked Plans
Have you ever watched a film or read a book—perhaps a horror, a crime thriller, or even an action title involving some elaborate criminal scheme—and thought, who comes up with this stuff? Have you ever read or heard of some act of real-life wickedness and wondered, what kind of a mind imagined that? None of this should surprise us, for the Bible tells us that the fallen … [Read more...]
Holy Hatred: Hands that Shed Innocent Blood
The story is told of a three-year-old girl with a pet tortoise. One day, the tortoise would not emerge from its shell, so the concerned little girl took the reptile to her mother. When her mother could not coax the animal out, she concluded that it must have died. Carefully placing the tortoise in a box on the kitchen counter, she sat down to explain to her daughter what had … [Read more...]