Hate Like God

If you’re going to hate, hate like God.

In preparation for 2025’s Exploring the Bible seminar on Reading, Understanding, and Responding to the Bible I was reading in the psalms and struck—as I have been in the past, but haven’t given as much time to it—by the way the psalmists talk about God hating not just things (like sin), but people. In particular, I was struck by this verse: “You hate all who do wrong.” (Ps 5:5, NIV)

For a long time I think I’ve kind of just let statements like that one go, because I didn’t know what to do with them. It's one thing to think of a person hating something or someone else—it’s not comfortable, but I don’t think it seems foreign to us—it’s quite another to think of God hating someone. But there it was (and is) in the psalms.

To be fair to that statement from Psalm 5:5, it doesn’t exist on its own; it finds its place within the larger context of the surrounding verses, which read:

“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong; you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, Lord, detest. But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple.” (Ps 5:3-7, NIV)

It's clear to see that David’s focus in writing this section of the psalm is on God’s response to wickedness—in particular, those who do wickedness. He writes, “…evil people are not welcome. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence.” The point is clear enough: when it comes to being with God, evil and those who do it are not welcome. He continues to explain this by writing that God hates “all who do wrong.” Further, that God detests “the bloodthirsty and deceitful.” Humanity was out of luck then, right? Amazingly, that statement is quickly followed up by one on God’s love. David writes, “But I, by your great love, can come into your house.”

At least two things seem to be true in Psalm 5:3-7. The first: that God hates, not just the wrong that people do, but the people who do the wrong. The second: that in God’s great love, David—who wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination—can somehow come into God’s house.

Should we just toss this difficulty up to the poetic nature of the psalms? God doesn’t really hate anyone, that’s just a way a strong idea was expressed back in the day—similarly to saying that God doesn’t really get angry, although the Bible speaks of him getting angry. I don’t think that quite works, because there are also a lot of nice things said about God throughout the psalms—and as we just saw, right after that statement about hate. Would we also be so eager to treat those nicer statements in the same way? I also don’t think so. I do, though, think something peculiar is going on with this hate language that must be interpreted correctly to avoid misunderstanding the statements.

When you and I think about hate, we almost always think of it as an overwhelming emotional response toward a person or thing. If I say I hate Ryan who lives down the street, I mean that Ryan (as a person) really, really, really bothers me. If I say I hate him, I mean I don’t want him around at all. I mean that even his existence bothers me. That’s why a lot of us are taught to keep away from that type of language. To say we hate someone means roughly that we wish they didn’t exist. The question, then, is this: is that what the Scriptures mean when they speak of God hating all who do wrong?

I was particularly helped on this matter by looking at one of the clearest hate statements in the Bible, found within the New Testament. Paul, in Romans, quotes the prophet Malachi, and writes, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Ro 9:13, NIV) Pretty clear, right? God enjoys having Jacob around, but he wishes Esau would beat it, forever. The New Living Translation is really helpful here.

The translators of the NLT translated Romans 9:13 a little differently than the NIV. They went with, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.” I know you noticed the difference. Where the NIV translators set love and hate side-by-side, the NLT translators switched it up a little by setting love and rejected side-by-side. Why did they do that?

Romans 9:13 is not a difficult verse to translate from Greek into English. The two main words we’re looking at are agapao and miseo. Agapao is the Greek verb often translated as love, and miseo is the Greek verb often translated as hate. However, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, when it comes to translating the Greek of the New Testament into English, context determines translation.

The translation process is way more involved than a simple equation of something like this Greek word equals that English word. One Greek word might be translated a number of different ways into English, because—just as it is in English—the same word isn’t always used in the same way depending on the context in which it’s used.

Think of the word love in English. If you say that you love your mom and that you love pizza, you don’t mean the same thing. If you were translating your statement about loving pizza into another language, you might want to be clear in that other language that you don’t mean you feel the same way about pizza that you do your mom. That’s kind of what’s going on with the NLT’s translation of Romans 9:13.

The NLT translators have decided that although miseo is used—and it’s often the right decision to translate it strictly as hate elsewhere—here it’s probably not the best decision, because what Paul is saying is that although God has chosen to accept Jacob (i.e., Israel—his chosen people), he is not going to accept those outside—he is rejecting them. My suggestion, to make this sentiment clearer, would have been translate agapao not as love, but as accept, so the verse would have ended up reading, “I accepted Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

In the context of Romans 9 and the quotation of Malachi (reaching all the way back to Genesis) God is saying he is going to accept (i.e., love) all those who make him their God, and he will reject (i.e., hate) all those who don’t make him their God. It’s as if God was saying something like this: “By me choosing Jacob over Esau, before either of them had been born, I’m showing you that I have decided to make a people for myself out of the world. In them I will show my righteousness as I set my acceptance on them. They, in turn, will show their acceptance of me in the way they follow my direction to live a righteous life. As a result, you will also see my rejection of wickedness by the way I am against, and have rejected, those who do not follow me, and thus choose to make their lives in wickedness.”

This is how God hates.

His hatred is rejection. And his rejection is based on the rejection of those he created to have life. Those who reject God have been and will be given the rejection they’re seeking—God will reject them, too. When the psalmists (and others throughout the Bible) speak of God loving someone, they mean that God has chosen to favor and accept them. When those same psalmists (and others throughout the Bible) speak of God hating someone, they mean that God has chosen to reject them (partially now, and completely later).

Further—and this is really where we get to the point of this article—we must say that the way God has hated and continues to hate, is not by outright rejection just because someone has rejected him. The cross and resurrection stand in direct opposition against this sort of thinking.

God has been and continues to be rejected again, and again, and again, by countless people who have lived, are living now, and will live later, but that did not stop God from doing something for them. He made a way for them to come back, in the midst of their rejection, to experience life in him. He has removed any barrier to them coming home—the road closed signs have been removed, and the directions are clear.

For all those who at one point rejected God—which was all of us at one point or another—he has said, “Look at how much I love you by what I have done for you. I have put away your sin. I have offered life to you. Won’t you take it? Don’t you want to live? I have life in me, and I’m gladly offering it to you. And lest you think that because of your abounding sin you cannot come home, I’m telling you that as your sin has increased and may even increase later, my grace will not just match your sin, but far exceed it. You cannot out-sin my love for you.”

This is how God hates.

He is clear that he will not wink an eye at, or tolerate sin. Sin cannot come near him, because he will not allow it. His righteousness precludes that from happening. He will not welcome wickedness, but he will welcome the wicked. He will welcome you and I in the midst of our sin. He will welcome us if we want to come home. He has just one requirement: our sin cannot come with us.

So, if you and I are going to hate, we ought to hate like God. We do not need to welcome wickedness, and we do not need to welcome those who choose to live their lives in wickedness. We, however, do need to make sure those who choose to live their lives in wickedness know that there is a way home, and that the door has not been closed to them. It’s also a good idea for us to remember that, in all our rejection of wickedness, we are not God. He is the only one who is righteous to his core. We have lived in sin. We have loved sin. We have had to come back home. God has always been home. This is, of course, good for us because it allows us to invite people home in humility. We’ve had to come home, too, so we can show them the way.

A Moment on the Scriptures: Bible Translation Comparisons

By any conservative count, there are at least 50 different English translations of the Bible. One of the main questions for us, then, is: What do we do with all those options?

I think it’ll be helpful in this situation to compare several translations to each other to see how they’re similar and different.

What have we seen? I think what we’ve seen is that, in general, the common modern English translations of the Bible can be trusted. The Bible translation landscape is not as dangerous as it’s commonly made out to be.

The other thing we’ve seen is that the English translations available to us have in mind to get us the word of God, albeit in a particular and specific manner, which is where the differences come in.

So, do we really have major differences between verses in different translations? Yes. However, those differences are not nefarious; instead, they’re expected due to the philosophies adopted by the translation committees.

Who said that?

In the Book of Hebrews, there comes an interesting section (Heb. 3:7-4:7) where the writer (or perhaps, preacher) references a section of the Psalms (Ps. 95:7-11) and attributes that section to three “people”. At first glance someone reading that section may be confused as to what’s going on here.

Shouldn’t the writer know who he’s talking about? Why does he keep changing who the author is?

After a bit of reflection, however, I think what we what begin to see is that the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews is not confused about the author of Psalm 95; on the contrary, he knows exactly who was talking back then.

The sections in particular from Hebrews are 3:7-8a; 4:3, 7. And they read as follows:

“So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts….’ ” (Heb. 3:7-8a)

“Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ’ ” (Heb. 4:3a)

“This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ ” (Heb. 4:7b)

As you can see from the bolded portions of the text, the writer of Hebrews—in the span of roughly two chapters—attributes Psalm 95 to the Holy Spirit, God, and David.

What’s going on here?

We ought not be thrown for a loop by the writer’s insistence of three voices here. This isn’t some sort of trickery or odd bit of orthodoxy; instead, this is how someone can (and ought to) view the ones speaking in the Old Testament (and the New Testament for that matter).

The psalmist—David—assuredly composed and wrote what we’ve come to know as Psalm 95. Those are his words, from his heart, based on his experience with God and the world. At the same time, it can be said that David was led to write by the Holy Spirit. What David wrote is what Spirit of God wanted him to write for the good God’s people as a part of Holy Scripture. And, sandwiched in the middle, this writing by David through the leading of the Holy Spirit, is ultimately a work of God. David wrote, what was then and now, the very words of God.

All this means that we—along with the writer of Hebrews—can look back at Psalm 95 and confidently say: this is the word of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, from the heart, mind, and pen of David the psalmist.

Exegetical Meditations (21)

“Clap your hands, all you nations;
    shout to God with cries of joy.

For the Lord Most High is awesome,
    the great King over all the earth.” (Psalm 47:1-2, NIV)

I don’t believe in coincidences; nor do I believe in “fate.” I believe in the sovereignty and providence of God over all things and all people. The reason for that is simply because of what I read in the Bible.

I’m required to make a rational decision: either see the world and my life as governed by coincidences and “fate” or (and this is a big OR) see the world and my life as governed by God. I can’t live in the in-between, and if I choose coincidence and “fate,” then I must leave God behind. The thing is, if I leave God behind, then I have to leave the Bible behind and that gets to be a real when I read things like Psalm 47:1-2.

In this Psalm, the psalmist is calling for his hearers and readers to do something. He’s calling on them to “clap their hands and shout to God with cries of joy.” The question you or I should be asking after reading something like that is: why?

Why, psalmist, writing thousands of years ago, should I clap and joyfully shout to God?

The reason is given in the rest of the psalm, but we can see where he’s going just by looking at the next verse. The psalmist writes, “For (or because) the LORD Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.”

Your God, the LORD—Yahweh—is king; he is the King, which means, if Yahweh is King, then there is no other king. True enough there will be people, and countries, and powers, and viruses, who say they’re king. But, if Yahweh is the King, then they are not. No matter what they say or do.

Therefore, you can clap your hands and shout to God with cries of joy right now, wherever you are. In the midst of incredible pleasure or incredible suffering, God is still King and this King is loves you.

Do you need more?

Give yourself to reading the rest of the psalm.

Exegetical Meditations (20)

“Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.” (Psalm 1:1-2, NIV)

We use other people as examples and benchmarks for our lives all the time.

We consistently take a person, hold them up in front for everyone to see, and then say, “Here is how you ought to live.” And, to be honest, it’s not a bad idea if the person has their stuff together. It’s even (in at least some sense) biblical. Paul did that with Jesus and then with himself (1 Cor. 11:1).

What’s this have to do with Psalm 1?

As you can see from the verses above in Psalm 1, the psalmist does something similar there. However, the difference is that the psalmist is not holding up a particular person for us to compare ourselves to; he’s holding up blueprint of a type. He presents the type in Psalm 1 and calls this type: “the one.”

Instead of saying look to Abraham or look to Moses or look to Joshua, he describes this type of person we ought to look to by pointing to several important characteristics. The decision we then have is: Am I going to use this type described in Psalm 1 and compare myself with it?

“The one” in Psalm 1:1-2 is described as the psalmist shows what he does and, at the same time, does not do. But even before the description is given, we’re told by the psalmist that this “one” is blessed. Therefore, we should read the description in light of that “blessed” label given.

Blessed is the one.

What does this blessed one do? Well, the first thing to notice is actually three things that the blessed one does not do. And they are:

1. He does not walk in step with the wicked.

2. He does not stand in the way that sinners take.

3. He does not sit in the company of mockers.

Three things the blessed one does not do that each play a part in describing who this blessed one is. This blessed one’s life is marked by the fact that he doesn’t stay in line with what wicked people do. He’s out of step with them—he doesn’t fit in with their group. He also doesn’t stand upon the same foundation as sinners. The ground he’s decided to plant is feet upon is unmistakably different than that of the sinners around him. Lastly, he doesn’t find himself involved with those who mock. Simply put, it’s not the company he keeps.

The psalmist is great here because he gives us those descriptions in a way we can easily remember. The blessed one does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, sinners, or mockers.

Still, what does the blessed one do?

He does one thing in particular; he delights in the law of Yahweh and meditates on that law day and night. In other words, the blessed one finds joy in Scripture and, because he’s found joy in Scripture, his joy spills over into mediation. Meditation that lasts day and night.

A quick note on the transition from the specific “law of Yahweh” to “Scripture” in general.There’s no question the psalmist has the law as his immediate reference for the joy and meditation. However, as can be seen throughout the rest of the Bible, the terms law, prophets, and writings, all fall into the general category of Scripture within the Old Testament. So, even though the psalmist is specifically saying the blessed one finds joy in and meditates day and night on the law, I think it’s biblically appropriate to extend that reference out to Scripture in general as the place where we find joy and meditate.

Meditating day and night—can you imagine that? It seems impossible. Kind of like praying without ceasing.

I grant that it seems impossible, however, that’s until we come to see it less as a particular activity to be devoted to 24 hours a day and more like a way of life. A way of life in the sense that everything you do has a foundation of Scripture to it. You begin to process everything in light of Scripture. You find your joy in Scripture and that joy helps fuel your meditation and then you find more joy. It’s a wonderful circular pattern to fall in to.

This is the life of the blessed one. Abstain from certain things in order to give yourself fully to other better things.