Psalm 119:104 | “Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.”

Not only does the psalmist crave the word of the Lord and the understanding it gives, he also develops a holy hatred for everything that opposes it. We often recoil at the language of hatred, assuming it is sinful or excessive. Yet Scripture is clear that those who fear the Lord will hate evil (Proverbs 8:13). Love for God and love for his truth necessarily produces opposition to what is false. Spurgeon speaks with striking clarity here. “Saints have a universal horror of all that is untrue. They tolerate no falsehood or folly. They set their faces against all error of doctrine or wickedness of life. He who is a lover of one sin is in league with the whole army of sins. We must have neither truce nor parley with even one of these Amalekites, for the Lord hath war with them from generation to generation, and so must we. It is well to be a good hater. And what is that? A hater of no living being, but a hater of every false way. The way of self will, of self righteousness, of worldliness, of pride, of unbelief, of hypocrisy, these are all false ways, and therefore not only to be shunned, but to be abhorred.” Understanding does not make us softer toward sin, but more resolute against it. A heart aligned with the Lord learns to love what he loves and to hate what he hates.