14/08/2020

Psalm 11
Thou shall not commit murder

The book of Psalms addresses all the feelings one could experience, challenges we might face and also offers guidance for serving the Lord. Let’s spend some time and discuss these over the next few days or weeks, depending on how the Lord leads us.

“The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, His soul hates.” (vers 5)

Have you heard anyone say that they hated a person, when referring to someone who caused them harm or they disliked for some unknown reason? If this wasn’t enough, they would also say that they do not forget anything that has been done or said to them.

Just image if Jesus had this attitude and He was very clear when He said, “if you hate your brother you have committed murder in your heart.” [paraphrase]. I don’t think we fully understand the concept of what it means to hate another person and the consequences of unforgiveness.

How do you justify yourself for not forgiving another person, yet Jesus instructed us to pray the Lord’s prayer, which states that we should forgive others as we also seek forgiveness from God. You might also think the scriptures are contradictory, because it is written that the Lord hates those who do iniquity (PS 5 v 5), yet He expects us to love our enemies and even pray for them…

The response is actually very simple. Because God is Who He says He is, surely He can make the rules, can’t He? He created this beautiful planet and mankind after His image. We ignored His laws and disobeyed His instructions and fell away from the very thing He created us for, fellowship with Him. He restored this at the cross and even forgave those who persecuted and killed Jesus.

Who are we to say that we do not forget and that we hate another person. We are instructed to forgive 70 x 7 because God knows that when the wounds are opened we will remember the harm which was done to us, and then we should not forget to forgive those who have treated us badly.

Forgiveness sets you free from the bondage that hate creates, and the only thing coming between us and forgiveness is pride, which causes us to ignore this. Walking around with hate in your heart will eat away at you like a cancer. If you cannot “forgive and forget”, remember then to forgive each time you experience those hateful thoughts toward someone.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB, Life Application Study Bible, unless stated otherwise. Copyright by “The Lockman Foundation“