Psalm 119:163

We continue working our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin.

Psalms 119:163  I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.

Let us begin by defining the words hate and abhor.

Hate – To hold in very strong dislike; to detest; to bear malice to.  The opposite of to love.

Abhor – To shrink back from with shuddering, to view with horror or dread.  To regard with horror, extreme repugnance or disgust; to hate utterly, loathe, abominate.

The word hate suggests that the psalmist bore a very strong dislike to lying.  But the word abhor shows that his hatred of lying was so intense that he viewed it with horror and dread.  He shrank back from lying regarding it with extreme repugnance.  Since he hated lying so intensely, it follows that he loved truth instead.  And this is reflected in the statement thy law do I love.  And what is the law but the truth? 

Psalms 119:142 …thy law is the truth.

Matthew Henry rightly observed that “love and hatred are the leading affections of the soul; if those be fixed aright, the rest move accordingly.” 

The fact that the psalmist hated lying manifested that he was a righteous man.

Proverbs 13:5  A righteous man hateth lying….

Today’s verse lines up very well with the prayer of Psalm 119:29: 

Psalms 119:29  Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.

When I was dealing with Psalm 119:29 I wrote: 

“The righteous man does not want to be deceived.  He does not want the way, the course of his life to be influenced by lies.  He has an honest and good heart that is open to receiving the truth of God’s word.  He wants to know, to believe, and to practice only the truth.  He does not want to lie; he does not want to be lied to; and he does not want to live a lie.  He will pay whatever it costs him to have the truth and he will not sell it for any price.”

The psalmist loved God’s law of commandments “above gold; yea, above fine gold” (Psalm 119:127).  And loving God’s law so much resulted in his intense hatred of lying.  As Abraham Wright observed, “All hatred comes from love.” 

The psalmist was certainly not a double minded man when it came to truth and lying.  He did not vacillate between the two.  He firmly held to the truth of God’s law and loathed the contrary lie.  You cannot love both lying and God’s law anymore than you can love both the devil and God.  The devil “is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).  On the other hand, God is He “that cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).  You either love lying and hate God’s law, or you love God’s law and hate lying.   The Lord will not permit you to dangle between the two.  If you do not love God’s law of truth, God will abandon you to the way of lying. 

2 Thessalonians 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

May God in His mercy forbid that we be among those of whom it is written:

Revelation 22:15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.