Psalm 119:115

We continue making our way through this octave of Psalm 119 entitled Samech.

Psalms 119:115  Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God.

There are a couple of facts about this verse that causes it to stand out from the rest.  First, there are four verses in this psalm that are not a prayer.  They are the first three verses and this verse.  Second, this is the only verse in this psalm that mentions the word God.  When God is named in the other verses, He is called LORD.

The psalmist directly addresses the evildoers:  depart from me.  We cannot altogether escape mingling with evildoers in this world.  We deal with them on our jobs, in business, at school, at social events, and even in our families.  In order to avoid dealing with evildoers altogether, we would have to go out of the world.

1 Corinthians 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

Yet even though we have to deal with evildoers, we must at the same time maintain a separation from them so as not to be corrupted by their evildoing.

Proverbs 9:6  Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Proverbs 13:20  He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

2 Corinthians 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you….

Ephesians 5:5  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

6  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

7  Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

So the question is:  How do we bid evildoers depart whilst at the same time maintaining some dealings with them?  The answer lies in the psalmist’s reason for bidding evildoers to depart:  for I will keep the commandments of my God.  When it comes to our obedience to the commandments of our God, we must never allow any association with evildoers under any circumstances to interfere or lead us astray.  To put it bluntly in the language of the street, whenever anyone attempts to turn us from keeping the commandments of God, we are justified in telling them to “bug off.” 

In the matter of our membership and communion in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must bid evildoers depart.  As Peter said to Simon, an evildoer who had crept into the church;  “thou hast neither part not lot in this matter” (Acts 8:21).  Paul instructed the church of Corinth when they had an evildoer in their number to “put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1Corinthians 5:13).  By standing with the church in its discipline we say to such persons in so many words:  “Depart from me, ye evildoers.”

Whenever anyone comes into your house attempting to bring an evil doctrine or practice into your home, then bid them get of your house. 

2 John 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

11  For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

So the bottom line is this:  Be stedfast and unmovable in your resolve to keep the commandments of God without any deviation to the right or to the left and that will provide you with the safeguard against injurious and unsuitable company with evildoers.  For it is the word of God that the Lord uses to sanctify us and set us apart from evildoers in this world.  Hear the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ for us before He left this world: 

John 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Please allow me to quote the excellent words of Charles Bridges on this verse:

“As great is the difference between the Christian and the world, as between heaven and hell─as between the sounds, ‘Come, ye blessed, and, ‘Depart,  ye cursed.’ (Matt. xxv.34, 41).  The difference, which at that solemn day will be made for eternity, must, therefore, be visibly made now.  They must depart from us, or we from God….Shall we not then walk on earth with those, with whom we hope to spend our eternity, that our removal hence may be a change of place only, not of company?”