Trying to reconcile the Psalmist with Jesus

[KernAlan]

I. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mat. 5:44)

II. Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. (Ps. 139:21-22)

Now, I'm having the hardest time trying to reconcile these two passages. Does Christ supersede the Psalmist in this case, or am I seeing a discrepancy that really doesn't exist? Keep in mind these are but two examples of many I have found. The "hate thy enemy" theme so-to-speak is most prevalent in the Psalms.

Also, with the hope that I might knock out two birds here, and seeing as how this sort of relates, I'd like some help in my battle to reconcile these two instances of Paul:

I. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! (1 Cor. 16:22)

II. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Rom. 12:14)

Is Paul not pronouncing a curse in the first passage?

 

[solarwave]

Love the person hate the sin?

 

[Standing Up]

Also, with the hope that I might knock out two birds here, and seeing as how this sort of relates, I'd like some help in my battle to reconcile these two instances of Paul:

I. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! (1 Cor. 16:22)

II. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Rom. 12:14)

Is Paul not pronouncing a curse in the first passage?

And here:

Gal. 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

 

[MrPolo]

A couple commentaries I reviewed interpret the term "hate" in the Psalm passage more to mean "to oppose." So that is a possibility, but in reviewing the Hebrew over at NETBible, it seems to me the word for "hate" there refers to a real hatred.

However, if we look at the full context of Christ's quote in Matthew 5, we see Him acknowledging an opposition to the old attitude:

Matthew 5:43-44 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...​

You see how Jesus is reversing the old attitude. The Old Testament foreshadowed that which was to come. The enemies of the Jews often represented sin. The bondage to Egypt in the OT represents the bondage to sin in the NT. Thus in a theological sense, the Psalmist hating an "enemy" in the OT is a type of hating sin in the NT.

 

[Fireinfolding]

Mr Polo

 

[KernAlan]

However if this were a simple matter of "hate the sin, love the sinner," why then does the Psalmist in the same Psalm say, "If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!" (Psalm 139:19)? That is not only hate the sin, but hate the sinner. Since this is in the same Psalm, it indicates that verses 21-22 also reflect the same attitude. Jesus and the Psalmist seem to be at odds.

...Unless, of course, Jesus is simply reversing an old OT attitude by instituting an entirely new command.

 

[Standing Up]

There may also be a sense of us versus them, chosen people and all that, in the OT, but in Christ, in the NT, we are neither Jew or Gentile, etc. The NT is saved or not, but God so loved the world that ...

 

[Fireinfolding]

Mat 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

Theres one from Jesus too

 

[ebia]

I. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Mat. 5:44)

II. Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. (Ps. 139:21-22)

Now, I'm having the hardest time trying to reconcile these two passages. Does Christ supersede the Psalmist in this case, or am I seeing a discrepancy that really doesn't exist? Keep in mind these are but two examples of many I have found. The "hate thy enemy" theme so-to-speak is most prevalent in the Psalms.

Also, with the hope that I might knock out two birds here, and seeing as how this sort of relates, I'd like some help in my battle to reconcile these two instances of Paul:

I. If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord! (1 Cor. 16:22)

II. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. (Rom. 12:14)

Is Paul not pronouncing a curse in the first passage?

Very often the scripture is trying to hold things in tension - in this case the need to reject and oppose evil and the need to love people. And, of course, in the cross those two come together - it turns out that it is completely self-sacrificial love that is the one thing that can defeat evil.