For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness

Psalm 5 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible 

Listen to my words, Lord,
Consider my sighing.
² Listen to the sound of my cry for help, my King and my God,
For to You I pray.
³ In the morning, Lord, You will hear my voice;
In the morning I will present my prayer to You and be on the watch.

⁴ For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
No evil can dwell with You.
⁵ The boastful will not stand before Your eyes;
You hate all who do injustice.
⁶ You destroy those who speak lies;
The Lord loathes the person of bloodshed and deceit.
⁷ But as for me, by Your abundant graciousness I will enter Your house,
^[At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You.

⁸ Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before me.
⁹ For there is nothing trustworthy in their mouth;
Their inward part is destruction itself.
Their throat is an open grave;
They flatter with their tongue.
¹⁰ Make them pay, God;
Have them fall by their own schemes!
Scatter them in the multitude of their wrongdoings,
For they are rebellious against You.

¹¹ But rejoice, all who take refuge in You,
Sing for joy forever!
And may You shelter them,
That those who love Your name may rejoice in You.
¹² For You bless the righteous person, Lord,
You surround him with favor as with a shield. 

David, the writer of Psalm 5 was called by God as a man after God’s own heart. (Acts 13:22) In today’s text he says: You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil can dwell with You. The boastful will not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do injustice. You destroy those who speak lies; The Lord loathes the person of bloodshed and deceit.  Unlike David, many people today oppose the heart of God, they take pleasure in wickedness, they embrace those who do injustice and love rather than loath people of bloodshed and deceit. They dwell with evil. They claim and believe that God has changed His mind and has conformed to the opinions and whims of our culture. In Numbers 23:19 God says: “God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”  In Isaiah 55:10-11 God says: As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it produce and sprout, And providing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes out of My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire. God has not changed His mind about wickedness and evil. In Isaiah 5:20 God says: Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  1 John 1:5-10 says:God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.  In John 17:17 Jesus said: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”  Anyone who bends or twists the truth of God’s word to align with their own desires is a liar. A lie does not become truth because it is repeated often or by many. We cannot call what God calls evil and darkness good and light and expect that we will escape the woe and consequences of our words and actions.

Like David, my desire is to be after the heart of God and with him I declare: But as for me, by Your abundant graciousness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my enemies; Make Your way straight before me. Rejoice, all who take refuge in You, Sing for joy forever! And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For You bless the righteous person, Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield. Amen. Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. Amen.