"Hate evil, you who love the Lord, who preserves the souls of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 97:10

Those of us who love the Lord are expected to hate evil. But it’s interesting that those who love to practice evil, hate the results of evil. No one enjoys being rejected, hurt or wronged. No one enjoys a long sickness or a debilitating injury. Yet, all the bad in the world is caused by evil in the world. This should make it easy to hate evil. Perhaps it may not be so easy for a person to love God, because they haven’t seen Him or experienced His presence, but everyone hates the fruits of evil.

The Bible says that when God made the creation that He pronounced that everything that He had made was good. You might ask, -"Are you saying that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was good too?" The short answer is yes.

The Bible says that all things work to the good of those who love God. God put the forbidden tree in Eden to test the first humans to see if they would obey Him. Though the serpent used it as a temptation, it wasn’t created to be a stumbling block,  people stumble because they disobey God’s Word.

 God specifically told Adam and Eve that they could eat of every tree in the garden but one. They disobeyed and as a result the world was cursed, but if they had obeyed they would have been blessed and good would have resulted.

Because evil is in the world and the wicked act out their wickedness on others, the saints need divine protection from the Lord. Our text says that He preserves the souls of His godly ones and when they find themselves in the hands of the wicked, He delivers them. I have experienced this personally many times. I have been attacked by those who hate God, yet the Lord has never failed to deliver me from their schemes.

 Everything evil hates everything good, and everything good must hate everything evil.

President Obama and his administration are reluctant to say that America is at war with radical Islam, yet Muslim Jihadists have openly declared war on America, calling our nation the "Great Satan." But can a people be at peace when another people are committed to their destruction?

As Christians we can be like America and pretend that we don’t have an enemy that is committed to destroy us, but that would be equally foolish indeed. Our age-old enemy is Satan and he had always made war with God and man.

 

We Christians we must recognize that we are in spiritual warfare with the demonic forces of darkness who are committed to the destruction of the Kingdom of God.. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm." (Eph.6)