An Overlooked Aspect Of Psalm 139

Emotions are not sinful; not all emotions are voluntary, and it is logically impossible to be morally responsible for involuntary experiences.  Wanting to act on them in immoral ways or believing false things about them are Biblically sinful.  Just experiencing hatred, and even strong hatred, cannot be inherently sinful.  While this does not prove that the Bible does not condemn all hatred, it is enough to disprove the idea--whether or not the Bible is true--that anyone who feels hatred for someone else is automatically a vile, abusive, or selfish person.  There can be no sin where there is no choice, and hatred is not always something that can be willed away.

However, there are plenty of verses in the Bible that do present some hatred in a positive or permissible light.  How many people have heard or read of how Psalm 139's author praises God for forming the human body or telepathically knowing their thoughts?  In contrast, how many people are familiar with the later part of Psalm 139 where the author openly admits to hating certain people and presents it in a distinctly positive light: "Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you?"  Both parts are in the same chapter and yet the statement about hatred is conveniently not mentioned by many evangelicals.

The hatred spoken of by David in Psalm 139 is not a hatred of an entire group of people because of some happenstance feature like skin color or gender, something that people cannot simply will away.  It is also not because of economic class or social standing, things that have nothing to do with the rationality, righteousness, or sincerity of a person.  This hatred is directed towards people who hate the uncaused cause out of emotionalistic or otherwise ideologically fallacious sources of rage--the only reason why anyone would actually hate the uncaused cause.  Left to itself, this kind of hatred is morally pure, just as hating people for some of the others reasons mentioned in Psalms is morally pure on its own.

Yes, Psalm 139 is not even the only chapter in its respective book of the Bible which teaches that hatred is not always sinful, destructive, or useless.  Psalm 5:5-6 and 11:5 very directly say that God hates certain people and nothing about the context does anything other than put this forth in an accepting, even affirmative way.  That God hates those who love violence is not a negative thing on the Christian worldview, but a positive thing that some people will be subjectively uncomfortable with.  It would actually be irrational to think that hatred of evil always needs to be separated from hatred of evildoers given that hatred is not the same as malice, arrogance, or any other attitude that involves injustice.

Tradition and other superficialities will keep evangelicals content enough with vague assumptions from ever realizing that hatred is not automatically sinful by Biblical standards or destructive inside or outside the context of Christian theology.  It is just ironic that Psalm 139 is predictably popular when it talks things culturally perceived to be optimistic, like the awe of being known by God, and almost never referenced when it plainly talks about hatred of those who hate God.  Whether or not Christianity is true, almost no one has a thorough, holistic grasp of what Christianity even is.  No one can understand the Bible fully without comprehending that love and hatred are not inherently opposed to each other and that God and people can love and hate simultaneously--without any automatic ideological or psychological conflict between the two.