psalm 97
Psalm 97:2:
Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. |
The clouds and thick darkness that surround God symbolize his unapproachable holiness and the inability of people to find him on their own. If he were uncovered, no one could stand before his blazing holiness and glory.
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Psalm 97:9-10:
For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. |
Repentance affects the emotions and deepest affections as well, for the one who is granted repentance from God, now hates the sin that bound and destroyed him, and loves God and his law. God gives us a holy hatred for sin, and by that hatred, we continuously turn away from it.
Repentance involves a revelation from God of the very hatefulness of sin. May God show us all, especially the vacillating christians, that sin is the evil of evils! It is worse than suffering for it is the very cause of suffering and death. It would actually be better to suffer than to sin. It is impossible to love God without hating that which God utterly hates. We are to pray that we see sin as God sees it, for repentance engages the affections as well as the mind. thus the Psalmist exhorts us, Ye that love the Lord, hate evil. We must hate the evil of our own indwelling sin, and hate the evil ripening in our own generation, which is deceiving and damning many to hell. -Bill Randles |