Psalm 145:20 “Two-Edged”

Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²⁰One keeping watch [is] the LORD over all of ones loving Him and the all of the wicked ones He will exterminate.

If I were to offer an amplified version of this verse, it would be:

²⁰The LORD keeps careful watch over all those who love Him, but He will utterly and suddenly annihilate all of the wicked, evil ones.

In the last post, I marveled at the realization that the Lord is personally, constantly, actively, very attentively watching over each and every one of us, guarding us, minding every aspect of our minute to minute life. He’s not just “aware of us.” He’s not even just present “with us.” He is actually, personally here caring for my every second. That is insane.

But it is important to note that this statement contains a condition. It says He gives this personal attention to “those who love Him.” We learned in verses 15 & 16 that He cares for every living thing, which also includes the people who don’t love Him. “He makes His rain to fall on the evil and the good.” However, His greatness, His personal attention, and everything we enjoy as believers is a two-edged sword. He is the God who can do “immeasurably more than we can ask or think” – and that is certainly true, but one must always realize that is a two-edged sword. He can bless His people utterly beyond our wildest imaginations (and does), but for those who would reject Him, spurn His grace, and spit in His face, He is still the God who can do “immeasurably more than we can ask or think!” Just as He has amazing power to bless and prosper, He has that same power to curse and destroy!

It’s interesting to me that the Hebrew word for “destroy” here is a very colorful word. As I tried to bring out in my amplified version above, the picture is not just “destroy,” but rather something far more terrible. It carries the ideas of totally annihilating something and that this massive destruction is likely something that happens very fast. The Lord has given life to this person, He has carefully, attentively watched over them all these years, He has fed them and protected them, and even died for them and offered them salvation by pure grace. He does that because He is a faithful Creator. He does that because of who He is – gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and of great love – but that intense personal attention and care has meant the Lord has personally witnessed this person’s every sin – every cruelty, every hatefulness, every arrogance, every shameless lust – and, in the end, if they still spurn grace, they will find that sword of immeasurable blessing has a back side! And it cuts deeply.

I think a couple of things are worth inserting here. In a sense, the end of this verse is the logical consequence of the beginning. “The Lord carefully watches over those who love Him.” One of the major reasons why the Lord must carefully watch over those who love Him is precisely because of the wicked. Since the serpent deceived Adam & Eve and Cain killed Abel, the picture in the Bible and in life is that much of the misery suffered by the righteous is at the hands of the wicked. Here is the logical consequence – the LORD will utterly, completely, and suddenly annihilate them! The destruction of the wicked is an expression of God’s love for His people. One of the things that will make Heaven glorious is the simple fact that the wicked won’t be there! It's part of the Lord's love for us that He destroys them!

The other thing we ought to note is what we learn in Romans 1 – that the Lord’s primary way to judge sin is to give people what they want. In other words, it’s not that He just suddenly, in a fit of rage, rains down lightning bolts on them. Rather, He patiently offers them grace until finally the most loving thing He can do is give them whatever it is they so passionately desire. Their whole life, they say of the Lord Jesus, “We will not have this man to rule over us,” and finally He gives them what they’ve always wanted – a place to live without Him. It’s called hell.

This is the world we live in. It’s a two-edged world. God is real. There are those who love Him and those who hate Him. Which side of the sword we get depends on our relationship with Him.

Choose wisely.