John Calvin Commentary Psalms 5:4-6

"For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: Evil shall not sojourn with thee. The arrogant shall not stand in thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou wilt destroy them that speak lies: Jehovah abhorreth the blood-thirsty and deceitful man." — Psalms 5:4-6 (ASV)

Here David makes the malice and wickedness of his enemies an argument to support his prayer for divine favor toward him. The language is indeed abrupt, as the saints in prayer will often stammer; but this stammering is more acceptable to God than all the figures of rhetoric, however fine and glittering.

Besides, David's primary aim is to show that since the cruelty and treachery of his enemies had reached their utmost height, it was certain that God would soon stop them in their course. His reasoning is based on the nature of God. Since righteousness and upright dealing are pleasing to him, David concludes from this that he will take vengeance on all the unjust and wicked.

And how is it possible for them to escape from his hand unpunished, since he is the judge of the world? The passage is worthy of our most special attention. For we know how greatly we are discouraged by the unbounded insolence of the wicked. If God does not immediately restrain it, we are either stupefied and dismayed, or cast down into despair.

But David, from this, instead finds reason for encouragement and confidence. The greater the lawlessness with which his enemies proceeded against him, the more earnestly he supplicated God for preservation, as it is his role to destroy all the wicked, because he hates all wickedness.

Therefore, let all the godly learn, whenever they must contend against violence, deceit, and injustice, to raise their thoughts to God to encourage themselves in the certain hope of deliverance. This is just as Paul also exhorts them in 2 Thessalonians 1:5: “Which is,” he says, “a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us.” And assuredly, he would not be the judge of the world if he did not have a recompense in store for all the ungodly.

One application of this doctrine, then, is this: when we see the wicked indulging themselves in their lusts, and when, as a result, doubts about whether God takes any care of us steal into our minds, we should learn to be reassured by the understanding that God, who hates and abhors all iniquity, will not permit them to pass unpunished. Although he bears with them for a time, he will eventually ascend to the judgment seat and show himself an avenger, as he is the protector and defender of his people.

Again, we may also infer from this passage the common doctrine that God, although he works through Satan and through the ungodly, and uses their malice to execute his judgments, is not, for this reason, the author of sin. Nor is he pleased with it, because the end which he purposes is always righteous; and he justly condemns and punishes those who, by his mysterious providence, are driven wherever he pleases.

In the 4th verse, some interpret רע, ra, in the masculine gender, as a wicked man; but I understand it rather as wickedness itself. David declares simply that there is no agreement between God and unrighteousness. He immediately proceeds to speak of the men themselves, saying, the foolish shall not stand in your sight; and it is a very just inference from this that iniquity is hateful to God, and that, therefore, he will execute just punishment upon all the wicked.

He calls those fools, according to a frequent use of the term in Scripture, who, impelled by blind passion, rush headlong into sin. Nothing is more foolish than for the ungodly to cast away the fear of God and allow the desire to do mischief to be their ruling principle; indeed, there is no madness worse than the contempt of God, under the influence of which people pervert all right.

David sets this truth before himself for his own comfort; but we also can draw from it doctrine very useful for training us in the fear of God. For the Holy Spirit, by declaring God to be the avenger of wickedness, puts a bridle on us to restrain us from committing sin in the vain hope of escaping with impunity.