Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.
Psalm 119:53
The psalmist is not without emotion. In other words, it is not as though he is unaffected by the prevalent sin in the world. In fact, he hates it. He hates the sinfulness of the wicked and their lack of response to the word.
The grinning of the proud will not trouble us when we remember how the Lord dealt with their predecessors in bygone periods; he destroyed them at the deluge, he confounded them at Babel, he drowned them at the Red Sea, he drove them out of Canaan: he has in all ages bared his arm against the haughty, and broken them as potters’ vessels. While in our own hearts we humbly drink of the mercy of God in quietude, we are not without comfort in seasons of turmoil and derision; for then we resort to God’s justice, and remember how he scoffs at the scoffers: “He that sitteth in the heavens doth laugh, the Lord doth have them in derision.”1
Psalm 2
Why are the nations in an uproar
And the peoples devising a vain thing?
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!”
He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.
Then He will speak to them in His anger
And terrify them in His fury, saying,
“But as for Me, I have installed My King
Upon Zion, My holy mountain.
I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware.’ ”
Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
Take warning, O judges of the earth.
Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
As believers we should hate sin and be deeply troubled by those who not only reject the truth of God’s word, they mock it. It is the epitome of arrogance for sinful mankind to think he can stand in judgment of a holy God. The day will come when the wicked will either repent and believe or they will be shattered like earthenware. These are the only two options.
1 Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The Treasury of David: Psalms 111-119 (Vol. 5, p. 241). London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers.