Statute of Limitation

For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil can dwell with You.  Psalm 5:4  NASB

No evil – Mercy is important.  In fact, mercy is essential.  Without it, we would all be ruined.  Why?  Because there’s another side of the mercy coin.  That other side of the coin is wrath, judgment, punishment, and worse.  We need mercy—lots of it.  But mercy comes at a price.  Mercy has a cruel edge.  Because of mercy, the wicked prosper.  Because of mercy, sinners slide.  Because of mercy, the world’s evil continues.  If God dealt out justice as soon as evil appeared, we’d have a nice, clean world.  Of course, if He did that, the world would be empty of almost everyone, but at least it wouldn’t be so broken.  As it is, mercy metastasizes into tolerance, and tolerance means heartache.  Lots of heartache.  Is there any consolation?

The Jewish idea of tikkun olam (repairing the world) implies that even broken experiences can be transformed into sources of healing and renewal. As Rabbi Kushner writes, “Pain is the price we pay for being alive. Dead cells—our hair, our fingernails—cannot feel pain; they cannot feel anything. When we understand that, our question will change from, ‘Why do we have to feel pain?’ to ‘What do we do with our pain so that it becomes meaningful and not just pointless empty suffering?’”[1]  The suggestion is proleptic, but maybe not too comforting.  Expulsion from the Garden might have been the necessary step to becoming truly human but it still hurts.

With that in mind, how are we to understand this claim in Psalm 5:4?  If no evil can dwell with God, does that have any bearing on our present plight, or does it simply mean that God is separated from all evil, that He never does anything bad?  Theologians might read this as an attribute statement, that is, that God’s character is incompatible with evil. Theoretically, that helps, but we do have those occasional verses where it seems that God initiates something evil in order to accomplish His purposes.  Not many, mind you, but still a few.

Do you think the psalmist was attempting to deal with dysteleological surds in his statement?  No, I think he’s being much more “down to earth.”  I think he’s telling his readers that God doesn’t tolerate evil in the long run.  God doesn’t feel anything but grief, disappointment, and revulsion at evil.  This is not about the ontological essence of holiness but rather about the everyday application in our broken world.  Nothing good comes from rešaʿ (wickedness).  Why?  Because rešaʿis the polar opposite of what God wants, namely, ṣedeq, righteousness.  rešaʿ “denotes the negative behavior of evil thoughts, words and deeds, a behavior not only contrary to God’s character, but also hostile to the community and which at the same time betrays the inner disharmony and unrest of a man.” ^[2]  Evil (raʿ) might be fashioned to serve God’s purposes, but rešaʿ can’t because rešaʿ is practical disobedience.  Evil is theoretical.  Wickedness is behavioral.  “Do unto others” is the watchword here.  Maybe mercy is the answer after all.

Topical Index: mercy, tikkun olam, Kushner, rešaʿ, raʿ, ṣedeq, righteousness, Psalm 5:4

[1] Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (Randon House, 2004), p. 132.

^[2] Livingston, G. H. (1999). 2222 רָשַׁע. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 863). Moody Press.