Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.
Ver. 10. Ye that love the Lord] As having tasted of Christ's sweetness, being justified by his merit, and sanctified by his Spirit, 1Pe 2:4 1 Corinthians 6:11; carried after him with strength of desire, Psalms 42:1, and delight, Psalms 73:25. Such as these only are Christ's true subjects; others will pretend to him, but they are but hangbys, unless the love of Christ constrain them to hate evil, to hate it as hell, Romans 12:9. Sin seemeth to have its name of Sena to hate (the word שׁנא here used), because it is most of all to be hated, as the greatest evil; as that which setteth us farthest from God, the greatest good αποστυγουντες. This none can do but those that love the Lord Christ in sincerity; for all hatred comes from love. A natural man may be angry with his sin, as a man is sometimes with his wife or friend for some present vexation; but hate it he cannot; yea, he may leave it (for the ill consequents of sin), but not loathe it. If he did, he would loathe all, as well as any, for hatred is ever against the whole kind of a thing, saith Aristotle, το μισος προς τα γενη (Rhetor. lib. 2).