Psalms 5:4-6

‘For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness,

Evil will not sojourn with you,

The arrogant will not stand in your sight,

You hate all workers of iniquity,

You will destroy him who speaks lies,

YHWH abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.'

This is why he is on the watch, so that he will not be like these. His words make clear to himself and others the kind of God YHWH is and the kind of people that God rejects. God hates wickedness, evil, the arrogant, workers of iniquity, men of deceit (repeated twice) and bloodthirstiness. That the psalmist refers to his own countrymen is suggested by the lack of reference to the nations, and by the fact that they cannot ‘stand in His sight', that is, enter the Temple in true worship expecting acceptance. Thus this is a dreadful indictment on the nation and its condition.

‘Evil will not sojourn with you, the arrogant will not stand in your sight.' To sojourn was to stay as a guest (compare Psalms 15:1). Thus none who are evil can spend time in His presence and be made welcome. Nor can the arrogant stand in His sight. That is, those who are presumptious, who assume that the approach to God can be made lightly and without proper reverence. They cannot come into His court to stand before Him. They may think that they can for they arrogantly sin against Him, and then equally arrogantly assume that it does not matter. But the psalmist tells us that it does matter. They may stand in the temple but they will not stand in His sight. If we would seek to know the presence of God we must do away with sin.

‘You hate all workers of iniquity, you will destroy him who speaks lies, YHWH abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.' The worker of iniquity is the one who practises what is morally worthless and wrong, he acts contrary to God's Instruction. Such are ‘hated' by God because He is a holy God and must recoil from sin. Speaking lies and being a man of deceit are also spoken against in the strongest terms. Deceit is constantly condemned throughout the Bible (Psalms 10:7; Psalms 24:4; Psalms 35:20; Psalms 36:3; Psalms 38:12 and regularly). We are told in the New Testament that the liar will never enter God's heavenly kingdom (Revelation 21:27 compare Psalms 14:5). So men of violence and deceit are ‘abhorred' by Him. Notice the strength of the verbs which reveal God's attitude; hated, destroyed, abhorred. Sin is no light matter.