The misuse of Psalm 11:5 against firearms training and tactical readiness (Snipers vs Counter-Snipers)

I recently shared an image of my SIG Sauer Cross Long-Range PRS rifle, and the below statement on law enforcement’s use of counter-snipers at public events, as well a hint towards my own consistent training in self-defense.

Glad to hear some law enforcement agencies are reintroducing the deployment of counter-snipers at locations such as outdoor concerts, Sheepdogs in the rural South have never paused in our training and tactical readiness. Since Antifa threatened to terrorize rural small towns next, on our homestead, I remain on the defensive, not the offense. This suppressed SIG Sauer long-range precision rifle dispatches a bullet at 3,000 feet per second and hits a bullseye 1,000 yards away without revealing my location. It may not be as exciting as my truck gun—a 5.56 NATO AR Pistol with a silencer—but it will do. Rural Tennesseans are making counter-sniper long-range operations great again.

Note: All of the above are legal, properly registered, including the suppressors with the ATF.

A professing Christian who apparently is either a liberal, a pacifist, a beta male, or all of the above, rebuked me with this following comment. “The Bible says God hates those who love violence.” Further investigation confirmed he was gleaming that partial verse from Psalm 11:5 which says,

“The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

Before we study that verse, let me say this.

The context of my aforementioned rifle post was being prepared for self-defense and being prepared to protect life. Though I never use the maps in the back of my Bible. Even the geography matters here. I don’t live in a city, or a tract home. We live “out in the middle of nowhere” in the Rural South. Thankfully, we don’t even have the governments dirty water or sewer system here.

My first line of defense would be my outer perimeter. To protect our homestead a shotgun would not reach that first layer, and a handgun would be only somewhat effective, but a long range rifle would be the appropriate tool. Furthermore, my post was about “defense” not offense. Christians should never be offensive with weaponry, but can use weapons in self-defense, recreation, or hunting.

But forget about taking me out of context. What’s most offensive to me, are those who take Gods Word out of context. That man failed to use God’s Word appropriately. He failed to use proper hermeneutics. There are many components or principles to hermeneutics, but I’ll cover the two components that he failed to use, and they are, the contextual and grammatical disciplines.

The contextual discipline.

I encourage you to study the entire eleventh chapter (7 verses), but let’s briefly look at verses 2,4-6, and then we’ll zoom into the verse the aforementioned misused verse (vs 5).

The eleventh Psalm is a psalm of refuge. The Psalmist was in danger of an imminent threat. He recorded in verse 2 that his enemies were loading their weapons (so to speak). I suspect the aforementioned critic has never been in a deadly situation like this.

“For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.”

Fast forwarding to verses 4-6.

“4 The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 5 The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.”

In verse 4 the Lord is clearly the Psalmist’s hope, and He is the hope of today’s elect (Christians). And regardless of what kingdoms or nations the Lord causes to rise and fall on earth. The Lord’s throne is in heaven and His kingdom is unmovable; the Lord is our hope. In His omnipresence, God had not left His holy temple (Hab 2:20) and is still seated on His throne (Ps 103:19). And from His throne, in His omniscience, God hears, sees and knows everything about everyone. That’s a scary thought.

“The Lord looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.” – Psalm 33:13-14

And now let’s examine verse 5, the key verse.

The same God who is infinite in love towards His elect, is the same God who is infinite in hatred towards the none elect, or the “wicked” who love violence.

“The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

In verse 5a “The Lord trieth the righteous:”

This “trieth” in the Hebrew means God tests, investigates, examines, and chastens those whom He loves “the righteous.” He sends trials our way.

I truly believe the Lord decreed COVID as a test, and sadly most failed that test. God sends His people trials to increase our faith in Him. If we pass the test we are faithful, if we fail the test we are found to be faithless. Just as God refines gold in a fire, He refines His people.

I appreciate what Thomas Brooks said of “The Lord trieth the righteous.”

“Times of affliction and persecution will distinguish the precious from the vile, it will difference the counterfeit professor from the true. Persecution is a Christian’s touchstone, it is a lapis lydius that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be silver or tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance, carnal or spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more soundness and uprightness than a pursuing after holiness, even then when holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and persecuted in the world: to stand fast in fiery trials argues much integrity within.”

The Treasury of David: Psalms 1-26, vol. 1 (London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.), 138.

Now let’s zoom in on vs 5b spending more time there. Afterall this is the charge falsely brought against me.

It says in verse 5b “but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

Surely a Christian still sins and can even do wicked things. But “the wicked” here is the Hebrew word râshâ‛. It is an adjective describing a person who is a criminal, or wicked (hostile to God), morally wrong, an (actively) bad person, condemned, a guilty one or one guilty of crime (substantive).

It’s important to know and understand this. According to the Scriptures, it is a heinous crime and an abomination onto God to justify this “wicked.”

“He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.” – Prov. 17:15; cf. Ex. 23:7

Before the Lord saved me I was a condemned sinner (Jn 3:18), who was an enemy of God (Rom 5:10), dead in my trespasses and sin (Eph 2:5), a child of wrath (Eph 2:3). Therefore, the wrath of God abided upon me (Jn 3:36). And every time I sinned, I was storing up more wrath for the Day of Judgment (Rom 2:5).

But by the grace of God, as the Latin phrase says, I am now Simul Justus et Peccator, which means I am now simultaneously justified and sinner. And that is only because Christ declares His elect righteous before the Father, imputing His (Christ’s) righteousness over to the elect.

As John Gill said of “the wicked” in vs 5b,

“But the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth; that is, such who live in a course of sin and wickedness, and who not only do injury to the persons, characters, and properties of men, but love it, and delight therein, and also take pleasure in them that do the same: these God has a continued and inward aversion to; sin and wickedness being the abominable thing his righteous soul hates: and he shews his hatred to them, by not chastising them now, as he does his own people, but reserving everlasting punishment for them hereafter; see Prov. 13:24.”

John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 3, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 571.

Forgive me for being heavy on the quotes, but these old dead men are much smarter than I.

As Matthew Henry said.

“However persecutors and oppressors may prosper awhile, they will for ever perish. God is a holy God, and therefore hates them. He is a righteous Judge, and will therefore punish them. In what a horrible tempest are the wicked hurried away at death! Every man has the portion of his cup assigned him. Impenitent sinner, mark your doom! The last call to repentance is about to be addressed to you, judgement is at hand; through the gloomy shade of death you pass into the region of eternal wrath. Hasten then, O sinner, to the cross of Christ. How stands the case between God and our souls? Is Christ our hope, our consolation, our security? Then, not otherwise, will the soul be carried through all its difficulties and conflicts.”

Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ps 11:1.

Though the Psalmist was in a perilous situation, he was still putting his confidence in the Lord, as every Christian should today. And while he (or we) trust in the Lord, that does not guarantee peace and safety in the physical realm. But rather the Lord brings testing to His righteous elect people (v. 5a), but the “wicked” (the unregenerate) will experience his opposition and wrath (v. 5b-6).

The grammatical discipline.

Continuing our examination of verse 5b, “but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

Whether we examine this text in the Vulgate, the Septuagint, or the Hebrew Masoretic text, God says what He means, and means what He says.

Scholars agree that the Masoretic Text can be rendered in two ways.

Either “The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.” Or “The LORD, the Righteous One, examines the wicked, and those who love violence his soul hates.”

This word “violence” in Psalm 11:5 is the Hebrew word châmâs.

It is a noun that describes the sinful violence of an oppressor. By implication a wrong for an unjust gain, a form of being cruel (or cruelty). It is an unrighteous violence or wrong against another. It is a violence with malice, maliciousness, or malice aforethought.

Exegetically, this châmâs can also be used to describe today’s all too common murder. Or the recent unprovoked murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska who was minding her own business while seated on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina. And let us never forget the wicked châmâs of the unborn child (aka abortion) that occurs every hour each day in America, which we don’t see.  

This châmâs violence is so bad, that some believe today’s Hamas terrorist organization gleams their word Hamas from this châmâs. The Hebrew verb ḥāmas means “to treat violently.”

Application.

Considering the spiritual realm here, but while speaking of the physical realm.

Oftentimes those who wrongfully accuse the police of “police brutality,” are the same people who engage in châmâs violence themselves. However, when a policeman or citizen use force to stop châmâs violence, such necessary brutality is justified as it prevents further harm.

Yes, it is sin to love violence, or to be “the lover of violence” (YLT). It is sin to harm someone because of hatred or malice in your heart.

But is not a sin to love justice. It is not a sin to train and prepare. Though we should hope to never use lethal force. It is not a sin to use force in self-defense, or lethal force in immediate defense of life (aka IDOL). It is not a sin to desire to be a victor rather than a victim, especially if your loved ones are in present danger. As long as you do not have the malice in your heart as described in châmâs.

Lastly, verse 6 is a strong warning of what God will do to the “wicked.”

“Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.”

Only those whom the Lord predestines to be saved will be saved from His wrath. To know more about this salvation, read the Gospel below, it is Good News for His elect.

THE GOOD NEWS!