Psalms 34:21

Evil shall slay the wicked.

Sin the slayer

“Evil shall slay the wicked.” When? Now. The judgment is in process of execution to-day. Evil slays men to-day. Righteousness delivers men to-day.

I. evil shall slay the wicked. Have you ever known that to happen? Have you ever known evil to slay a man--I don’t mean the man’s body, but the man? It is a daily commonplace. When we see a man who is the victim of some sin, we do not speak of him as dying or as being slain. We speak of him as one “taking the bad way,” “going down the hill,” “going to ruin,” as one who is “becoming a wreck.” The victims of evil are dying, dying from the effects of evil, and eventually they are slain. Now, there is no form of evil which does not make for destruction, for moral and spiritual death. “The soul that sinneth shall die.” The soul begins to die at once. The poison begins to act immediately. My text does not specialize any particular evil--drunkenness, or sensualism, or gambling, or falsehood, or deceit. It speaks of them all as one, generalizes them, heaps them together and says, “Evil shall slay the wicked!” Anything that is destroying a woman’s womanhood is slaying the woman. Anything that is destroying a man’s manhood is slaying the man.

1. What makes a man? What are the supreme and characteristic glories of a true man? A good conscience, a sound heart; and a vigorous will. A healthy man has a conscience by which he knows the right. He has a heart by which he loves the right. He has a will by which he does the right. Take away any of those three from a man and the man is maimed. You do not use the title “man” of one who has no conscience. You do not use it to describe one who has no heart. You do not use it of manhood which is destitute of will. Instinctively you feel that manhood which lacks these attributes is not; worthy of the name. When these three are destroyed, the man is slain. Now, how does evil affect these primary glories of manhood?

(1) How does evil affect the will? Will, in the relationship in which I speak of it, is moral muscle. Will-power is resolution of purpose, power of determination, power of aggression or resistance. How, then, does evil affect the will? Poison weakens the body; moral poison weakens the will. Every time we give way to deceit, to temper, to passion, to lust, we make it harder to walk in the path of rectitude and truth. Every time we have dealings with evil we impair and diminish our moral resources. Evil slays the wicked man, and it begins by slaying his will.

(2) How does evil affect the heart? Have you marked what often happens when some dark evil has stolen into a Christian man’s life? Prayer is forgotten. Work is neglected. The Sanctuary is forsaken. His ardour cools, and he no longer loves the truth. His love has become perverted. How is it? When men love darkness it is because evil has injured their hearts. The heart is given us to love the truth, but evil injures the heart, abuses the heart, destroys its pure affection, and makes it the instrument of darkness. If we take evil into our life we shall lose the power to love the right; we shall be unmanned, evil which slays the wicked will destroy the heart.

(3) How does evil affect the conscience? Here is my lamp. My lamp says, “I will give light conditionally. I will give light if you will give oil.” My conscience, the lamp of my soul, says, “I will give light conditionally. I will give light if you will give oil.” If a man refuses to obey his conscience, he refuses to give it oil, and it will burn dimmer and dimmer until at last it will become a confusion of smoke. It is possible for a conscience to lose its brightness, its clear, decisive indication; nay, it is not only possible, it is inevitable if we pursue towards it a course of disobedience.

2. Well, now, here is what evil can do. It weakens my power to do the right. It destroys my love of right. It obscures my knowledge of right. It paralyzes my will. It clouds my conscience. It perverts my heart. If evil can do all these things, does it not slay? Does it not destroy the strength and beauty of human life? It takes our manhood and womanhood and by cutting down all their glories reduces them to be a mere collection of attributes of the flesh.

II. But there is another side to all this: if evil slays the wicked, righteousness delivers from death. If evil degrades our life by taking away the crown of manhood, and the beauty of womanhood, righteousness enlarges the life by nourishing it from glory to glory. Evil throws about us an atmosphere which induces death. Righteousness throws about it an atmosphere which ministers to life. What is the fruit of righteousness? Not only some heaven that is to be. Not only some great reward awaiting us in remote futurity. The fruit of righteousness is to be “a tree of life.” The righteous man, here and now, is to be like a grand, roomy, living tree, full of healthy sap, and exulting in the fulness of its strength. Every part of him is to be alive. That is the tendency of righteousness, of right living, of right doing and being; it makes for life, abundant life. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)