The Company You Keep Text: Psalm 26:4-5
Introduction: The Necessity of Drawing Lines
We live in an age that despises boundaries. Our culture celebrates the blurred line, the gray area, the refusal to make sharp distinctions. To call something evil is considered hateful, and to separate from it is called bigoted. But the Bible knows nothing of this kind of squishy, sentimental tolerance. From the very first day of creation, when God separated the light from the darkness, we see that holiness requires separation. Order requires distinction. And covenant faithfulness demands that we choose our company carefully.
In this Psalm, David is pleading his case before God. He begins by asking God to vindicate him, based on his integrity and his trust in the Lord (v. 1). This is not the boast of a sinless man. David was no stranger to profound sin. Rather, "integrity" here means wholeness, a fundamental orientation of the heart. It means his deepest loyalties were undivided. He was not trying to serve two masters. And in these two verses, verses 4 and 5, he gives us the negative evidence for his claim. He shows us what his integrity looks like in practice. It looks like drawing sharp, clear lines between himself and the ungodly.
To love God is to hate what He hates. To walk in the light is to refuse fellowship with darkness. David understands that you cannot claim to love the congregation of the righteous if you are comfortable in the assembly of the wicked. Your allegiances are revealed by your associations. This is a truth our soft-hearted generation has forgotten, much to its peril. We think we can be friends with the world and still be friends with God, but James tells us this is to be an adulteress (James 4:4). David shows us here that a crucial part of walking in integrity is knowing who to walk away from.
The Text
I do not sit with worthless men,
And I will not go with pretenders.
I hate the assembly of evildoers,
And I will not sit with the wicked.
(Psalm 26:4-5 LSB)
Rejecting Counterfeit Fellowship (v. 4)
David begins by identifying two kinds of people he refuses to associate with.
"I do not sit with worthless men, And I will not go with pretenders." (Psalm 26:4)
First, he does not "sit with worthless men." The Hebrew for "worthless men" is literally "men of vanity" or "men of emptiness." These are not just unsavory characters. They are men whose lives are built on nothing. Their worldview is a lie, their promises are empty, and their ultimate destiny is futility. They are the men described in Psalm 1, the chaff which the wind drives away. To "sit" with them is not about mere physical proximity. It means to take your place among them, to listen to their counsel, to join their fellowship, to make common cause with them. The blessed man of Psalm 1 does not sit in the seat of scoffers. David is saying the same thing. He refuses to settle down and make himself at home in the company of those whose entire existence is a rebellion against reality.
Second, he will not "go with pretenders." The word for pretenders here means those who are hidden, who conceal their true nature. These are hypocrites. They are, in many ways, more dangerous than the openly worthless men. The worthless man is a declared enemy; the pretender is a spy in the camp. He wears a mask of piety or friendship, but his heart is full of deceit. He is the man who speaks peace to his neighbor while evil is in his heart (Psalm 28:3). Jesus reserved His most blistering rebukes for the Pharisees, who were exactly this kind of pretender. David understands that integrity means a hatred of all falsehood, and so he refuses to "go with" them, to walk alongside them on their duplicitous path.
This is a crucial discipline for the Christian. We are called to evangelize the lost, which means we must interact with them. But we are forbidden from entering into intimate fellowship with them. We are not to be "unequally yoked" (2 Cor. 6:14). We cannot build our lives, our families, or our churches with those who are fundamentally empty and deceitful. To do so is to build on a foundation of vanity, and it will surely collapse.
Hating Organized Evil (v. 5)
In the next verse, David intensifies his language and broadens the scope from individuals to the group.
"I hate the assembly of evildoers, And I will not sit with the wicked." (Psalm 26:5 LSB)
Here we must confront a word that makes modern Christians very nervous: "hate." We have been so soaked in a sentimental, therapeutic caricature of love that we have forgotten that godly love requires a godly hatred. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil (Prov. 8:13). David is not expressing a petty, personal animosity. This is not sinful bitterness. This is a righteous, covenantal hatred. He hates the assembly of evildoers because God hates it. He hates it because it is the organized opposition to the God he loves. If you love the shepherd, you must hate the wolf. If you love the king, you must hate the traitors. A love for God that does not produce a hatred for evil is a counterfeit love.
Notice what he hates: "the assembly of evildoers." This is the anti-church. It is the congregation of Satan. Evil is not just a collection of individual choices; it organizes itself. It forms communities, institutions, and movements. It has its own liturgy, its own creed, and its own mission. Whether it is the cabal of wicked counselors plotting in secret, or the public mob screaming for Barabbas, evil loves to assemble. David says he hates this. He despises the corporate expression of rebellion against God. He wants nothing to do with their meetings, their rallies, their organizations, or their churches.
And so he concludes with a resolute declaration: "And I will not sit with the wicked." He repeats the word "sit" from verse 4, emphasizing his refusal to be counted among them. This is a boundary. It is a line drawn in the sand. This is where his allegiance lies, and it is not with them. This separation is not an act of self-righteous pride. It is the necessary prerequisite for true worship. In the very next verse, David says, "I shall wash my hands in innocence, and I will go about Your altar, O LORD" (v. 6). You cannot come from the assembly of evildoers and approach the altar of God. You must choose. You must separate. You must wash your hands of their deeds before you can lift them in worship.
Conclusion: Separation for the Sake of Worship
David's attitude here is a standing rebuke to a compromised and worldly church. We have become far too comfortable sitting with worthless men, listening to their vain philosophies in our universities and on our televisions. We have become far too cozy with pretenders, allowing hypocrisy to fester within our own ranks for fear of offending someone.
We have lost our capacity for righteous hatred. We call our tolerance love, when in fact it is cowardice. We refuse to hate the assembly of evildoers, and as a result, our own assemblies have become polluted. We have forgotten that the call of Christ is a call to come out from among them and be separate (2 Cor. 6:17). We are to be in the world, as salt and light, but we are not to be of the world.
The ultimate ground for this separation is the work of Christ. He is the one who, in perfect integrity, was "holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners" (Heb. 7:26). Yet for our sake, He entered the assembly of evildoers on Calvary, and was counted among the wicked. He endured the ultimate excommunication from the presence of the Father so that we, who were worthless men and pretenders, could be welcomed into the assembly of the saints.
Therefore, our separation from the wicked is not how we earn our place at God's altar. Rather, it is the grateful and loyal response to the one who secured our place there with His own blood. Because we have been brought near to God, we must now live as a people set apart for God. We love His house, we love His altar, and we love His people. And for that very reason, we must hate the assembly of evildoers and refuse to sit with the wicked.