WRESTLING WITH ANGER

WRESTLING WITH ANGER Psalm 137 August 15, 2010 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Our text this morning is the 137th psalm. Please follow along as I read. By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. Nice psalm, eh? If the language of this song from Israel’s hymnal may be shocking or offensive to you. It is one of the “imprecatory psalms.” To imprecate means to call down a curse on someone or something. You might be surprised to know there are several imprecatory passages in the Psalms. The setting is this: Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, has been ravaged, the capital city of Jerusalem leveled and their Holy Temple destroyed. Large numbers of Judeans have been dragged off to Babylon as captives. The writer of this verse is one of the captives. He is sitting by a tree-lined riverbank, weeping along with others of his displaced countrymen. They used to play their harps and sing songs of joy and celebration to God, but in these days of sadness their harps are silent, left hanging in the branches of the trees. They have no joy, no reason to sing now. But their captors, some of the Babylonians are taunting them, challenging them to sing some of their joyous songs for them. He laments that they cannot sing—not in these depressing conditions. He worries aloud about even forgetting the sweet memories of his homeland, Jerusalem. The more he thinks about how they were ruthlessly dragged from their country by this pagan nation, and how their kinsmen the Edomites from the north, stood by cheering and encouraging the destruction of their city, his anger is kindled to rage. It was unfair. It was hateful. It is the worst that could happen to God’s people to be torn from the land of promise. He could still hear the Edomites, so-called brothers in a common faith, egging on the Babylonian hordes as his precious Jerusalem fell: “Tear it down! Tear it down to its foundations!” His bitterness kindled, he turned his resentment toward the invaders, the people of Babylon—the pagan nation now his overlords. Seething now with rage, he considers how wonderful it will be when one day someone exacts revenge on these marauders. He delights in the thought of the violent vengeance being carried out, even to the point of wishing horrible deaths on their children. We read this psalm and wonder, What is this doing in the Bible? We know we are called to love people, even our enemies. We remember the scriptures in the Old Testament and the New Testament condemning revenge: Vengeance is mine, says the Lord; I will repay. We recall the words of Jesus himself: You’ve heard in the Law, “An eye for an eye,” but I say to you “Do not resist an evil person … Turn the other cheek … Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you … Anyone who is even angry with his brother will be subject to judgment…” And the apostle Peter: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, for to this you were called…” Did God make a mistake allowing this passage that contradicts His royal law and all manner of love and decency to be included in the canonical scriptures? Let me suggest three reasons why this earthy rehearsal of base emotions has been written down and saved for us. First, it is included in the Bible to affirm God’s understanding of our real, honest emotions—like anger. God knows that we feel deep and sometimes detestable feelings—feelings that tempt us to evil, make us hard to live with, make us hate even ourselves for feeling that way. We would rather go on believing that we can hide our feelings from God and He’ll never know, but God is omniscient, and He knows when we hurt and cry, when we hate and kill, even if only in our minds. Psalm 51:6 says, Surely you desire truth in the inner parts… Proverbs 12:22 agrees, The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful. We are to love and practice truth, even when it comes to our inmost feelings. It is so much more in keeping with God’s will for us to admit and confess our sinful and destructive thoughts than to try to repress and sublimate them. Just as with every sin, we need to name it, own it and repent of it. Listen carefully: the safest place of all to admit your ugliest emotions is in the presence of God, in prayer. He understands (though I am not saying He condones) our worst thoughts, and He wants us to bring them all into the light of His healing. Notice who the psalmist is talking to—he’s talking to God. He’s praying. He wants right now to see His enemies murdered, but he is not murdering (even though he is hoping for it one day in the future). The second reason I believe such an inelegant psalm is included in the scriptures is to help us understand that others have the same kinds of sinful emotions as we do: anger, rage and hatred. This may be as simple as the old maxim, misery loves company. Again, this neither condones nor justifies sinful thoughts and behaviors. All it does is helps us to understand we are not the creepiest, most hideous beings on earth all by ourselves. We’re all sinners. Doesn’t it help you, somewhere deep in your heart to know that David, the man after God’s own heart, harbored lust in his heart? It is a small comfort, isn’t it, when we see that Peter was impetuous or that James and John (and their mother) were covetous and ambitious? I’m suggesting that when God allows the dark side of one of His chosen psalmists we might feel—not better about ourselves, but not uniquely evil. We are at least reminded of that which we know: all have sinned… The third answer to the question Why is such an earthy psalm with such detestable imagery included in the Holy Bible? – to teach us that there is a healthy way to deal with our anger. I ask the question again: to whom is the psalmist directing these thoughts? They are Godward comments. He is venting in heaven’s direction. There is nothing wrong with that—and there is much right in that. We are instructed here and in the rest of God’s Word on what to do with our anger. Don’t tell me you never experience anger, bitterness and even rage. Why add lying to your already long list of sins? Such emotions, as wrong and harmful as they are, are universal among us sinners. Don’t deny your sin, don’t repress the guilt, don’t sublimate your anger. Keeping your anger inside you will kill you. It is the known source of high blood pressure and other heart and stroke related illness. I think God, who made us, knows all about the physical consequences of suppressed anger. Isn’t it a blessing to know that he wants us healthier and happier than a balled up, explosive powder keg of anger? It is not his will that we suffer under the burden of bitterness. Hebrews tells us to not allow any bitter root to grow up, but rather to be at peace with all men, and not miss out on the grace of God. Ephesians 4:26 is a comfort and a challenge when it instructs us: In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry and do not give the devil a foothold. What does that mean except that God knows if we don’t deal properly with anger it will eat us alive. And notice that simply experiencing anger is not the sin. Entertaining it, holding onto it, enjoying it—that’s wrong and spiritually deadly. How do you give the devil a foothold? You decide that you are justified in feeling anger toward someone who wronged you. In fact, it actually feels good to continue to hold a grudge against that so-and-so. Here is where your natural human emotion of anger goes to seed and becomes toxic to your soul. Here is the point at which the devil has a toehold and is getting good footing—he wants to get at you and destroy you, and he knows if he can get you to cling to your anger, he wins. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about. You have let anger toward someone eat at you for so long that you are deeply mired in bitterness. Some here in this room have avoided dealing in healthy ways with their anger and given way to explosive rage so often that you are certain you have no more control over it at all. You’ve destroyed relationships because the anger has slipped, spurted or exploded out of you and you’ve said things to those you love you wish you knew how to take back. You’ve hurt those closest to you and it is the deepest regret of your life. You’ve made loved ones afraid of you; you’ve forced friends and family to walk on eggshells around you, such that you have no real relationship with anyone. You’re like a porcupine—others know if they get close to you at all they’ll be stabbed and hurt. Many are so sad and lonely and have yet to figure out that the anger in their hearts toward someone who once hurt them is eating them like a virulent cancer from the inside out. And cancer is an apt illustration, because, left to itself, anger will burrow in to your heart and metastasize. God does not want us to pretend our anger isn’t real, but He does expect us to follow the counsel of His Word in dealing with it. The serious Christ-follower cannot afford to ignore these four directives because sooner or later, and more often than we’d like, anger will come after you, looking to bed down in your soul and defile it. Four prescriptions from the pages of your Bible for conquering anger: 1. Resist the temptation to retaliate. When we are hurt by someone—and we will be—it’s an unavoidable reality in a sin-saturated world with sin-soaked people—a powerful sense of justice rises up and says, That wasn’t fair, that wasn’t right! They can’t treat me like that and get away with it! And we want to instantly strategize how to either get even and/or see that some punishment gets meted out to the offender. Stop right there. If for no other reason than that Jesus commands His disciples avenge themselves, force yourself to destroy all plans to get even. A South African woman stood in an emotionally-charged courtroom, listening to white police officers acknowledge the atrocities they had perpetrated in the name of apartheid. Officer van de Broek acknowledged his responsibility in the death of her son. Along with others, he had shot her 18-year-old son at point-blank range. He and the others partied while they burned his body, turning it over and over on the fire until it was reduced to ashes. Eight years later, van de Broek and others arrived to seize her husband. A few [hours] later, shortly after midnight, van de Broek came to fetch the woman. He took her to a woodpile where her husband lay bound. She was forced to watch as they poured gasoline over his body and ignited the flames that consumed his body. The last words she heard her husband say were "Forgive them." Now, van de Broek stood before her awaiting judgment. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked her what she wanted. "I want three things," she said calmly. "I want Mr. van de Broek to take me to the place where they burned my husband's body. I would like to gather up the dust and give him a decent burial. "Second, Mr. van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. "Third, I would like Mr. van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him, too. I would like someone to lead me to where he is seated, so I can embrace him and he can know my forgiveness is real." 2. Work for reconciliation. Read Ephesians 2 meaningfully and you will see that a primary purpose of Jesus going to the cross was to not only reconcile us vertically with Father God, but to reconcile us horizontally with one another. It is in keeping with the whole intent of our salvation that when there is strife or division, hurt or bitterness between us and another, that we do everything in our power to get it fixed. We work at reconciliation by humbly going to anyone who has offended us or anyone we might have offended with an olive branch, in Jesus’ name, and do anything we have to in order to restore genuine fellowship. If not, someone is going to remain angry, and that will destroy the angry person, the ones toward whom he is angry, all those in the circle of the angry person, and the church community around them. That’s why Ephesians 4:31 is so straightforward: Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. If you have been reconciled to your heavenly Father, you have no right to remain un-reconciled to your brother. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:11) 3. Leave room for God’s wrath to work. God is unequivocal about this: He is the only one who is allowed to exercise vengeance. In terms of civil affairs, He has given limited authority to exercise justice and judgment, but when it comes to our personal relations with others, vigilante justice is absolutely disallowed. And He has made it perfectly clear we are not to jump in and take care of business even if we do think we know His will in the matter. He doesn’t need any help in carrying out justice. Abortion is wrong, but taking the life of an abortion-provider is not our prerogative. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Dean Meyers was the ninth victim of the snipers that terrorized the Washington D.C. area in 2002. Paula Zahn of CNN interviewed the victim's brother, Bob. Paula asked Bob, "I know … that you're a man of great faith. You have many strong convictions. But are you bitter about what happened to your brother?" He responded, "It's certainly something one has to be vigilant about, but no, I would not say that there's a bitterness. I believe that those responsible will have to deal with the authorities God has instituted. First, God instituted human government … and also God says that he'll avenge losses. So we defer to those two authorities and obey the Scripture that indicates that we're not to avenge ourselves." 4. Overcome evil with good. Romans 12:21 says, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. To forgive an offense instead of exacting revenge may seem impossible to you. But if God wants it done, He can get it done through you. Stop limiting God and start expecting Him to work miracles through you. Here’s the big news: God wants to conquer evil through you. And He will do that just as soon as you learn to stifle your sinful angry insistence on getting even every time you get wounded. Or, maybe it is more helpful to approach it this way. Are you more deserving of personal satisfaction than that Lord Jesus? When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. Jesus did not insist on revenge against those who crucified him. He understood there was a larger purpose in his suffering—one that was immensely more important than his getting even. He endured the cross, despising its shame… He overcame evil by doing good. You may be thinking, I know all that is true, but I still don’t seem to be able to get past my anger over past hurts. If you are stymied by anger, stuck in a pattern of rage or bitterness that is destroying you and those who love you, know this: you can be healed. Jesus came to deliver us from every sin and bondage that has us captive. Here is what you need to do. Come to Him to express your anger. If and when you are overcome with rage, yell in God’s direction. You will not hurt Him. You will honor Him by being honest before Him. When you release anger and rage in God’s safe presence a couple of things happen: first, you receive divine healing through the healthy expression of your anger. You get it out of your system in the company of the One who loves you most, who already knows how you feel and is singularly able to help you with it. Secondly, as you release your pain and anger to God you are not releasing it toward those who have hurt you, nor are you hurting those you love. Very simply, the healing of our anger lies in writing our own imprecatory psalm. Bring your nastiest, vilest feelings to the throne of God and unload. When you do you will receive a measure of relief, but more than that, you will be led into honest repentance. You will not be able to vent your anger long before you are convicted of both your sin and God’s deep desire to forgive you and receive you to Himself.           [ Back to Top]