This is part 1 in a three-part series on handling anger from Psalm 4:4-5.

 I am angry.

 You can see it on my face. You can hear it in my voice. You can see it by the way I act. You can tell by my silence.

What are you going to do with that? 

Do you want to run away? Do you want to engage with what I am angry about? Do you want to do whatever you can to appease me?

Anger is everywhere. There are so many people who are deeply and darkly angry.

 Brooding, incensed, filled with rage, stewing, exploding, destroying, suppressing, stuffing, and suffering.

I AM ANGRY AND SO ARE YOU!!!

Fun Facts: 

  • God gets angry.
  • We all get angry.
  • There are legitimate things to be angry about.
  • There are illegitimate things to be angry about.
  • There is a righteous way to express anger.
  • There is an unrighteous way to express anger.

Backed with the knowledge that anger is a normal human emotion that reflects our Creator, what are we supposed to do with all the anger we feel? 

The Word of God is full of stories and passages that speak to the deep emotions of our hearts.  Anger is no different.

In Psalm 4, God speaks to this problem with two short verses that offer a powerful punch of what to do when we are angry. 

Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. ~ Psalm 4:4-5

Over the course of the next three blog posts, we are going to explore the 6 steps for righteously handling anger from these short little verses. 

Step 1: Be angry. 

Yep, to be angry is commanded. Wait a minute…we are given permission and even told to be angry? That shouldn’t be a problem for us, right?

Not so fast.

Can I provide a little example that may resonate with you? I grew up in a home where both of my parents were first generation Christians. They did an amazing job of raising us the best they could and living for the Lord. However, anger was an emotion that was not expressed in a healthy way. As a result, I made a vow when I was young not to be angry.

 Ever.

Side note: vows don’t usually work out very well. You would be served well to renounce any silly vows you made as a kid.

Because of this vow to not be angry, I believe I truncated my emotional growth, not realizing that the problem with my family was not anger, but a sinful expression of that anger. 

But because of my vow, I grew into adulthood determined not to be angry.  

Mistake. Why? Because I was angry. 

A. LOT.

Once I began to own up to the fact that I was angry and experiencing a normal human emotion that God gave me, then I was able to actually do something productive with it and seek to bring glory to God. It was really freeing to be able to recognize and allow myself to feel anger.  Not act angrily but feel anger. 

Which brings us to step 2.

Step 2: Don’t sin. 

This second step seems like the first: too easily stated. I think few of us actually desire to sin in our anger. We really want to do good in our heart of hearts. We want evil to stop. We want the pain to go away. We want people to be kind to one another. We want unity. We want the kingdom of God to be advanced. We want people to love each other and get along.

We desire wrongs to be righted, good to reign, and love to grow in our lives.

In the context of this verse, we are not talking about sinful expressions of anger that are clearly driven by the kingdom of self. But what we are driving towards is allowing ourselves to be angry, then getting to the point where our anger produces a great amount of good.

Yes, God’s design for anger is to produce good.

 Like Holiness. Righteousness. Justice. Love. Mercy. Grace.

 Check out Mark 3:1-6 and notice the anger being felt and the resulting contrast in expression with Jesus and the Pharisees. Jesus is angry and expresses compassion. The Pharisees are angry and immediately plot to destroy Jesus.

Does your anger result in compassion or destruction?

 Yes, there’s a good and bad way to be angry.

 Part 2 coming September 3, 2022.