Psalm 79
Two weeks ago my wife, Annie, was walking to church, listening to praise music, when she felt someone touch her backpack. She turned around and there were three young Moroccan men, nicely dressed in shorts and t-shirts as if they were headed toward the beach. One of them was trying to get her backpack and she screamed. Somehow she found herself lying on the road as he tried to stop her from screaming and to get the pack off her shoulders. Finally he took the device she was using to listen to music and ran off with his friends. She never made it to church and I found out about it after the service.
Since then I have had rich fantasies of what I would do to those three young men if I found them. I have never been a physically strong person and in all my years I have never been in a fight. But I have visions of beating these three young men, breaking their bones, doing all kinds of terrible things to them.
The truth is that if I were in a fight with them I would probably be badly hurt but that prospect does not enter into my fantasies.
There is a huge rage in me that these young men attacked my wife. I am angry that the police in Rabat are so impotent. If asked to help with some crime committed, they say they control traffic and nothing more and the truth is that they rarely control traffic. They are good at stopping someone and trying to get a bribe, but that is about it.
I am angry at Moroccans who stand by when someone is attacked and do not get involved. It is not surprising that crime is on the increase on the streets of Rabat when so little is done to suppress it.
This is not how it is supposed to be. We should be able to walk to church or walk to town without having to worry about someone robbing us. We should be able to leave our houses or apartments unlocked without fear that someone will come in and steal things. We should be safe in our communities.
Things are not as they should be.
When the psalmist wrote Psalm 79 and its companion, Psalm 74, things were not as they should have been. These two psalms were written after Nebuchadnezzar’s army conquered Jerusalem, ransacked the Temple, and in a forced immigration policy, took the best and brightest with him back to Babylon. This was the deportation that included Daniel and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
It is difficult for us to understand how completely devastating this defeat was. The nation of Israel and their faith in God were completely intertwined. The identity of Israel was that they were God’s chosen people. Their God was the all-powerful God of gods who defeated other nations with their lesser gods. The God of Israel raised up Moses to lead them out of their captivity in Egypt and led them into the Promised Land of Canaan. Under the leadership of Joshua they were victorious and grew. Under Kings Saul, David and Solomon they were a powerful nation.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had always fought for them. When the sons of Eli brought the Ark of the Covenant into battle against the Philistines and it was captured, what happened? Dagon, the god of the Philistines, was found each morning lying prostrate in front of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was moved from town to town but each town it went to suffered from a plague and finally the Philistines sent it back to Israel. God fought for Israel even when they had been defeated.
But then things began to fall apart. After King Solomon died, the kingdom split into two nations, Judah and Israel, and began a three hundred year long civil war. King after king led the people into idolatry, into worship of Baal and Asherah.
The northern kingdom of Israel was the first to fall. In 721 BC the Assyrians deported a fifth of the population and brought foreigners to replace them. This defiled the north and the people of Judah despised them.
Then 135 years later, Judah with Jerusalem, the City of David, and the Temple, fell to the Babylonians and all was lost.
This was a devastating defeat. The walls of Jerusalem were broken. The Temple was destroyed and the sacred objects taken to Babylon (perhaps also the Ark of the Covenant).
Their nation had been defeated but even more painful was that their God had been defeated. Or perhaps even worse, God was no longer fighting for them. Perhaps they had been rejected by God.
God had made promise after promise to Israel about his faithfulness. When David wanted to build a temple for God, God spoke to him through the prophet Nathan and said it would not be David but his son who would build the Temple. And God promised David: (2 Samuel 7:16)
Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.
And now the people of Jerusalem asked what kind of forever had God meant?
The people of Jerusalem had lost their city, their country and their God. The end of the world had come and there they sat with nothing. What had happened to the promises of God? Where was his blessing? Had he removed his love?
So Psalm 79 begins with a description of all the horrible events:
O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple,
they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
2 They have given the dead bodies of your servants
as food to the birds of the air,
the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth.
3 They have poured out blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there is no one to bury the dead.
4 We are objects of reproach to our neighbors,
of scorn and derision to those around us.
When Joshua was at the end of his life he spoke to Israel and told them: (Joshua 23:16)
If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you.”
And this is exactly what happened. God made a covenant with Israel as they entered Canaan and for more than 800 years he was patient, trying again and again to renew loyalty to himself. But Israel kept returning to the worship of idols, Baal and Asherah. Finally enough was enough and God allowed his chosen people to be taken into exile.
God is patient but he will not be patient forever. There will always come a time when God will say, “Enough is enough!” and his judgment will come. This should serve as a warning to us and prevent us from ever being complacent in our faith.
Jerusalem and the Temple had been sacked so the psalmist cries out
5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever?
How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out your wrath on the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
on the kingdoms
that do not call on your name;
7 for they have devoured Jacob
and destroyed his homeland.
Does God get angry?
Does it make you nervous to think that God can get angry? It should. When someone has all power and can do anything they want with you, it is much better to know that person loves you than to know that person is angry towards you. What chance do you have if God is angry with you?
While Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai to receive the law, God told Moses that the Israelites waiting at the foot of Mt. Sinai were worshiping a golden calf they had made and God was angry. (Exodus 32:9–10)
“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
God had begun with a promise to Abraham that he would make him into a great nation and now he told Moses he was ready to start all over again. In his anger, God was ready to destroy Israel and begin anew with Moses to create a new nation.
When Moses went back up Mt. Sinai to meet with God once again, God revealed to Moses who he was. (Exodus 34:5–7)
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
We hold on to part of who God said he was: compassionate and gracious, abounding in love and faithfulness. We may even hold on to “slow to anger”. But slow to anger indicates that anger is there, lurking in the background. Anger is part of who God is as is his judgment and punishment.
The writer of Hebrews in discussing the rebellion of Israel in the wilderness wrote: (Hebrews 4:3)
God has said,
“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
Because of God’s anger, Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, until all the adults died, except for Joshua and Caleb, before entering Canaan.
Was Jesus ever angry? The Pharisees were watching Jesus to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. A man was there who had a shriveled hand. Perhaps the Pharisees brought him into the synagogue just to test Jesus. (Mark 3:4–5)
Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.
I asked earlier if the thought that God could be angry made you nervous. Many of us know people who are angry and some of us may have suffered at the hands of someone who was angry and that is not at all a pleasant experience. It is one thing for God to be angry, but what is it like when men and women are angry?
The anger we are familiar with is destructive and unpleasant. A few weeks ago we watched a video of a man waking up in the morning, feeling irritated and angry. He went to wake up his daughters and yelled at them. He came back into the bedroom and yelled at his wife because there was a basket of laundry on the floor. He set the mood for the entire family. Because he was angry he made the whole family angry. He could have created an atmosphere of life in his home but because of his anger he created an atmosphere of death.
Anger sometimes acts out violently and an angry father or mother beats and abuses children and each other in the home. People walk on egg shells around angry people, afraid to do or say something that will set them off. An angry person is a destructive person and so the Bible warns us about this behavior.
Paul wrote in Ephesians: (Ephesians 4:31–32)
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
The anger with which we are most familiar is this anger, accompanied by rage and bitterness.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:5
[Love] is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Paul wrote to Timothy and told him: (1 Timothy 2:8)
I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
Anger is part of God’s character and the Bible warns us about the destructiveness of being angry. So there is God’s anger and man’s anger. Is it possible for men and women to be angry with God’s righteous anger?
Moses came down the mountain to discover the people of Israel dancing around the golden calf, (Exodus 32:19)
his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.
Moses shared with God his anger at the idolatrous actions of Israel who had so recently benefitted from God’s powerful deliverance.
In 1 Samuel 11:6–8, the first action of Saul after being anointed as the first king of Israel was to become angry. Nahash the Ammonite threatened to defeat and disgrace Israel but
When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he burned with anger. 7 He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they turned out as one man.
Saul’s anger was the result of being filled with the Spirit of God.
Is there an example of someone, other than Jesus, in the New Testament who was angry with God’s anger? I couldn’t find an example but there is this teaching of Paul in Ephesians 4:26–27
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
Paul indicates that anger can exist that is not sin. Eugene Peterson translated these two verses in his Message translation this way: Ephesians 4:26–27 (The Message)
Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.
Paul acknowledges that anger can be expressed without sin, but by far, the dominant teaching in the New Testament concerns anger as sin. We may have to think a bit to come up with an example of anger that is not sinful, but we have no problem thinking about sinful anger.
Here then is the big question: How can we tell the difference between God’s anger and our sinful anger?
The psalmist wrote
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times
the reproach they have hurled at you, O Lord.
What the Babylonians did to us, do to them, but make it seven times worse.
This is what I felt after Annie was attacked. The intimidated her and so I wanted to destroy them. I wanted to push their faces into the ground and smash their teeth.
Is this God’s anger or my sinful anger?
It is very clear to me when my anger is not God’s anger. If Annie and I have an argument because one of us wants to go to the beach and the other wants to go to the mountains and I get angry, it is clear that I am angry because I am not getting what I want. As one of my sisters said when she was 3 or 4 years old, “I want what I want when I want it!” This selfish root of anger is hard to miss.
Sometimes things do not go my way at work or school and when I come home I am angry and take it out on those who live with me. Once again, things did not go my way and now my anger is misdirected towards those who did nothing to deserve my anger.
But is it OK to be angry toward the three young men who attacked Annie? Or toward the Babylonians who captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple?
God wants justice and gets angry at injustice so when I get angry at the injustice of my wife being attacked by three young men, isn’t that God’s anger?
In order to see if my anger is God’s righteous anger or my sinful anger I need to examine why I am angry to make sure my anger is not selfish, but I also need to ask myself what I want to happen with my anger. What do I want the end result to be?
When God was angry and allowed Jerusalem to be sacked, what was the outcome?
The Jews spent 70 years in exile and then returned to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. What is significant is that the idolatry of Israel disappeared. Worship of Asherah and Baal was no longer part of the history of Israel.
However, while this lesson was learned, the priests were corrupt, the people were immoral and their worship at the new temple was superficial. Malachi, the last prophet of Israel, condemned this lack of obedience to God and then for 400 years Israel waited for the coming of the Messiah.
God’s anger closed one door but then began creating another door that prepared the way for the birth of Jesus.
When Jesus was angry with the Pharisees because of the hardness of their hearts, his anger led to the restoration of the arm of a man who had a shriveled arm.
God’s anger leads to life. God disciplines with the hope that repentance will be the result. God works for the benefit of those he loves.
In contrast, man’s anger always leads to death. Man’s anger seeks revenge, not justice. Man’s anger does not seek the good of the other person.
James 1:19–21
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
If my anger is not going to do anything to bring about the righteous life God desires, if my anger is not going to bring life, then it is my sinful anger – not God’s righteous anger – and I need to get rid of it.
But if my anger is God’s anger, then I need to allow it to energize me to work for God’s redemptive justice.
I would love to say that the anger I feel is God’s anger, and maybe there is a little of that in me, but most of the anger I feel is selfish anger, wanting revenge, wanting to make people suffer for the way they treat me.
When I am angry because a car passes a line of cars waiting at a red light to get to the front of the line, there is not much in me that is hoping that person will know the love of Jesus.
When I am angry because of the inefficiency of bureaucracy, I am angry because my time has been wasted.
So what to do if you are angry? That is the question I asked myself this week.
I know some of what I should not do. I should not try to rationalize my anger to turn it into God’s righteous anger. I can try to make a case for why my anger is appropriate, but I know it is not. I am to love those who persecute me, not want to grind their faces into the ground.
It is important when talking with God to say exactly what we are feeling and I do not want to leave anyone with the impression that I am asking you to hide what you feel from God. If you feel that you want to grind someone’s face into the ground, tell that to God. Don’t hide or mask your feelings.
But if you sit with the anger and become comfortable with your anger as a companion, you will find yourself working against the purposes of God and you and those around you will suffer from your anger.
When Paul writes about getting rid of anger he always tells us what it is to be replaced with.
Colossians 3:8–14
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
It is much more fun to be angry than to forgive. It is more satisfying to be angry than to be compassionate and kind. But there is a path to death and a path to life. We have to choose. We are to rid ourselves of anger and clothe ourselves with compassion.
In the songs Peter chose for our worship we sang,
Purify my heart,
cleanse me from within
and make me holy
Purify my heart,
cleanse me from sin
deep within
We need a work of God deep within. We need to long for holiness as we sang in another of the songs,
Take my heart and form it
Take my mind and transform it
Take my will and conform it
To yours, to yours, O Lord
This is the path to life. We need God to continue saving us. We need to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We have been called to be followers of Jesus and as followers of Jesus we represent him to others; we are to live for him. It is no longer all about us. It is all about Jesus.
For those of us who carry anger it is time to die to ourselves. It is time to live for Jesus.
So pray for those who anger you. Ask God to help you see them with his eyes.
Bring life. Do not encourage death.
