Healing From Anger Series

The Psalms are inspired by God and therefore meant to instruct us how to think about God and the entire world. On the other hand, the Psalms are poems or songs and are meant to awaken and shape our feelings about God and the world. We have focused in the previous messages on the feelings of spiritual depression in Psalm 38 and guilt in Psalm 51. Today, we focus on the emotion of anger, or more specifically the desire for retaliation or vengeance. It seems that anger is on the rise in recent days. We seen some high-profile outbursts. Tennis star, Serena Williams, threatened to stuff a fuzzy tennis ball down the throat of a linesmen because of what she perceived was a bad call. Rapper Kanye West bizarre behavior at the MTV’s Video Music Awards where he snatched the microphone from pop-country singer Taylor Swift as she accepted her award for Best Female Video. West’s announcement that the award should have gone to Beyoncé instead has not only made headlines but even received a reaction from President Barack Obama. Lastly, Representative Joe Wilson famously burst into the President’s speech on health care with the words, “You lie!” Many across the country are speculating about what’s wrong with our collective impulse control.

One of the mightiest emotions we have inside of us is our anger. We feel intense anger when something horribly wrong or unjust is done, say the sexual abuse of a child, or some blatant racial discrimination, or your wife has betrayed marriage vows and committed adultery with another person.

“You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you.?20 Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.?21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

22 Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap.?23 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually.?24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them.?25 May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents.?26 For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded.?27 Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you.?28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous” (Psalm 69:19-28).

This psalm is not only important as it serves as another way for us to read over the shoulder of King David as he writes in his journal, but it also serves as way to see Jesus Christ. This is one of three psalms that are among the most quoted in your New Testament. Jesus memorized and studied this Psalm and the NT applies much of the language to Jesus’ life and ministry

1. When Anger is Wrong

Many of us think of anger an emotional fluid that builds up pressure inside of us. We think of it as something that must be released. This idea is popular in our day and this kind of thinking leads to the visual metaphors we frequently use: “He is boiling mad” or, “She is just blowing off steam.” Anger can be “stored up inside” or “harbored” for decades. Someone may feel better if they simply “get it off their chest.” These colorful descriptions capture how we feel. Anger is a passionate emotional response to a perceived evil that hinders us from something good.

In his autobiography, Number 1, Billy Martin told about hunting in Texas with Mickey Mantle. Mickey had a friend who would let them hunt on his ranch. When they reached the ranch, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he checked in with his friend. Mantle’s friend quickly gave them permission to hunt, but he asked Mickey a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind, and he didn’t have the heart to put him out of his misery. He asked Mickey to shoot the mule for him. When Mickey came back to the car, he pretended to be angry. He scowled and slammed the door. Billy asked him what was wrong, and Mickey said his friend wouldn’t let them hunt. “I’m so mad at that guy,” Mantle said, “I’m going out to his barn and shoot one of his mules!” Mantle drove like a maniac to the barn. Martin protested, “We can’t do that!” But Mickey was adamant: “Just watch me,” he shouted. When they got to the barn, Mantle jumped out of the car with his rifle, ran inside, and shot the mule. As he was leaving, though, he heard two shots, and he ran back to the car. He saw that Martin had taken out his rifle, too. “What are you doing, Martin?” he yelled. Martin yelled back, face red with anger, “We’ll show that son of a gun! I just killed two of his cows!”