What To Do When You’re Angry!
Psalm 39
Introduction:
What makes the study of the Psalms so beautiful is the transparency of the inspired penman. Holy Spirit peels back the veneer and allows us to see into their hearts… as Psalmists share their hopes & fears, their faults & failures, frailties & weaknesses, struggles & victories… in the Psalms we are brought face to face with our own human weaknesses.
Look: v.5c – “verily every man at his best state ltogether is vanity.” = vapor! We think so much are ourselves when in reality we are but dust!!
Psalms = reveal weakness of man… greatness of our God! Glad when we’re weak; He is strong!
Psalms = language of the heart – they touch every human emotion.
Psalm 39 = Anger!
Look: v.1 – “I said” = Psalmist is reflecting. He was considering. He was reasoning with himself. He had watched something take place…aroused his anger. Emotions stirred and he wanted to speak.
v.3 - David = angry at some wrong or injustice done around him… or some wrong or injustice done to him. Not just a little upset… he’s steaming mad!
“My heart was hot within me… while I was musing the fire burned.” = what started out as a spark of anger… over time had become an inferno!
Q: Ever been where David’s at???
Truth = all of us at some time or another have been where David’s at… we struggle with this matter of anger. Battle our temper!
Story Behind the Psalm:
“Jeduthun” =
Psalm 39 = a sermon in a song!
Psalm 39 = What to Do When You’re Angry!
1. Remember to Think Before You Speak!
Look: vv.1,2
Eccl. 3:7 – “There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” = wise is the person who knows the difference.
Prov. 17:27 – “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”
Prov. 17:28 – “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
Look: v.1 = “I said I will take heed that I sin not with My tongue” = my how our tongues can get us in trouble.
How many times have we in a moment of anger been guilty of putting our mouths in motion before putting our minds in gear. Only to later regret our words! Wishing we could take back what said!!
Problem = words – once out of our mouth… can never get them back! Damage is done!!
Remind = anger is one letter short of danger! Danger is most often in what we say when we’re angry…
v.1b – “Bridle” = restrain… hold back… control
Proverbs 29:22 – “An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.”
James 3 most definitive chapter in Bible of the tongue:
James 3:1,2 – “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
Mark = of maturity in the Christian life is a controlled tongue.
Times = think we have arrived in the Christian life – then out tongue gets loose. God reminds us that we are not the Christian we ought to be.
Quote: “If your tongue is under control, your whole body is under control. But if your tongue is out of control, then your whole body is out of control.” – Clarence Sexton
Tongue = can be the biggest little troublemaker in our lives.
James 3:5 – “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!” = just a little spark can lead to great devastation.
Illust: Great Chicago Fire – started on October 8, 1871… heavy winds and dry conditions… drove the fire for 3 days… destroying 3.3 miles of the city, burning est 17,500 buildings, left 300 dead and 100,000 homeless. Estimated cost over $200 million = approx $5.4 billion in today’s money. Fire was said to have started in a shed when a cow kicked over a lantern.
Angry words = destroyed marriages, families, friendships, churches!
David = “I said, I will take heed to my ways…” = Lord help me to think before I speak!
2. Remember to Talk to The Lord First!
Look: vv.3,4a
When David did speak – notice who he spoke to first – “the Lord.”
Wonder how the different the outcome would be in our lives if when we felt our temperature begin to rise… emotions begin to be stirred to anger… if we paused… held hand over our mouths… spoke to God before we spoke to others?
Not possible! Why?
Believe = when we are in tune with the Lord that we can pray at a moment’s notice.
Determine = to act, not react!
Nature = to react, to lash out!
Oh, that we would be so in tune with our Heavenly Father that in a moment of anger… pause… allow Him to take control before we lose control!!!
3. Remember Life is Too Short to Live it in Anger!
Look: v.3
Amazing thing about life is that it is brief. James = it is a vapor that appearth for a little while and then vanisheth away.
Quote: “Not long between hot wheels and wheelchairs.”
When you have lived a while – tend to look back over life – ask, where have all the years gone.
v.4 – “Handbreadth” = width of the hand used for measuring – only a few inches… David, measured his life… compared to eternity it was just a few inches.
Lord = teach me, help me to understand – value of life!
Life is too short to live it in anger!!!
Wish = had more of our younger families – life goes by too fast to spend an entire marriage in fussing, bickering, lashing out at one another in anger – angry children, teenagers, young adults – grew up in a home full of anger rather than love!
If that is, you – like David you can change that – determine to let God rewrite your story! Don’t live a life full of anger!!
Proverbs 22:24,25 – “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul.”
Why = no peace, no joy, no love, no happiness – anger leads to a life of bondage!
I don’t want to live my entire life shackled to anger!
4. Remember to Live for What’s Important!
Look: v.6
Noticed = people in their vehicles zooming around… shouting fit of anger, shaking fists… always in a rush… always in an uproar… no peace in their lives… empty… never satisfied.
Chasing the wrong dreams! Living for the insignificant! Failed to understand what is important in life!!
Illust: Building dream home… fuss over bathroom, kitchen, color walls… angry at kids mark up the floor or scuff up wall… never enjoy it… fail to understand that what they planned and dreamed for… someone else will one day be living in and never even know who built it.
v.6c – “he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.”
Matthew 6:21 – “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:”
Applic: Take inventory of our lives – go home and count up everything you own that moths can’t eat, time can’t tarnish, thieves can’t steal and death cannot take away – how wealthy really are!
Lay up treasures where the moths can’t corrupt it!
Live = for what’s important, really matters – God, family, eternity!
5. Remember to Yield Your Life to God!
Look: v.7 – “my hope is in thee” = God I am taking my hands off the steering wheel of my life – I want you in control. I want You in charge of my life!
Upset, angry, bent out of shape, torn out of frame = over the happenings of life – things that don’t go our way, things that get in our way… things that are beyond our control.
Fail to see God’s hand! He is at work in our lives. Even when we don’t understand it!
Look: vv.8,9 – “because Thou didst it.”
Happenings of Life = we want answers – God gives us promises! Cling to them! Bring you peace during the upsets of life!!
Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
vv.10,11 – David = asking God to remove His hand of chastening from his life – Lord, I have learned my lesson! You are in charge!!
6. Remember to Rest in the Lord!
Look: v.12
Notice: David = did not say, I am a stranger to thee – He said, I am a stranger with thee.”
Jesus = stranger in the world He created.
John 1:10,11 – “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
We are strangers with Him! This world is not our home. Pilgrims passing through!!
Guilty = at times of getting so upset, in an uproar at what goes on in our world that is beyond my control… what goes on in my own life that is beyond my control.
Illust: Driving Dr. Shelton Smith to the airport in Greensboro… traffic backed up… I am in a tizzy… apologizing to him… I’ll never forget what he said to me… in a calm voice, Brother Broyhill if God wants me at the next meeting, He will get me to the airport on time. If not, He has another plan.
In other words, Dr. Smith was saying, God is in charge, rest in Him!
Learn = to rest in the Lord.
Gives us…
o Peace for our tears (11)
o Patience for our trials (11b)
o Strength for our journey (12)
Conclusion:
What to do when you’re angry…
1. Think before you speak.
2. Talk to the Lord first.
3. Don’t live your life in Anger.
4. Live for what is important.
5. Yield your life to God.
6. Rest in the Lord.
