Psalms: Anger

Is gonna explode, and who would it go

on?

All of you and Father Matt too?

Yes. I could get him good right now.

If I really want it. Right?

So

I'm not gonna open it because I could

lose my job.

I don't wanna do that. If But I

am gonna ask you if you want to

have parental supervision at home. Your parents could

do this with you, and you got...

Right parents. Right parents are like, that. So

you could do this at home it's and

you could talk about anger and what does

it do? So that's a really good way

to remember. Hey, I don't want my anger

to explode.

I wanna use that. Anger for good? And

I wanna ask myself what am I angry

about? Am I angry because I'm just mad

today? Or do I have a reason to

be angry where I need to put action

to my words. Right? That's what we wanna

do. So the last verse that I wanna

go over with you guys. I want you

to say it with me is fusion 04:26.

It says in your anger, do not what

you guys

send. Can you say it with me?

In your anger

do not sin. Can you whisper it to

your neighbor? In your anger. Do not sin.

Can you say it really loud

in your anger.

Do not send.

Okay.

And we were not angry when we did

that. Right? Okay?

Alright. So what it says is if you're

feeling angry,

it's okay. We all feel it.

But don't sin. Don't lose your temper.

Use that if that anger needs to be

used to do something good, great. If not,

maybe what are some ways you guys that

can get rid of that anger in our

heart. We'll close with this. What are some

ways to get rid of anger in your

heart, Lydia.

Pray. Read the bible. What else? Yes.

Breathe. Everybody breathe.

I think it'll be hard to do that

and be angry at the same same time.

Good 1. Yes.

Ask God for help. Yes. What about say

you're sorry?

Maybe you did something that's making your angry

or what about for give someone else who

made you angry. Like, whoever bitch you that

day? Maybe

maybe you should forgive them providing you. Maybe

they just didn't know what they were doing,

You know? And that's why you're angry. So

forgiving people forgiving yourself, praying, asking God for

help. Those are all amazing questions. You guys

are so smart. You're just so smart. Okay.

I wanna pray.

And we're gonna ask god to help us

with anger and help us to take that

emotion and use it for him and not

not not up anger. You guys ready to

pray?

Bow your heads. Father, thank you so much

for this time together.

Thank you, Lord that you sharp us anger

in the scriptures so that we know we're

gonna feel it. And there's some anger that

is good when people are being treated badly

we wanna be angry about that, Lord is

not right.

But help us just to act and do

things to improve that and to help that.

And lord, for angry about things that are

bad and selfish, help it to give that

to you and to let it go and

to pray Lord and and not let it

spill out on everybody else. We think you

for your love and for how you love

us and care for us in Jesus name.

Ay man. You guys are awesome. High 5

each other on the way back to your

seats. You did amaze and you listened so

well. Good night do great you guys?

Good man.

Dean and thank you kids. And

we're gonna do... That that was the children's

sermon, and I I feel like,

maybe we got exactly what we needed this

morning.

That was that was good enough. So we're

talking about anger today, and, Kid you did

a great job of confessing your anger, adults

who who's ever felt anger.

Who's ever been bitten by another person?

That's

it's an interesting 1 something's is applied to

the kids not necessarily to the adults.

We're talking about anger this morning, and I

assume it affects all of us in here

because we're all humans.

We're in a... Series right now called Psalms

crying upwards. And you remember where, we're looking

at the Psalms and talking about,

our own emotional lives, and you remember this

key idea that

you're only as spiritually mature as your emotionally.

It's mature.

That your emotional maturity in your spiritual maturity

actually go hand in hand. You can't actually

invite god into all areas if your life

if you're not willing to name them and

own them and reflect on here's where I've

been. And so we've we've been looking at

this together, and we're using the psalms through

as our guide book for how do we

understand, our emotions. And I don't know about

you. If you might have prayed through psalm

01:09 this morning. That song that we just

prayed. And you might have even felt a

little bit embarrassed about it. There's a part

in there about praying that this person's

family would be morning become orphan or that

that he himself, his wife would be a

widow. I mean it's a it's actually AAA

quite jarring psalm to pray that we're going

to be working through this morning would on

anger.

We don't like to admit our anger

because it seems un Christian. It's not the

the Christian thing to do We're supposed to

be people who are nice, people who are

kind people, not people who are are very

angry type of people.

But I think the Bible often offers a

more nuanced perspective active, particularly around anger, and,

in fact, Olivia just hit on it some...

In this children's sermon. So we like to

look at verses, like Ephesians 04:26, which she

Ephesians 4:26

just put up, which says don't don't let

the sun go down in your angry. We

think we have to resolve anger really quickly,

but it it says as Olivia just pointed

out just before. In your anger,

do not sin.

Which means there is a way of experiencing

anger that doesn't lead to sin. There's a

way of of being angry towards something in

the world.

Going further, we see Jesus in passages like

Mark 3 before healing a man, he looks

around in anger.

Deeply distress before performing this miracle saying stretch

out your hand to this man.

So if Paul says there's a way to

be angry and not sin, if Jesus experienced

anger, than there has to be more to

it than just to be a Christian means

don't get angry.

It's too simplistic of a. It doesn't accurately

reflect the whole perspective of the bible or

how we really are as humans.

So what is anger? And talk about that

first. What is anger?

Anger is... It's an important emotion. It is

an emotional reaction

to a perceived in justice.

An emotional over action to a perceived

injustice. And what I mean by that is

you see something or you experienced something that

you think is wrong or you think is

an injustice.

And you can you can hold off on

that 1.

There we go.

You see something that you think is something

an injustice,

and you wanna set the record straight. You

wanna attack. You defend.

I say perceived injustice because often our anger

blinds us, and we're not quite sure if

there's an accurate in injustice happening or not.

We're not quite sure whether something truly is

and in or not. So it's a perceived

injustice. You think something is unjust.

Anger is the emotion that comes when someone

or something is interferes

with what we expect is right or fair

or good.

Let me give you an example,

I expect I expect people to be considerate.

I'm sure many of you hold this expectation

as well. And so when someone isn't being

considerate of others often

become angry because I think it's a lack

of consideration.

Driving down I 35. Right? Someone cuts you

off or someone cuts someone else off. You

have this emotional reaction of anger.

Because you think that's not considered. It's it's

a lack of fairness, it's a lack of

right, lack of goodness perceived injustice.

Anger often is what I would call the

protector

emotion.

Anger protect you or wants to protect others.

It often wants to protect you in fact,

sometimes from feeling other things.

Different cultures have different variances

with this as well. But anger is usually

a a way of protecting,

others protecting yourself or even protect you from

feeling

grief or sadness.

It's come as a common thing. So, for

instance,

as my role is a priest I often

company ping people and some of the last

moments of their life.

And there's something powerful about standing at a

hospital bed, watching as someone breathes their last

breath, people

It's making the transition from this world into

god's presence.

And what I noticed in myself in those

moments is not just tears, but usually a

deep anger that I feel.

This anger that this is not right this

moment of death. That this is I wanna

be able to punch something to hit something

to throw something. I wanna be able to

do something

about the death that I'm seeing in front

of me because I know this not how

God intended the world.

It's an emotional reaction of anger and that

anger is protecting over also grief and sadness.

This that I feel as well. The anger

is this protector emotion.

Anger wants to restore the world to the

way it's supposed be.

Thomas a,

1 of our greatest christian philosophers and theologian.

He said that for anger to be right,

we know that anger can go wrong, We've

all experienced in our own lives, yourselves or

others anger going wrong.

But anger can go right, and he said

for anger to go right 2 things have

to. Happen. 2 different situations have to be

met. And first of all, and now we'll

go to this next slide.

A client has said that anger has to

be directed towards a true injustice.

Not just a perceived injustice, but it has

to be directed towards a true injustice.

Anger that is right is anger that is

directed towards sin,

towards injustice towards evil ultimately towards the satanic

kingdom.

It joins with god's own righteous anger,

and it proclaimed this is not the world

that was meant to be. This is not

how things are posed to be. And so

for instance, when I'm angry at death in

those moments, it's a joining with god's right

anger saying this is not how this world

is supposed to be at all times.

So we become angry. Here's the second thing

a coin says, it has to be rightly

proportion.

On this next slide, he said there's almost

like this bell curve

between abbott see on the 1 hand and

wrath on the other hand. And he says

you can get out of proportion. And if

your anger isn't right proportion, it's all of

sinful anger. So here's

here's maybe an example of this.

If you have a parent, and

you're maybe at the the park or something

of and you see a a kid who's

just bullying other kids,

who's really picking on them name calling, maybe

even hitting them or something like that. And

you see the parent, and and the parent

doesn't respond to this child in any kind

of way. That would be an

response. It's a lack of love.

Because in that moment, they should have some

anger. This isn't how children behave. This isn't

fair on the playground happening. I should be

able to step in as a parent and.

Do something.

But if you go too far in the

other direction, you have the parent and we've

all seen this kind of parent who's lose

losing control, who's raising their voice who's towering

over a child who's maybe throwing things who's

out of losing control no longer has self

control in that moment, and has slipped into

an out of proportion response for anger, a

sinful response.

That's why the prove 29,

Proverbs 29 says, a full gives full vent

to his anger

but a wise person, a wise man keeps

himself under control. It's not that the wise

man is

never angry, but he isn't venting his anger

on others in wrath.

So I wanna look at a couple. I'm

just gonna share with you all some examples

for my own life of when there has

been anger that has been right, venting there

has been anger that is wrong, just to

start to fill in, how do we make

sense of what a aqua is saying about

anger.

Alright. For my own life, again, anger is

wrong when you're boss tells you that you

and your team didn't work hard enough to

plan something, and that's why an event failed.

And so you blow up saying that this

wasn't enough time to do the work he

demand it, by the way, This is not

Cliff. This is like, over... This is 15

years in my past.

But this anger is wrong because do there's

a critique of my identity, and my response

is to angrily defend myself. Remember anger the

protector. I'm not willing to hear the critique,

not willing to listen to something that maybe

need to improve on. It's anger trying to

to wrongly protect me, not aimed towards,

a true injustice.

Need Anger is wrong. Maybe this resonates with

some of you anger is wrong when it

is kept internal

and out of fear of conflict.

Another person.

Never confronts another person never says something they're

doing is hurting you, hurting others, needs improvement,

at pathetic. It's a lack of love.

Anger is wrong when it isn't willing to

listen to another side.

Not willing to consider that I myself don't

have the whole picture, but Maybe you've had

an anger fantasy before. We're in that anger

fantasy, you're really telling the person you're giving

it to them. You know? You're really putting

them in they're place because you're a hundred

percent, the hero,

you're a hundred percent right. They're clearly a

hundred percent wrong they've made all the mistakes

they've done everything wrong. So you've got this

anger fantasy going on.

Anger is wrong when it doesn't recognize there

are different sides.

Different perspectives.

Doesn't name your own failures, your own adequacy,

so it's not perfectly aligned towards a true

and just

That's when it some ways when anger can

go wrong, but also when can anger go

right.

Anger is right.

It searches its own heart even more than

the actions of another person before confronting them.

When the injustice it sees in another person...

Spur on to self examine

itself to evaluate its own heart and prayer

before confronting another, aware of how easy it

is to year from justice. This is aiming

towards justice.

Anger is right when it

confronts another person, but also willingly listens to

their side. Be here's a response.

Wants to know what was going on with

them? What are what are the set of

circumstances that might have caused that type of

behavior that kind of act that's navigating

between apa empathy and wrath,

saying I'm I'm confronting, but I'm also willing

to listen to what was going on.

Anger is right when it seeks to protect

a defenseless or vulnerable the hurting.

For instance, anger might notice gaps in the

housing mark. It the housing system.

And so I want to intervene and do

something about it to help those who are

living on house in the streets or to

to take step in advocacy to to lift

others up that's anger spur on action towards

justice.

Eps So how do you begin to recognize

anger?

You might think that's pretty easy to recognize

anger. Right? Like, I'm I'm angry. I, It's

it's not that hard. I can tell when...

Alright my face is red. I'm angry. It

should be...

I actually think it can be difficult to

recognize anger a lot of times. We we

recognize the outburst, but it be hard to

recognize

in when we're feeling different levels of anger.

So 1 practice that I've encouraged you to

do before, and I'll let encourage you again

is to practice something like a daily examine.

Daily examine is where you take stock of

the last 24 hours of your life, I

asking where has god been present with you?

Or where have you noticed his absence? You're

just kinda looking back in your your mind's

asking in your heart over the last 24

hours. And as you do that, to begin

to notice, when did I feel angry over

the last 24 hours. And and turn this

into a prayer exercise. Like, I actually write

down in this moment,

this was anger, and I felt it. And

I'm inviting god into to noticing this moment.

And then what injustice was I noticing that

I I might need to take action towards.

Becomes a wonderful prayer practice, and the more

you do it, noticing anger isn't easy. This

noticing any emotion isn't easy, but the more

you do this practice, the more you become

able to to understand your emotions actually in

the moment. There's saw some statistics, And I

don't know if it's right or not, but

it said, less than 40 percent of people

can accurately describe their emotions as they're happening.

You get better, you get a a better...

Fluency, the more you actually practice this.

If you want a little bit more help,

here's a chart I got,

this is

from a book, emotional intelligence 2,

and you can see that chart there. Let's

go to the next slide.

As zoom in on,

anger itself. And it's categorized 5 different emotions,

since it's and it's giving you words based

on how intensely you might be feeling them

from a low intensity,

medium intent up to a high intensity. So

for anger for instance, it starts off with,

you could imagine as you're praying through

this exercise over the opacity 24 hours. You

might say things like, I felt

annoyed when this happened.

I felt resistance in my own when this

happened. I was irritated, that person said that

thing again, it it it brought irritation. Do

you see there's like a low level of

of a their medium level. I was upset

when I stepped on my kid's legos.

I was

I was agitated. During this, I was disgusted.

I was mad up to a a very

high level. I was furious. I was enraged.

I was outraged. I was boiling,

teething,

felt betrayed

These words start to give you in a

vocabulary for expressing anger and beginning to understand

when

and why you are responding, inviting God. The

purpose is not just to name your anger

in and then, like, send it out, but

it's to invite God into this moment.

Because we... Remember as we talked about before,

emotions are... They reveal your soul. They're telling

you something is going on internally. They're like

a check engine light, in your car. When

you see them, you do something about them.

And the thing that you do about them

is you invite the lord into the situation

saying I'm I'm having a response anger here.

Is there an injustice? What are you calling

me to do, God in this moment?

So this is... Begins to give us a

vocabulary for looking at anger. I wanna look

at the psalm now psalm 01:09 as our

primary vocabulary coming from the description. Themselves. So

look at Psalm 01:09. It's in your... Now,

your built in hand out for today.

Psalm 01:09 is an incredible psalm. Yours You

might wanna go home and

and and read it pray through it later

today.

On face value, it does not actually seem...

Christian.

Right?

If you read... If you just read someone

0 9, you'll think, I don't think this

belongs in the Bible. Christian it seems so

wild. This is not how we're supposed to

pray. Doesn't seem to speak of the the

forgiveness. Jesus modeled.

But I would say,

this psalm is 1 of the best psalm

for having a starting place for approaching anger.

It doesn't get all the way to the

other side of forgiveness, but it acts... It

starts in a good place, by naming the

wrong that has happened. So many of us

wanna jump straight to forgiveness.

Without actually doing the hard work of naming

by the the hurt, naming the injustice. Here

is a psalm

that fully looks injustice in the face and

names it and names it before the lord.

So we're gonna work through this. Versus 1

through 5. This is kind of an outline.

You might write this alongside

the the the the scripture that you have,

but it a big block outline versus 1

through 5, something has happened.

Something has happened. And so just an excerpt

from that and the Psalm writes. My god

don't turn a deaf ear to my Hallelujah

prayer.

Liars are pouring out v on me. They

return my good with evil,

They return my love with hate something has

happened

to the Psalm.

We don't know what has happened. I can

imagine many different types of circumstances. I... As

I was reading this, I imagined,

adult parents,

I I adult... Of course, they're adult parents

it's redundant.

I was imagining parents of adult children.

Right?

And parents of adult children, have you ever

felt betrayed by your adult children?

Ever felt like you've asked them to do

something. They've walked away from you raised them

a certain way They're cutting you out there

isolating you in a certain way. They're... They're

they're rejecting your love as you're trying to

pour out your love to them.

I imagine a workplace setting.

Where it feels like sides have been drawn

that that different sides have developed. There's an

us versus them mentality happening in the office

plate.

The fact is we don't know what the

situation is for this psalm, but what I'm

aware of though

is this is not instantaneous this anger.

You know, this person didn't have a bad

day and think, I'm gonna go right a

very

invent filled calm about how angry Am. This

is something that seems like it is a

long lasting anger. It's a complex

situation that has gotten them to this point.

Calm And now they're praying and inviting God

into this moment something that's really complex.

This next section versus 6 through 20.

Here's what I think you should do about

it, God.

Do you ever prayed like that.

God, here's the advice I'm giving you about

what you should do about the situation I'm

in. Here's what I think you should do

about it, God. And here's where the psalm

begins to unleash his anger. He begins God

to to tell God.

Here's exactly.

Point by point, how I think you should

address this person.

And I gotta warn you It's it's actually

quite graphic. I'm reading

I'm reading the message. Here because again, as

I've said before, the message does a better

job of translating poetry than any other translation

that I know of. It does a better

job of capturing the emotion. That's happening here.

Versus 6 through 20 some excerpts. This is

what we read this morning.

When this person judged, let the verdict be

give guilty.

God give them a short life.

Give his job to somebody else, make orphan

of his children. Make the bang fore clothes

and wipe him out. Chop down his family

trees so that nobody even remembers his name.

Level of intensity.

Of anger is this person feeling.

Or you use words like furious,

boiling,

see of

betrayed.

Goes beyond per preserved or annoyed. This is

high intensity anger.

If you look at verse 7, who is

this person upset with?

Verse 7 says, when he pray, let his

prayer turn to sin or may his prayers

condemn him, which means this other person is

a person who pray.

He is angry with someone who goes to

church.

It's other

Other person who has hurt him also belongs

to the the family of God.

You know this the psalm is quoted in

the new testament. Do you know where it's

quoted?

It's quoted in acts 1

after J has betrayed Jesus.

And it says that passage may another take

his place of leadership ship, and Peter says

this psalm, psalm 01:09 filled with anger

is talking about J betrayal.

And so we're gonna pick another pip fossil

to be with us. And not 1 of

the 12.

These are prayers of nice people.

But here it is in scripture And I

want you to know,

god not just allowed this prayer to happen.

He authorized it.

He just... Decided to include it in in

scripture for you and me to understand here

is a picture of of prayer. Why did

he do that?

My guess is because he knows that as

we feel anger,

our temptation is to run from God.

But here's an invitation to run to God

with your anger.

Here's an invitation that when you are feeling

most angry not to abandon or isolate yourself

god, but actually run to God naming the

true anger that you are feeling. This is

a picture of what psalm 01:09 does force

from Here's finally a human who tells us

the truth. God, I am ce with anger.

And here's the perspective you can run towards

and we often again, we we think we're

supposed to just be nice

all the time.

I mean, just as you read the new

testament, the Corinthians

constantly fighting.

The Romans, they were racist.

You read through Romans and the whole problem

of Romans is that the Gentile Christian,

have

racially excluded the Jewish Christians.

It's racism and the whole chapter of of,

the whole book of Romans is about that.

H corinthians it's because they can't get along

because they're fighting with 1 another.

The Bible is pointing out humans are filled

with anger.

And the temptation is to run away from

God, not actually to run towards God and

here in psalm 01:09.

God showing us actually run tum me with

your anger, not away from me.

We move to the next section versus 21

through 25.

And I just called this section fear.

Because you remember I said anger is a

protector.

Anger here is protecting this person's fear

versus 21 through 25. The the psalm starts

to turn because that the psalm begins to

to actually say what he's really scared of.

Well he really doesn't wanna have happen.

It says, oh, god, my Lord step in,

you have to get me as out of

here. I'm at the end of my rope.

I imagine someone who's tried everything and can't

get any resolution.

I'm fading away to nothing. I'm passing away.

I'm weak from hunger. I can hardly stand

up, my body is a rack of skin

and bones.

Anger is protecting a fear that this person

has.

That barley God won't protect him.

He's saying God, I am not in control

of the situation anymore. You know when anger

often comes. It's when you feel like you

don't have con control, and you're trying to

get control back.

Says, Scott, I'm not in control of the

situation, and I'm afraid

this complex situation between this person at church.

I'm actually afraid it's gonna affect my livelihood.

I'm afraid I'm not gonna have a job.

I'm not gonna have food on the table.

I'm not gonna have

enough that I need. And so I need

you God to step in.

You have to help.

And this is where anger can become sinful

because out of fear that God won't act.

We want to do something ourselves. We wanna

to get get somehow these people to pay

this... We want resolution, Figure out some way

to get control again anger starting to move

towards wrath is the potential here, but this

is not the choice the psalm makes.

The next section verse 26 through 31 towards

the end. Instead of going towards wrath,

he lands in hope.

And says help me help me, God. My

mouth full of great praise for you.

You're always at hand to take the side

of the needy.

To rescue a life from the unjust judge.

And instead of trying to take back this

situation on his own, he allows his anger

to give birth to hope

You remember a coin. This isn't he's not

passive.

He's not.

He's named the injustice.

He's named the injustice against himself, but he's

not going so far into wrath to plot

out his own revenge

or how he's gonna get get it right

on his own.

He's asking God, God you do what only

you can do

and I'll patiently wait for you.

There's a hope that he's clinging to God.

God, I know you're on the side of

justice. I know you will rescue me 1

way or another. This anger ends in a

patient hope for god to act, which takes

faith,

which takes courage.

If you are in a complex

situation,

You're in a situation where you need resolution,

you need resolve, you need conflict resolution. If

you're in a situation where you feel like

your job's running out.

It takes incredible faith

to make the choice the Psalm makes here

to say God I'm actually gonna wait on

you. I'm gonna allow you to... Act.

This is not a picture by the way,

just to be clear on this of remaining

in an abusive situation or remaining in a...

A violent or hurtful situation,

but it is a picture of trusting god

to resolve what seems incapable of you resolving

on your own, a

And this psalm goes far because it names

the anger and it begins to move our

hearts towards hope.

But this Psalm doesn't even yet have a

picture of what the true god is like.

Because you and I both stand from a

different perspective, we stand on the far side

of the cross where we've seen our God,

be the 1 who not only takes up

our own cause, but he takes up the

causes of anyone we've also hurt in the

world.

What Jesus does on the cross is he

makes a way of for every the situation

where we have contributed to hurting others for

every situation where we have been hurt by

others.

And some punishment has to be paid. He

takes the punishment upon himself. We live on

the far side of the cross where we

know anger gives in into hope and hope

ultimately can move towards forgiveness.

Because we've received the forgiveness of a god

has forgiven us in the cross.

If we've experienced his forgiveness. And so somehow

we know that our anger is on a

project that can lead us into forgiveness towards

others as well.

Anger cannot be transformed into forgiveness, 3

without first doing the work of Psalm 01:09,

truth telling,

naming,

confront thing, exposing the hurt and sin of

the other person not ignoring it, but offering

it to god.

And believing that after naming all the sin

another person did to you that even their

sin can be washed in the mercy of

the cross just as your sin has been.

Until you confront your heart,

that not only you others have hurt you,

but you have hurt others. You won't be

prepared for this final transformation of anger.

We all want to move into forgiveness, but

it can't happen

until we pray through the way Psalm 01:09

does accurately naming our anger

to who are you angry with?

Who in your your life are you angry

with right now?

Who makes you upset?

Who has disappointed you?

Who has hurt you?

Who do you think doesn't deserve your forgiveness?

Who do you do who do you wish?

Who do you have anger fantasies about? You

wish you could just tell them in person

like you tell them in your mind?

What they've done to you? Who

And if you've tried to forgive them before,

and it feel like it's not working, then

here's here's the invitation for you this morning.

Is to pray a psalm 01:09 song

Psalm 01:09 prayer to God,

naming,

actually God hears what's happened.

Ending in hope that things might be different

between you and them, somehow beginning to trust

in the cross.

It's the only way to move to board

with anger, anger revealing our soul that we

think there's been an injustice. And so help

us lord to see that injustice. Would you

pray with me?

Well lord Jesus, we know the the anger

we feel in us. Sometimes we feel scared

by and intimidated by.

Sometimes we wish just wasn't there. Sometimes we

wish situations were just different.

We trust you as a god of hope

that you know better the circle

and we.

You judge better the circumstances than we judge.

Reassure us,

give us hope,

us to be truth tellers that we can

accurately tell the truth and the situations we've

been a part of, and then holy spirit

come and bring healing

that only you can bring. You ask and

pray in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Man, I invite you now to either Neil

or stand as we respond in prayer.

Only