“Arise, O God, defend your cause; remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day! Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!” Psalm 74:22-23 ESV
Reflection: as a Christian, when is it right to be angry?
Anger is one of those emotions we don’t talk much about within the church. Perhaps because, as Christians, we are in a way taught that we are not really supposed to have that feeling, right? That it might even be wrong to be angry. We speak easily about love and forgiveness, which of course are key pillars of a Christ-filled life. But, let me ask you, is God ever angry? How about Jesus? When we study the Bible, we see example after example of God’s anger. In fact, many times even beyond anger. He is absolutely furious, to a point of contemplating the complete destruction of people, cities and land. Perhaps the examples of anger that comes most easily to our minds, are those of Noah and the flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and when Jesus cleansed the temple from the evildoers, the money changers, the corruption and falsehoods.
And, it isn’t as if God is not patient with his people. We can think of how defiant the people of Israel was in the desert, after God had freed them from slavery in Egypt. God even sent prophets to warn them, to try to wake them up. But many would not. Jesus said before his suffering, ““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.” Matthew 23:37-38 ESV. So why were so many defiant? Because they loved darkness.
Jesus said “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”” John 3:17-21 ESV
This defiance against God, against truth, purity, righteousness, justice, and so on, is the work of the enemy. And, people can become useful tools, agents for the enemy, even without realizing it. And it makes God angry, as a Father, that His children are choosing to ignore Him, to go against Him, as it should any good father. The end result of ignoring God is destruction. Desolation, as Jesus said, “See, your house is left to you desolate.” Matthew 23:38 ESV. Remember, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10 ESV
Psalm 74 is a wonderful depiction of this battle between good and evil, that has been going on since the beginning. We read here that the enemy has also been at work, destroying what God set up. Let’s read, “Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.” Psalm 74:3-8 ESV.
Notice “the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!” What does he mean by “sanctuary”? The Hebrew word he used here means “apartness, holiness, sacredness, separateness”; what has been set apart for God. And while we can think of a physical meeting place such as a church building, it can also mean an office intended to serve God, a marriage, a Christian relationship such as a Bible study group, or other ordained functions. And, most of all, the sanctuary of God is temple of the Holy Spirit. We see people destroying their temple, or being destroyed, all the time. We can see the work of the enemy, with the help of willing people, destroying what God had set up for good. And it makes us angry, watching this happen. Watching the destruction. Actually, better said, it MUST make us angry. It is righteous anger.
Asaph turns to God, and pleads with Him, “How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!” Psalm 74:10-11 ESV. And then Asaph reminds God, but actually himself, who God is, “Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You split open springs and brooks; you dried up ever-flowing streams. Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” Psalm 74:12-17 ESV.
Have you been witnessing destruction of any sanctuaries in or around your life? Things you know God set up for good? This Psalm is timeless, for us to learn from and understand the battle going on in the spiritual, all around us. We have a right to be angry, when we see the destruction of the enemy. We should be angry. But we also have a sovereign God and Father to go to, for shelter and counsel, to get new strength. To share our righteous anger with, which is also His anger. To ask for His help. And then enter the battle together with Him, our God and Father.