CEASE FROM ANGER, AND FORSAKE WRATH

This command does not suggest that we should never be angry! There are many things in life about which we may be angry. The despising of the Jews, the rejection of Jesus Christ, the belittling of Holy Scripture, the evil persecution of saints, personal insult and abuse of the innocent. These all cause indignation in the hearts of the Lord’s people, and rightly so. God Himself is angry with the wicked every day, and the Lord Jesus was clearly very angry with those who made His Father’s house a den of thieves. The anger of God and of Christ is both righteous and controlled. It is always soon replaced with forgiveness and peace. The danger for us, however, is that our anger will not be easily controlled, that it may be expressed in unacceptable terms and lead to sin. Or, it may fester. The instruction is that anger should last only for a while and then we should ‘cease’ from wrath; that dangerous residue should be forsaken altogether. It is good to ensure that we do not allow such things to fester after the sun goes down, otherwise they will destroy our peace.

There is also the possibility that the wrath referred to here is held against God. If we concentrate our thoughts on the wicked and their ways and the fact that they appear to go unpunished, then we may turn on the God who allows it. This will grieve the Lord and debilitate our own souls. We must utterly forsake such thoughts. We need to remember that ‘yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be’, v. 10, they shall be ‘cut off’, v. 9. That is to say, they shall perish and that without remedy. On the other hand, ‘those that wait upon the Lord’, v. 9; those that are ‘meek’, v. 11; and ‘such as be blessed of him’, v. 22, shall inherit the earth. That will most certainly be putting things right! In the meantime the psalmist says, ‘a little that a (one) righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked’, v. 16.

It is the believer’s responsibility to bear the burden and to keep his eye on the Lord at all times. God is to be absolutely trusted and this psalm turns our eyes to the future when we will be vindicated and rewarded. Therefore, let us not be disappointed, envious, angry or wrathful as, at the end, we ‘shall inherit the earth’.