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Leave Rage Alone
“Be still before the Lord *
and wait patiently for him.
Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers, *
the one who succeeds in evil schemes.
Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; *
do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.
For evildoers shall be cut off, *
but those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the land.
In a little while the wicked shall be no more; *
you shall search out their place, but they will not be there.
But the lowly shall possess the land; *
they will delight in abundance of peace.”
Psalm 37:7-11, Book of Common Prayer
This portion of Psalm 37, appointed today for the Book of Common Prayer’s service of Morning Prayer, feels especially apt for this challenging season in our national life. I confess that I have been angry, and perhaps you have too, at what we all saw in the news reports from Minneapolis a few weeks ago. Yet, this passage tells me, and all of us, to “refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.”
This is difficult counsel to take, but that is precisely why we so need it. What does this psalm have to teach us for today?
First, we should remember that there is a kind of anger that is righteous because we have the example of Jesus flipping over the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple courts and driving them out with a whip of cords (John 2:13-17; Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-17; Luke 19:45-46). In the Christian tradition, this righteous anger has long been described as the indignation that we rightly feel against wrongs. Righteous anger serves a good purpose since it rouses us to take courage and do something in the face of evil and injustice.
But at the same time, this Psalm warns us about how anger can so easily tip over into rage, into the kind of anger that seeks not to restore justice but to wreak vengeance. We can fall into a fretful dwelling on wrongs and injustices to the point that it takes over our entire field of vision. Feeling powerless to do anything that makes a difference, we can be tempted to strike back against our perceived enemies by any means necessary.
What’s the solution? According to this Psalm, we should meditate on the sure and certain victory of our God. God will make all things right, judge every evil, and heal the wounds that we do not know how to heal ourselves. The wicked will not prevail. Their schemes will ultimately fail. The poor and lowly shall possess the land and delight in the abundance of peace. Only in this sure and certain hope can our anger not tip over into sin, that we might not seek the destruction of our enemies, but act to oppose their injustices even as we love and forgive them as Christ loved and forgave us (Matthew 5:43-48).
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