WHY AM I ANGRY? WHAT IS DRIVING MY LIFE?

READ PSALM 37

OUR THOUGHTS MUST BE SHAPED BY THE WORD OF GOD

Psalm 37:5,6

5 Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

As David continues in this psalm, having reminded us not to envy the wicked, even if they seem to prosper and have what we think we need, he goes on to tell us what our attitudes and resolve should be.

We must truly commit and trust our lives to the Lord. God is at work all the time. Although His purposes would never be thwarted by our faithless distrust, we would suffer loss of inner peace and fail to walk in righteousness.

We must relinquish our natural desire to have control over our lives. Committing our ways to the Lord includes at least two ideas: One is to truly desire eternal values. We cannot allow the world to make its standards ours, rather, we must be driven by God’s eternal purposes. He wants to spiritually mature us into the image of His Son, He wants us to help other believers in their walk of sanctification, and He wants us to share the Gospel with a lost world. The second one is to find true contentment in what God is ordaining for us.

I must constantly ask myself a very simple question: “What is driving my life”? I must trust God. How do you know if you are trusting God? A trusting heart is a peaceful heart.

Isaiah 26:3,4

You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

Trust in the Lord forever,

for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.

Our thoughts must be shaped by the Word of God. We must control our minds. The character of God, His power, His wisdom, and His love should bring complete comfort for us. God never changes; His perfect and righteous purposes are eternal.

When we truly commit our way to the Lord, then our actions will also be visibly righteous. People will see God at work in us.

As Jesus told His disciples about His departure, an event that would rock their world, He also left them with some words that should accompany His every follower:

John 14:1

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

The psalmist goes on to tell us what we should and should not do.

Psalm 37:7,8

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices!

8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!

Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

Two times, the psalmist uses the word ‘fret’. We should not be agitated or disturbed by the prosperity of the wicked. Our responsibility is to be still and wait patiently for God to act, and not to become angry.

Anger always exposes our prideful self-centeredness. We are rebelling against God’s sovereignty, believing that we deserve something better than what we have.

Anger against events or people is a sign of impatience and dissatisfaction. As we deal with situations in our lives and the people that surround us, we often come to a fork in the road: trust God or fight. The first road will lead us in a path of rest and dependence that pleases God, but the second one will lead us to sin.

We must resolve today to truly trust God and be willing to wait on His will and timing. Our reactions and attitudes will expose whether our hearts are in a state of contentment, or dissatisfaction.

God is so good to give us this psalm to guide our thoughts today, as we go out into a world where the wicked seem to prosper. We will see, as the psalm progresses, that this is only temporary.

Let’s keep eternal values and goals in mind today! 

WHOM OR WHAT DO YOU ENVY?

FIX YOUR EYES ON THE ETERNAL, NOT THE TEMPORAL

READ PSALM 37

  

Psalm 37:1-2

1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

2 For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb. 

Fret not: “do not be worried or vexed, do not be corroded or agitated”, from the English dictionary. In the original language, this word is also often translated as “anger’”. As he writes this psalm, David is commanding us to respond correctly to the apparent success of those who do evil.

Because evildoers surround us, we are daily tempted to look at their prosperity and envy them. We might even assume that our position and righteousness as God’s children should entitle us to the blessings of prosperity, or at least some measure of comfort.

God wants us, instead, to have a proper perspective. We need to fix our eyes on the eternal, not on the temporal. The wicked will soon fade away, with all their belongings.

Jesus said it very clearly when He spoke to the crowds:

Matthew 6:19-21

 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 

If our lives are fixed on the temporal, then earthly possessions will take hold of our hearts. Our lives will be driven by accumulating and protecting that which will merely corrode or can be stolen away.

It’s interesting that when our hearts and minds begin to envy others or be angered by our perceived needs not being supplied, we are exposing our lack of trust in God. We are rebelling against God’s all-wise provision and justice.

Psalm 37:3-4

Trust in the Lord, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart. 

David, inspired by God, gives us some very clear instructions about the attitudes and actions that should be filling our hearts and lives.

We should trust the Lord, do good, remain faithful, and find our ultimate pleasure in the Lord Himself. In other words, trust should replace fear, goodness should replace envy, faithfulness should replace anger. Our desires should be driven by our total surrender to the Lord.

We must find pleasure in the Lord. Our thoughts need to be shaped by the Word of God. Our values, our goals, our drives, our passions must find their source in what has eternal value.

How often we allow the world or our carnal desires to drive our thoughts, actions and reactions. Do we really believe that God is sovereign over all? Do we really believe that all He does is good? Do we truly believe that what He gives us is really what is best for us?

Every day, our attitudes expose where we are spiritually. If we envy the ungodly, we are certainly being ungrateful and unsubmissive, but if we have peace and rest in our hearts, we are finding our refuge in the Lord.

Do we lose sight of these truths at times? Certainly yes, and that is why God has given us this psalm to steer us in the right direction. Are you struggling today? Delight yourself in the Lord and trust in Him – do what is good.

4 TRANSFORMING TRUTHS ABOUT GOD’S LOVE FOR US

READ PSALM 36

OUR LIVES MUST PORTRAY THE REALITY OF GOD’S LOVE

Psalm 36:7-12

7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

8 They feast on the abundance of your house,

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

9 For with you is the fountain of life;

in your light do we see light.

10 Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,

and your righteousness to the upright of heart!

11 Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me,

nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.

12 There the evildoers lie fallen;

they are thrust down, unable to rise. 

After having seen the difference between the believer and the unbeliever, and having been reminded of how God takes care of His own, the children of God are now invited by David to find refuge in their Savior.

God is loving, God is faithful, God is righteous, God is wise and God saves!

As we look at the response of the Psalmist to these, we should ask ourselves if we are reflecting on and rejoicing in these same truths.

We have the unsurpassable privilege of knowing the reality of God’s everlasting love.

NO ONE CAN SEPARATE US FROM GOD’S LOVE

Romans 8:38-39

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

GOD LOVED US WHILE WE WERE SINNERS

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

GOD LOVE IS ROOTED IN GRACE

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 

We can take refuge in His love! As we live in the shadow of our omnipotent God, we find care, delight, direction, hope, and life.

Peter had made his choice.

John 6:67-69

So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 

Are we equally resolved and convinced that there are no alternatives? Do our lives show this in our decisions and reactions?

Despite these blessings of the Lord, David knew that there was always a danger of his joy being robbed by the arrogant and the wicked. He knew that he needed God’s protection.

WE MUST DEPEND ON GOD’S LOVE

The writer’s dependence and love for God is very clear. He desires to continue to enjoy the love of God and live in complete, submissive dependence upon Him.

Let’s resolve to not allow the cares of this world, the behavior of men, or even our inner passions to drive us away from God. May our lives be visible hymns to the grace of God and to His care for us!

Take time to reread the psalm and to pray through it! 

WE ARE PROTECTED IN AN EVIL WORLD!

READ PSALM 36

GOD WILL NEVER BE OVERWHELMED BY THE EVIL OF MAN

Psalm 36:1-6
To the choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the Lord.
 1 Transgression speaks to the wicked
deep in his heart;
there is no fear of God
before his eyes.
2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes
that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.
3 The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;
he has ceased to act wisely and do good.
4 He plots trouble while on his bed;
he sets himself in a way that is not good;
he does not reject evil.

This psalm is written by David, the servant of the Lord. His implication, with the title of servant, is that he is submitted to God, willing to do obey and serve faithfully. What a contrast to the description of God’s enemies in the first four verses!

The heart of the wicked is evil, and he has no respect or fear of God. He has no ability to even evaluate himself correctly. His heart is inclined to evil, and so his words and actions manifest themselves according to what he treasures in his heart. He desires evil, he schemes evil and he invites evil.

Dear friend, do you find yourself being frustrated and upset with the evil around you? Although the world believes that men are fundamentally good, or that their evil actions are only the consequences of an evil environment, God explains man’s behavior very differently:

Ephesians 2:1-3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The Bible describes men without God in these verses in three ways: 1 – They follow the actions of other sinners
2 – They follow the direction of the devil
3 – They follow their own desires

What can we expect, when we live in a society where we are surrounded by this? But, before you feel any arrogance toward them, remember what Paul says: we walked the same way, before we were transformed by God.

Man was evil at the times of David, at the times of the Apostle Paul, and still continues to live according to his nature today.

Are we victims of our society? Is evil going to overwhelm us? CERTAINLY NOT!

Psalm 36:5-6
Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O Lord.

God is loving, God is faithful, God is righteous, God is wise and God saves!

God’s love is everlasting. He loved us when we were unlovable, when we lived each day as described by Paul, with no inclination to do good. His love will never change or ever diminish; God can only love perfectly.

God is faithful. We are and will be unfaithful, but God will always remain true to His word. We never need to fear that God will change His mind about us.

God is righteous; He cannot do or desire evil. He is just, and His justice will prevail. God will never be overwhelmed by the evil of man.

God is wise; His purposes are always perfect. He is always in total control. Although it might seem to us that man’s evil is controlling the events on earth, God’s purposes will always prevail.

Our God saves! We have the privilege to know and enjoy a relationship with God, Himself! We know our eternal destiny. We never could have saved ourselves and we cannot keep ourselves saved, for both are His sovereign gifts. What security we enjoy, knowing that God loves us perfectly, His actions towards us are perfectly wise, and He is perfectly righteous in His character and plans. 

HOW SHOULD I REACT TO PERSECUTION?

READ PSALM 35

GOD’S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT!

Psalm 35

1 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me;

fight against those who fight against me!

2 Take hold of shield and buckler

and rise for my help!

3 Draw the spear and javelin

against my pursuers!

Say to my soul,

“I am your salvation!”

4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor

who seek after my life!

Let them be turned back and disappointed

who devise evil against me! 

In this psalm, David is asking God to come to his side. He is asking God to be the supreme Judge through his whole ordeal. Although David is being persecuted, he is not looking for personal vengeance, but for God to rescue him.

He is expecting the Lord to fight for him; he is looking to God to expose the evil behavior of his pursuers. He knows that he did not rejoice in the calamity of others, although he watches them rejoice over his trials.

As David asks for God’s intervention, he knows that God is righteous, and so he expects Him to act according to His character.

As he concludes the psalm, his ultimate desire is that the Lord will be praised, and that even in his life God will be glorified.

27 Let those who delight in my righteousness

shout for joy and be glad

and say evermore,

“Great is the Lord,

who delights in the welfare of his servant!”

28 Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness

and of your praise all the day long.

It could seem to us, reading through this psalm, that there is almost an arrogance in David’s requests. But the fact that he is asking God to judge shows that he recognizes that the Lord will be the ultimate Judge.

Can we go to God, expecting Him to come to our rescue when we are mistreated? Does this apply to us?

David’s ultimate desire is the glory of God. Often we seek reprieve or revenge for our own benefit. Eternal values, instead, need to be our driving desire.

REJOICE WHEN YOU ARE PERSECUTED FOR GOD’S SAKE

Matthew 5:10-12

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

CHOOSE PERSECUTION OVER SINFUL GAIN

Hebrews 11:24-26

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 

DON’T BE SURPRISED BY PERSECUTION

1 Peter 4:12-14

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 

You may be going through a difficult situation, where you are being mistreated for wrong reasons by ungodly people. Asking God to vindicate you for His glory is not wrong, but our goal should always be to live a life that points people towards the grace of God.

Is it easy? I know that it’s not even possible in my own strength, but God can give us the strength to endure trials, for His glory.

How should we pray? We need to ask God to help us keep an eternal perspective, to be faithful to His Word, to be His instruments to encourage other believers in their faith, and to attract unbelievers to recognize His strength and power in us.

The Apostle Paul learned his lesson:

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

May we learn to be content in every circumstance, as Paul did. As we go out today, knowing that there are those who desire evil for us or for other believers, may we remember that God’s grace is truly sufficient.