Psalms 7:11—"God is Angry With the Wicked Every Day"

There are things a person ought to know about God.  In fact, we ought to know all we can about God in view of the fact that, "The LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." (Psalms 100:3 NKJV)

In many ways, life is a great mystery.  There is only so much we can know about it but the one thing that is certain is that we came from God.  It is either that or the Bible is a lie.  It is either that or life came from non-living matter (which, I might add, brings another question—where did the non-living matter come from). 

Solomon, by inspiration, wrote, "Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed…Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it."  (Eccl. 12:6-7 NKJV)  One day we must all give an account of our lives before God.  This is the fate God has destined for us.

"For it is written:  'As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.'  So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." (Rom. 14:11-12 NKJV)

God is only going to make two divisions on the Day of Judgment and all those who have ever lived will be placed in one division or the other.  "All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left." (Matt. 25:32-33 NKJV)  Of the goats set on the left hand Jesus says, "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" (Matt. 25:41 NKJV)  He goes on and says, "These will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matt. 25:46 NKJV)

This brings me to Psalms 7:11, the subject of this piece.  The entirety of Psalms 7:11 reads, "God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day." (NKJV)  With God man is either justified (we might say made righteous or forgiven) or else he must go into the category of the wicked.  Man is either a sheep or a goat as God gives no other options.

Does this mean that by man's standards or yours or mine that all the wicked are what we Americans normally think of as wicked men?  Not at all!  Many are great guys or gals in that they are honest in their dealings, kind to and thoughtful of others, friendly, do a lot of good deeds, and are often very likable people and fun to be around.  Often their only discernable fault is that they have left God out of their lives but you see that is as big as it gets.  How does one leave his creator out of his life and not give him any thought or honor or respect?  How does one live his life as though God does not matter?

What if we treated a mother or father, a son or daughter, a wife or husband this way?  What then?  Could it be said we love them, that we respect and honor them, and that we care about them? 

When we treat God like he is nothing to us and he does not matter how can we think we are going to be seen as sheep in his eyes?  We have obviously shown we are not concerned about him.  We have treated him with contempt whether we set out to do it intentionally or not.  Is such a man wicked?  Well, maybe not by man's measurements but how about by God's? 

When we treat God this way we deeply offend him and figuratively kick sand in his face.  Can we blame him if he is angry with us?  The Bible teaches God has feelings as well as man does (Gen. 6:6).  We hurt him when we do not care about him.  Have you ever had anyone you love treat you that way?  You love them but they treat you in such a way so that you know by their actions they really do not care about you.  If so you know a little about how God must feel when a man casts God from his life or will not allow him to enter in.

Remember John 3:16?  God loves us and we treat him as though he was to be avoided at all cost, as though he was evil.  No, we may not do these things intentionally but that does not change the reality of our actions. 

I memorized Psalms 7:11 because I felt it was something I needed to keep in mind.  God is longsuffering with us not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9) but the fact that my life or your life is seemingly going along well does not mean God is well pleased with us.  It may only be that in God's goodness he is exercising forbearance and longsuffering in an effort to lead you or me to repentance (Rom. 2:4 NKJV). 

I don't care how much your friends think of you they do not love you like God does and they are utterly powerless to save you.  Neither are they going with you the day you die.   We all die alone.  Even on D-Day when men were dying all over the French beachheads during WW II each had to make the trip to eternity alone whether a human hand held theirs or not.  Many left for eternity that day but each went alone.  The only friend man has capable of being with him through his darkest hour is God.

When that day comes, and it may sneak up on you unexpectedly and early in life, and it will certainly come late in life if you escape it in your youth and middle age years, do you want to face an angry God?  Are you able to take on God and win?  Do you want to be foolish enough to try that? 

Psalms 7:11b is very short, just a few words.  The message is powerful and ought to be life-changing.  Is it going to change your life?  If your attitude toward God and his word needs changing and you do not change then you are sure to face an angry God.

Man has been given free will and gets to choose the road he/she will take with all the consequences that come with that.  Put another way man gets to reap what he has sown (Gal. 6:7) and will indeed do so.  "The way of the unfaithful is hard." (Prov. 13:15 NKJV)  It is a way that is too hard for me to travel intentionally.  I cannot take on God and win.  It is my hope for you who read this that you come to the same conclusion for yourself.  One has not known terror until he faces an angry God on the Day of Judgment.

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On Matt. 5:22-24--Part 1--Anger

"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering." (Matt. 5:22-24 NAS)

When Jesus spoke these words he was speaking to a Jewish audience that was then living under the Law of Moses.  Living today 2,000 years after the fact we read this passage and it brings questions to our minds wondering exactly what he meant in some of the things said here and what if any application the passage might have to us today.  I suspect most of us have at one point in time or another just read over the passage and gone on.  That is what we often do with passages we really do not understand.  Yet, if there is a lesson for us in the passage as there was for those who first heard it we need to learn it.  I begin with the subject of anger, the first clause of this paragraph.

Does Jesus completely forbid anger?  Are we never to be angry?  Some translations add, after the word angry, the words "without a cause."  Most scholars and most translations omit the phrase believing the evidence is against its inclusion.  Be that as it may, the question remains—does God forbid all anger?  Is that what the first clause of this passage teaches?

Jesus was angry in Mark 3:5 with the Pharisees in the synagogue, "And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored." (NAS)  We are all familiar with the passage in Ephesians 4:26, "BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger." (NAS)  The first part of that verse is a quotation taken from Psalm 4:4.  We all experience anger at one point in time or another.  Of course, some grow angry much easier than others and certainly there are degrees of anger.

Does God want us to be angry?  Of course not but he made a provision for anger so that it would not become sin to us—Eph. 4:26 just quoted.  Do not let anger linger.  Rid yourself of it quickly.  While it is impossible to keep from becoming angry at times one does have the ability to cast it aside and not dwell on it, one has the ability to let go of the anger. 

Does God mean we must literally cease being angry by sunset?  What if you become angry at the midnight hour?  What if someone has just beaten or murdered your son or daughter?  What if your spouse just walked out on you and took the children to go off with another?  Not all anger can be rid of so easily or quickly so I don't think God is telling us there is a time limit on anger like if it is two minutes before sunset when something happens to anger you then you only have two minutes to get over it but I think he is saying rid yourself of it and do so quickly, don't nurture it.  That is my take on the verse as an uninspired man, one man’s thoughts.

The very next verse, Eph. 4:27, reads, "and do not give the devil an opportunity." (NAS)  Eph. 4:26 and 27 are all one sentence and the idea is if you stay angry it is likely going to lead to other things because staying angry is giving the devil an opportunity.  After anger comes hatred, malice, vengeance, and many other evils.  We know this is true and thus we know we cannot remain angry long without worse things to come.  Anger ends up destroying the one who has it for it becomes a cancer within growing into things that destroy the soul and that make life miserable in the here and now. 

Paul closes the 4^th chapter of Ephesians from which I have been quoting by saying, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." (Eph. 4:31-32 NAS)  In Col. 3:8 he says to put aside anger.  James says to be "slow to anger" (James 1:19 NAS) and that "the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." (James 1:20 NAS)  So we come back to our question—is it a sin to be or become angry?  The scriptural answer seems to be it depends on how you handle it.  You cannot retain anger and please God even if you had just cause for indignation. 

Anger held onto becomes sin.  Paul says to put it away and thus if we disobey that Holy Spirit inspired command it becomes sin to us.  And then there is the question of why we are angry and over what?  Often there is no real cause for anger and the problem is not that which comes from without a person to arouse just indignation but a problem from within the person, a problem of personal character flaws and of the heart.  God certainly does not condone unjustified anger even for a short while.  If we have a short fuse and are ready to fight at a moment's notice over the littlest thing, if we are ready to perceive a slight when most men see nothing, then the problem is within us and the anger is totally unjustified. 

The KKK in this country in the days of segregation would lynch a black man occasionally because he was black.  A white man who had done what the black man was alleged to have done would never have been lynched.  Are you angry at a man over the color of his skin?  Surely this is not the type of anger that God would allow a man to hold even till sunset and declare it sinless, so the cause of the anger must also enter into the equation.  Of course, one could argue that this type of thing is not anger but hatred.  I would not debate that for I think you would be right but anger can turn into hatred and thus is be gotten rid of immediately before it is allowed to grow and develop.  Anger can lead to hatred but the hatred may also come before the specific anger (racism being a prime example).

"Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." (1 John 3:15 NAS)  We ought to run from anger lest it turns into something far worse.  Remember one can become and be angry up to a point without sinning (Eph. 4:26) but there is a fine line we dare not cross.

We all know we are not happy when angry, when we are mad.  There is no joy in anger.  The wise person will forgive and forget even if the original anger was somewhat justified in that he/she was truly wronged.  By forgiving and letting go of the anger one is allowing themselves to be happy again and is thus doing self a favor as well as doing God's will.

It is good to also remind ourselves of what we already know.  No one likes to be around an angry person.  If we say we can hide our anger I would say I know we may try but it is easier said than done.  When you are mad inwardly, even though you are hiding it, you are generally not much fun to be around, a person of a sour disposition.

We must learn to control our tempers so we do not become angry easily.  As James said, quoted earlier, be "slow to anger." (James 1:19 NAS)  The NKJV uses the word "wrath" whereas the NAS uses the word "anger."  The Old Testament has several passages that teach and warn us about anger:

"Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of fools." (Eccl. 7:9 NAS)

"Do not associate with a man given to anger; Or go with a hot-tempered man." (Prov. 22:24 NAS)

"A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, But the slow to anger pacifies contention." (Prov. 15:18 NAS)

"A man of great anger shall bear the penalty, For if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again." (Prov. 19:19 NAS)

"Like a city that is broken into and without walls Is a man who has no control over his spirit." (Prov. 25:28 NAS)

Man can and must learn to control his temper and thus his anger if he is to be happy, if he is to please God, and if he is not going to bring himself to ruin.  Anger destroys love, family, and relationships and endangers salvation and so it must be mastered.

In closing, we ought to deal with this question of how the angry man in our text shall be guilty before the court.  I used the New American Standard Bible in preparing this article.  Most translations use the word “judgment” whereas the NASB uses the word “court” in Matt. 5:22.  I will just quote it here beginning with Matt. 5:21 going through Matt. 5:22, the verse in question, and do so from the Christian Standard Bible so you can see what I am talking about.

“You have heard it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment.  But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. …”  I think that clarifies the matter quite a bit.  Anger is no little thing.  It is a very serious issue in a person’s life if it resides within them.

John Gill (1697-1771) says on this passage, and I quote, "in danger of judgment; not of any of the courts of judicature among the Jews, as the Sanhedrim of three, or of twenty three, or of seventy one, which took no notice of anger, as a passion in the mind, only of facts committed; but of the judgment of God." 

Do not allow anger to abide in you for if you do surely it will become sin to you and you will be judged for it.  Anger against another will, if held onto, eventually turn on you and destroy you.  So the Bible teaches.  So it is. 

This article was written in view of personal anger against another individual or individuals.  We ought to be angry against sin and evil everyday but love the sinner.  God wants us to hate sin.  You will find no verses in the Bible teaching you to love sin, not one.  We ought always to hate the evil we see being done in the world but have sympathy for the souls of lost sinners and desire their repentance and salvation.  We have all been guilty and it is by God’s grace that anyone can be saved.

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