Ps 56 7 On no account let them escape;
in your anger, O God, bring down the nations.
8 Record my lament;
list my tears on your scroll -
are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
when I call for help.
By this I will know that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD , whose word I praise-
11 in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
The Psalms teach that the two roads ...one of salvation and deliverance and the other of destruction and suffering are two different communications. Every person lives according to what he believes. There is no person even if he believes something that is not correct that will not die for that belief. But the problem is that those who are wicked do not understand that they live in darkness. Most of the troubles in this world are done by people who reason from blindness but will swear that they are right.
The bible calls living in this blindness a path of destruction. When man fell into sin the Devil presented an argument that was not entirely correct. He told Eve that she would have knowledge as God if she partook of the fruit. But it was knowledge that was under the power of sin. It was the possessing the curse. Man now knows guilt , fear, shame, and hate. The opposition to the success that man enjoys has created a war within man. That war is the presence of pain. The level of pain is the anger that man feels in fighting against the pain.
A lament is an expression of sorrow or regret. It is anger that is experienced as pain being rolled over to the God. The result of the experience of being opposed is to weep. Anger is a gift of God that prevents us from being consumed in our sorrow. But the anger that is sinful is selfish anger. This anger is the sinful way to deal with sorrow because it adds to the sorrow. In other words it is like the pain of a sore that we suffer from and if we are angry for the wrong reasons then we will infect that sore and cause more pain. We will add to the heat of the anger. But God has given us the way to use the anger to deepen our convictions.
We must learn that Gods wrath is without regret. Gods wrath is always completely justified. This is why anger is not uncontrolled outburst or sharp words that destroy. But Gods anger is who He is. Rom 9 33 "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall,and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
When we are angry at God we just experience more destruction. His anger defines His hatred for violence. But righteous indignation is pleasurable in the sense that the anger is justified in the defense of Gods purposes. The righteous anger is not uncontrolled outburst but a having a lack of feeling as we experience the pleasure of being defended by God. But the inward struggle to unburden the anger is the lament.
When we are saved we go from being enemies of God ...who are at odds with God...to being friends of God. The Psalms teach that a friend is a friend of a friend of God. So there is no longer a difference of personal friendship and the community of friendship. As we are friends with our brothers we are kind to ourselves. The reason that we now are friends with God is because He has lifted the curse from us. Everyone in the community have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. Now listen...the curse of the law is the same as God coming to us first and addressing the problems we have with anger. In other words God shows His kindness to us by giving us a sure way to find relief in His justified wrath in using the curse to prevent us from being selfish with our anger. Gods love is always controlled towards us in His decrees from eternity past. He loves us as He loves Christ. He loves us justly. So the love is not emotional but legal. But we are always wanting to be loved emotionally.
The problem with being loved emotionally is that we approach God according to our present feelings. But the truth is that God never delays His response in meeting our needs according to the amount of emotion that is necessary to get a person to move. Rather God simply speaks and it is done. So too with Gods anger. God does not burst out with hot anger. But God simply speaks the judgement and it is as if it was always experienced as something that was decided in eternity past. If we pray to God and address Him according to His responses to the injustices of the world we will learn that it is always satisfied in the pronouncement of death. It is simply Gods avenging His own purposes. Its not boiling over. And if we approach God as a God who simply speaks and it is done then we are absent of the emotion that has no basis of our trust and we will be empty of our vain selfishness. Then the emotions will flow out of us. This consistent place of Gods justified creation will unite us to Gods presence in the word and Spirit. We will experience the overflowing love of God coming to us.
in your anger, O God, bring down the nations.
8 Record my lament;
list my tears on your scroll -
are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
when I call for help.
By this I will know that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD , whose word I praise-
11 in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
The Psalms teach that the two roads ...one of salvation and deliverance and the other of destruction and suffering are two different communications. Every person lives according to what he believes. There is no person even if he believes something that is not correct that will not die for that belief. But the problem is that those who are wicked do not understand that they live in darkness. Most of the troubles in this world are done by people who reason from blindness but will swear that they are right.
The bible calls living in this blindness a path of destruction. When man fell into sin the Devil presented an argument that was not entirely correct. He told Eve that she would have knowledge as God if she partook of the fruit. But it was knowledge that was under the power of sin. It was the possessing the curse. Man now knows guilt , fear, shame, and hate. The opposition to the success that man enjoys has created a war within man. That war is the presence of pain. The level of pain is the anger that man feels in fighting against the pain.
A lament is an expression of sorrow or regret. It is anger that is experienced as pain being rolled over to the God. The result of the experience of being opposed is to weep. Anger is a gift of God that prevents us from being consumed in our sorrow. But the anger that is sinful is selfish anger. This anger is the sinful way to deal with sorrow because it adds to the sorrow. In other words it is like the pain of a sore that we suffer from and if we are angry for the wrong reasons then we will infect that sore and cause more pain. We will add to the heat of the anger. But God has given us the way to use the anger to deepen our convictions.
We must learn that Gods wrath is without regret. Gods wrath is always completely justified. This is why anger is not uncontrolled outburst or sharp words that destroy. But Gods anger is who He is. Rom 9 33 "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall,and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
When we are angry at God we just experience more destruction. His anger defines His hatred for violence. But righteous indignation is pleasurable in the sense that the anger is justified in the defense of Gods purposes. The righteous anger is not uncontrolled outburst but a having a lack of feeling as we experience the pleasure of being defended by God. But the inward struggle to unburden the anger is the lament.
When we are saved we go from being enemies of God ...who are at odds with God...to being friends of God. The Psalms teach that a friend is a friend of a friend of God. So there is no longer a difference of personal friendship and the community of friendship. As we are friends with our brothers we are kind to ourselves. The reason that we now are friends with God is because He has lifted the curse from us. Everyone in the community have been set free from the bondage of sin and death. Now listen...the curse of the law is the same as God coming to us first and addressing the problems we have with anger. In other words God shows His kindness to us by giving us a sure way to find relief in His justified wrath in using the curse to prevent us from being selfish with our anger. Gods love is always controlled towards us in His decrees from eternity past. He loves us as He loves Christ. He loves us justly. So the love is not emotional but legal. But we are always wanting to be loved emotionally.
The problem with being loved emotionally is that we approach God according to our present feelings. But the truth is that God never delays His response in meeting our needs according to the amount of emotion that is necessary to get a person to move. Rather God simply speaks and it is done. So too with Gods anger. God does not burst out with hot anger. But God simply speaks the judgement and it is as if it was always experienced as something that was decided in eternity past. If we pray to God and address Him according to His responses to the injustices of the world we will learn that it is always satisfied in the pronouncement of death. It is simply Gods avenging His own purposes. Its not boiling over. And if we approach God as a God who simply speaks and it is done then we are absent of the emotion that has no basis of our trust and we will be empty of our vain selfishness. Then the emotions will flow out of us. This consistent place of Gods justified creation will unite us to Gods presence in the word and Spirit. We will experience the overflowing love of God coming to us.
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