Is God mad or angry at me?
My first thoughts were “no, that’s against God’s very nature.” Then I thought of Psalm 145:8 – The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in faithful love.
While making sure I had the correct verse, I found Psalm 103:8 – The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. Aren’t the similarities shocking? There are at least two times where the Word (or Scripture) says that the LORD (read: Yahweh) is slow to anger and great in faithful love. But also describes Him as compassionate and gracious. That is just… amazing and incredible and as a writer, the imagery and parallelism is beautiful and rich.
The translation that I was using is the CSB. Psalm 103 is titled: The Forgiving God. Which I thought was oddly fitting. When I was brainstorming on what to write (and before reading those passages), I was considering how there were instances in the Bible where it felt like God was just an angry, vengeful God. Such as, God sending Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, flooding the earth, scattering the people during the Tower of Babel event, the ten plagues of Egypt, when the Israelites build a golden calf to name a few. It is easy to dismiss those acts as anger, but not exactly true. Yes, God was angry but where did the anger stem from us?
That is the key difference between our anger and God’s anger.
When I get angry, my anger is from jealousy, selfishness, and how I process my thoughts. I hesitate to say, it is out of righteousness. I hope I do get righteously angry, I hope I do get angry out of love and discipline. What is righteous anger? The core of righteous anger is anger that is not self-serving, and it arises from a strong sense of justice. At least that is what a quick Google search says. But I think righteous anger can also come from discipline and love. With my students, I rarely get mad at them when they do not listen to me, or they misbehave. I get stern. My tone evens out, I am clear with my words and instruction, and I stand my ground even when they grumble. I stand my ground, because I care about them immensely. I am not angry for how they are treating me. But I do care about how they treat others and how people see them, so I am clear in my words and what I mean and sometimes that means being perceived as “mean” and “never letting them stay long.” I think, in human nature, that is the closest I can mean to God’s righteous anger.
I want to look at Psalm 103:1-14 –
My soul, bless the LORD, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. My soul, bless the LORD and do not forget all his benefits. He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. He satisfies you with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle. The LORD executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He revealed his ways to Moses; his deeds to the people of Israel. The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.
Taking our definition of righteous anger of being rooted in a sense of justice, I see that displayed in these verses. It even used Moses and God’s actions for the Israelites. I like how in the beginning, the author David blesses the LORD and His holy name, asking for his own soul not to forget the benefits of God. He used this psalm as a reminder that God forgives us of our iniquities and sins, and that He is the great healer. He redeemed us, taking us out from the Pit of Sin, crowning us with faithful love and compassion. David ended this passage with how God has not given to us what we deserved.
What do we deserve?
I think the Romans Road is a good response to that. Romans Road is a compilation of verses in the Book of Romans that effectively explains the plan of salvation. The verses walk us from humanity’s nature, sin’s consequences, Christ’s atonement, and to the requirement of faith. It also shows God’s grace and compassion and how great His love is to us.
Romans 3:23 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. – All humans have sinned and have fallen away from God.
Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Sin’s consequence is death, but God has given us a gift (eternal life through faith in Jesus). It also makes me think of Galatians 2:20-21.
Romans 5:8 – But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – It explains God’s gift to us. We were sinners, meant for death, but God loves us so much that His love was demonstrated through Christ’s sacrifice. You can also read John 3:16.
Romans 10:9-10 – If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. – The requirement of faith and accepting of salvation is simply confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God the resurrection happened. There’s no work before faith. Just simple faith and true faith should produce good works.
Romans 10:13 – For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. – We have assurance that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
As I wrote this, a song kept coming to me. It is How Great Is Our God and isn’t that the truth? Our God is great. He is slow to anger and great in faithfulness. I recommend that you look up How Great Is Our God. I was listening to the Chris Tomlin version.
Elizabeth