Don’t sin by letting anger control you.

    Think about it overnight and remain silent. Psalm 4:4

This verse is from a Psalm I chose as my message last night in Church at the Catch. It was a message I titled “A Psalm for a Ruinous Time.” In it David talks about those who were out to ruin his reputation, speaking lies about him and making groundless accusations against him. The important thing is what David tells himself to do about all this falsehood being thrown at him. First, he says don’t let anger control you.

The initial human reaction to being hit is to hit back. It’s called retaliation. It’s the main cause of war. One military strike must be answered in order to save face. It’s a knee-jerk reaction. But David says not to let anger control you. There is much anger being expressed all over the world right now, and it’s justified by retaliation for wrongs done. But we all know there is no end to this negative reciprocal activity. Someone has to put a stop to it by not being controlled by anger. You can’t assume it will be the other guy. It has to be you. Notice he does’t say not to be angry. Anger is human. But don’t let anger control you.

The next thing he says “Think about it overnight.” That’s as close as the Bible will come to, “Sleep on it.” When it comes to anger, the more time you can put between the offense and your response the better. Time cools the emotions and allows you to think about a better response than just reacting.

And finally, “remain silent.” Now of course there will be times for a well-thought-out response, but that’s because you’ve had a night to think about it. More often than not, the answer will be simply to remain silent. “‘Vengeance in mine,’ says the Lord; ‘I will repay.’” We are not going to be defending ourselves; the Lord is our defense. So chill. Stay out of it.

The most important thing is not to deal in images or perceptions. Deal in action — concrete acts of love and kindness, not just words. Our acts of love and compassion will speak volumes in an age of information glut. And then our greatest message will be in how we live, not just in what we say.

Hear the whole message on Psalm 4 by tuning into our video of Church at the Catch found at www.facebook.com/thecatch.