Destruction on a Leash

Psalm 76 "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain... He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth." (v.10,12)

You may have heard of a controlled burn, when certain boundaries of a region is set ablaze in order to prevent loss from uncontrolled wildfires. What we learn from this passage today is how even wrath can also be instrumental for good under established limits. Anger occurs when a goal is unmet after applying our intentional and necessary efforts. When repeated efforts that are intentionally attempted prove ineffective, the intensity of our anger can grow into rage (or wrath). In rage, our reaction of anger is expanded beyond the target source of our frustration . Imagine a child trying to remove a knot from his shoestring. After several unsuccessful attempts, you will not be surprised to see him throw the shoe while having a dramatic tantrum. He no longer saw the source of the problem as the knot in the shoestring, but the problem was the entire shoe. He takes his anger out on the entire shoe instead of the knot. In the scripture it clearly addresses (a) mans wrath as a blessing, not his anger. So, all we really can know is that this unidentified man has apparently been frustrated in his purposed plan repeatedly. So this man now reacts in broader and expanded actions out of rage. But just like the frustrated child tossing his shoe, the outcome of this man would clearly be reacting to his situation without a narrow focus of control. In many situations, if we find ourselves near someone reacting to his situation out of rage, it would not likely feel very safe. Rage is not constrained by reason. Anything or everything may become a target of explosive anger when someone is enraged.

Yet what we see in this scripture is that even when such a man becomes “out of control” in responding to a frustrated situation, such chaotic reactions can be a source of praise. Now when we think of praise, we think of getting a particular blessing which we may have hoped for but not necessarily had expected. When you put both of these pieces together, you get a situation where a man is extremely frustrated, and possibly even broadly reactive to a situation that may result in an outcome which is a blessing for another person...as intended by God. We can have confidence in this prescription but what follows, “the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain”. In other words, the actual outcome which may seem unsafe and “out of control” by the man’s intended purpose, will still be limited within the precise boundary of what God allows according to divine purpose. So this would suggest that whatever may seem to be man’s, willful expanded reactions of frustrated plans, may actually result in precisioned blessings intended for others. The scripture goes on to attribute where such orchestration of God is employed. God’s plan will be followed as his divine boundary sets the limits of power for even princes and kings. That thought can certainly grant us all comfort. Ultimately, despite the claim of control, all authority will fulfill what God himself intends as a blessing. When we find ourselves fearful and despairing the dictates of any man, we can rest assured God has destruction on a leash. Continue in hope, my friends.