Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Praying Our Anger

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

What are you going to do with the anger that comes when you face serious mistreatment, serious injustice? Modern readers expect the Psalms to give inspiration, so when they read the searing pain and anger in Psalm 137, they say, “What’s this doing in the Bible?” But this passage, in spite of how disturbing it is, tells us some important things about how to handle our anger over mistreatment. Let’s look at 1) the context of this psalm within the message of the Bible, 2) the three things the psalmist does with his anger, and 3) the three more things we can do with our anger on this side of the cross. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 28, 2002. Series: Psalms: Disciples of Grace. Scripture: Psalm 137:1-9. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

If you're a Christian, what does it look like for you to grow into the person God designed you to be? Over the centuries, Christians have looked to the Psalms to learn how to grow as believers. Join us today as Tim Keller preaches from the book of Psalms. The scripture reading for today is Psalm 137, verses 1 through 9. By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our liars, for there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, oh Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, oh Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock. This is the word of the Lord.

I heard some gasps as the Psalm ended. See, we're in a series in which we're looking at spiritual disciplines that the Psalms teach us, disciplines by which we grow into the people God wants us to be. And we said some of the disciplines are negative in that they help us face forces that would spiritually derail us. In other words, one of the ways to grow into the person God wants you to be is to learn how to face certain forces that would spiritually derail us. And one of those forces, one of the things that's going to happen, and actually especially if you live in a big city like New York, is serious mistreatment.

Where you become the object of serious mistreatment, serious injustice, and what are you going to do with that and the anger that comes from that? This Psalm, because modern readers expect that when we go to the Psalms, we expect to get inspiring thoughts, and we expect to get elevating thoughts. And when you read this Psalm and you get the searing pain and white heat of anger that ends with that climax. The average modern reader says, what is this doing in the Bible? But I'd like to, well, for example, this is what Eugene Peterson has written a great book

on the psalm says about this psalm and the many psalms you're going to find if you really try to read the psalms that have these cries of anger in them. He says, there's a pseudo prayer that promises its practitioners entrance into the subliminal harmonies of the way things are, putting them in tune with the general hum of the universe. This is what most people want out of prayer. This so-called prayer reduces tension, lowers stress, and the people who get good at it are calm, and their voice is soothing, and their actions poised. But psalm prayer also enters into the way things are,

but finds that the way things are to be pretty bad. People who are looking for a spiritual soporific don't pray the Psalms, or at least they don't pray them very long. Or maybe we subject the Psalms to severe editing, cutting away any negativism that offends our peace. But honesty in prayer and honesty with your own heart is hard enough without bleeding heart editors. This passage, in spite of how disturbing it is, is going to tell us some very important things about how to handle mistreatment, how to deal with your anger over mistreatment.

And let me just say two things real quick, just preliminary. Number one, I chose this Psalm and I chose this topic almost a year ago. I chose it before 9-11. I chose it before all the conflicts between the Palestinians and Israel. And therefore, I would just like you to please keep this in mind. As we talk, as we read this, as we talk,

don't quickly think, yeah, those people should know about this. Start with your own heart. I'm here to talk, and you can only say so many things in a small timeframe. We're here to talk about, look at your own heart. I'm here to talk, and you can only say so many things in a small time frame. We're here to talk about, look at your own heart, look at your own relationships, look at your own anger. Don't too quickly read this and try to apply it to world events, at least not right now, okay? The second thing though is, when you read this Psalm, you say, wow,

I'm so glad that we're beyond all that. How primitive, how awful. This is out of date now. This isn't the way we're supposed to be, is it? The Psalms are part of the whole Bible. Do you know how much you hate it when somebody takes something you said out of context? Or if somebody interrupts you in the middle of a paragraph and says, why did you say that?

And you say, well, just let me finish, and you'll understand. You need to put this Psalm into the context of the whole message of the Bible. And when you do, this is what we're going to see. We're going to see that the Psalm teaches us three things that he does, the psalmist does, that we must do with our anger. But it also points to three more things that we can do because we're this side of the cross of Jesus Christ. This Psalm

is going to show us three things that he does that we also must do with our anger, but it's also going to point to three other things that he cannot do but we can do because we're on this side of the cross of Jesus Christ. Now let's put this in context and start looking at those six things. Yeah, six, so let's get going, all right? Here's the context. The context of this psalm is a very, very specific one, historically.

Something happened that has been happening, and will probably continue to happen throughout all history. A bigger nation, in this case, Babylon, came against a smaller nation, in this case case Israel, besieged its capital city, and finally the city fell. And the soldiers came in and they pillaged and they destroyed and they looted and they burned

and they killed and they took the surviving, the survivors of the city off into exile, off into slavery pretty much in Babylon. And this is an eyewitness account. This is spoken from Babylon by one of the surviving exiles, but it has in it searing, painful eyewitness memories of what happened in the sacking of the city. And the two that are mentioned here, one is the fact that the neighboring, you see,

one is, you read it in verse seven, the neighboring country, the neighboring peoples, the Edomites, who hated them, when they realized their city was being besieged by the big old Babylonians, they came, and they actually, they literally came, and they cheered, they cheered for the besiegers, they cheered for the sackers, they cheered for the looters,

and they said, tear down the city, don't let one stone be left on it on top of another. But the second thing, and the thing that's so appalling to the reader today, the second eyewitness memory is something that unfortunately historians say was actually quite normal. It was very much what happened when a city was sacked and looted.

And that is that the soldiers came roaring into town, into the city, and they would find a mother with babes in arms, and they would grab the little ones out of the mother's arms, take them by the feet, hold them by the feet, and dash their brains out on the walls, the rocks or the ground. And that memory is preserved for us in this Psalm. Now, what are the three things that the psalmist does with his anger? And then we'll look at three more things

that the psalm points to that we can do with our anger on this side of the cross. They're actually quite practical, believe it or not. As breathtaking and as gasping as this is, they're quite practical. The three things the psalmist does, he owns his anger, he praises anger, and he limits his anger.

I know that doesn't seem like it, but yes he does. Number one, first of all, he owns his anger. What's amazing about this passage is the way it starts. It starts saying, By the rivers, by the waters of Babylon, we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion, our city, Jerusalem. On the willows there we hung up our harps, our lyres, for there are captors required of a song, and our tormentors mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. But how shall we sing the Lord's song?

If I forget you, Udrisson, let my right hand forget its skill. This is, by the way, a musician again speaking. If I forget you, Udrisson, my tongue stick to the top of my mouth. Now here's what's going on. The captors come to the exiles, and they taunt them and they say, they're making fun of the high claims, the high claims of Jerusalem,

the high claims that they're the city through which God is bringing the light and the truth to the world and so on. And so what do they say? They say, hey, sing us one of those songs you sing about how you guys in the chains there, sing us one of the songs about how you're the light of the world. You over there digging ditches under the lash, sing us songs about how your God is the God. We're all ears. Sing us one of those songs. And what the psalmist says he does is he does not say we're defeated Why make life harder for myself?

Sure, if you want He refuses to get cynical. He stays angry. He owns his anger He expresses his anger and in an act of protest he refuses to sing doesn't tell us what he gets By the way for that active protest Surely a whipping or something like that. But in an active protest, he says, I'm going to remember and I'm going to stay angry about the injustice that was done. Now, this is not an easy thing for us to get a hold of because modern people cannot handle the anger of the Psalms.

When you read to the Psalms, it shocks us. And here's what's so ironic about this, is modern people believe that ancient people, and even today, looks at people in traditional cultures, and it says, you're not in touch with your feelings. We are honest about our feelings. We let our feelings out. We go to counseling, and we share our feelings,

and we talk about our feelings. And you hide behind your social roles and your social duties. But yet when we read the Psalms we can't take the anger we see. We cut it out. Some of you know that this was a beautiful song in the musical God spell. You know, on the willows there we hung up our lives when our captors required of us songs and our tormentors mirth singing one of the songs of Zion. Remember that? I don't remember the verse in the Broadway musical that went, blessed shall he be who repays you for what you have done to us. They cut it out. Maybe you were raised in one of those churches that had hymnals, and in the back of the hymnals there were responsive readings,

which you would read and they had a lot of the Psalms in there. Go to Psalm 137, if it was included at all, somehow they cut out those last three verses. We can't take the anger. We don't like it, and there's a couple of reasons why. I hope I have the time to say it. There's a liberal temperament and a conservative temperament. And they both, modern people, we want to stifle,

we want to say, I'm not angry. We shouldn't get angry. See, the liberal temperament goes like this. They see injustice. They see people mistreating others. And they say, let's not get angry. Because, you know, it all depends on your perspective. Maybe from this perspective, it looks like something

that's evil and unjust. But from another perspective, it might not be. Maybe you're the aggressors on your perspective. Maybe from this perspective it looks like something that's evil and unjust, but from another perspective it might not be. Maybe you're the aggressors in their perspective. And so the liberal temperament tries to deal with anger by basically saying, well, the evil out there isn't all that bad. It's not really evil. Then there's the conservative mindset, and the conservative temperament goes like this. The conservative personality says, I'm going to heaven because I'm virtuous.

I'm being blessed by God because I'm a good person. And virtuous people don't get angry. So I'm not angry. I'm fine. I'm okay. In other words, almost no matter who you are in the modern world, either by denying the degree of evil and injustice out there, or by denying the degree of evil and injustice out there, or by denying the degree of evil and injustice in here, we're saying, I'm not angry, I'm not angry, but the ancient people are willing to admit it.

They're able to say, there's injustice out there. There are bad things that have happened, and I'm out of touch with reality if I don't admit my anger, and if I don't own my anger, and if I don't feel any anger. And the Bible does say this. I mean, real quickly, the Bible's approach to anger is not, it's counterintuitive to us today. I'll give you three quick ones.

Ephesians 4.26, where Paul says, be angry, but sin not. He doesn't say you might get angry, but he says be angry, but sin not. He doesn't say you might get angry, but he says be angry, but sin not. Mark chapter 3 verse 5 where Jesus is about to heal a man with a shriveled hand and he sees the Pharisees around watching to see if he's going to break the Sabbath. He sees them waiting the minute he touches the man's hand. They're going to run off to the tabloids and they're gonna get headlines, suppose that man of God breaks Sabbath. And the hypocrisy and the injustice

and the callousness of it, the text says he was filled with fury. Most of your translations will not lay it out, but there's a word there that says Jesus Christ, filled with fury, healed the man's hand. Hebrews 12 says, beware lest a root of bitterness remain in you and later on spring up defiling many. And here's what the Bible says about anger.

Number one, it's always wrong to deny your anger. It'll poison you if you're not willing to admit it. It's always wrong. A root of bitterness, you know, the idea of a root of bitterness means you think you've cut down the tree, but the root's still down there and if it's poison, if it's a poison plant it's going to destroy you. Worse, because you don't know it's there. So it's always wrong, always wrong to deny your anger. But it's often, the Bible says it's often wrong to be

unwilling or unable to be angry. It's often wrong. Here's Jesus Christ, sinless Jesus Christ, bellowing with anger at the tomb of Lazarus, bellowing with anger at the at the Pharisees' hypocrisy. Hmm. Why?, because the Bible says anger is energy. Energy expressed towards something bad which is threatening something good. You should get angry when you see something bad threatening something good. And if you don't find yourself ever getting angry, it's because you're out of touch with the reality that the integrity of God's creation is always under attack. Community is constant, which is what God wants, is constantly turning into fragmentation.

Peace, which is what God wants, is constantly being turned into conflict. Life is being turned into death. Health is being turned into injury. And whenever you see something good under attack, if you don't get angry, you're not like God, you're not like Jesus, you don't love the good. So the weird thing here is not only does the Bible say it's always wrong to deny your anger, but it's often wrong to be unable to

or unwilling to be angry. It's often very wrong. This man owns his anger. As one commentator puts it, our response to such scripture would be to distill the essence of it, to cut this witness out of the Bible against injustice,

would be to impair the Bible's value as a revelation, both of what is in the human heart and of what the cross was required to achieve for our salvation. So he's angry about injustice and he owns the anger. The second thing though he does, however, having said that, is he prays his anger. Now this is something that is really tough to see,

but I actually did a whole series two years ago on this, but let me be brief, but it's very important, because the second and third point go together. He is not stuffing his anger. He is not saying, I'm not angry, I'm not angry, I'm a good person, I'm a virtuous person, I'm a believer in God.

He is not stifling his anger, but do you notice he's not ventilating it? He's not just spewing it. He's not stifling his anger, but do you notice he's not ventilating it? He's not just spewing it. He's not just saying, I'm angry with them, I hate them. The anger builds in the first part of the passage, which is more of a meditation. But the minute it explodes into white heat, verse 7, he immediately begins to pray it. He's not stifling his anger, he is not

ventilating his anger, he's praying his anger. In other words, he's taking his anger, yes, he's taking his hate to God. He doesn't let his hate keep him away from God. He doesn't feel like, I can't take my, you know, if I want to go to God, I can't be hateful. Nor because I'm hateful, I'm not going to God. He doesn't stifle his anger. He doesn't ventilate his anger. He takes it to God, and he, as I'm going to show you here in a second, he processes his anger.

He processes his affectional self in the presence of God. He takes his feelings and he opens them up in all of their reality reality and yet looks at God in all of his reality. And what that means is his emotion drives him to God in a new way and yet the presence of God changes his emotion. That's what the Bible calls you to do. That's neither what, frankly, religion tends to say, stifle your feelings. Especially those negative feelings.

Get on top of them. You're a good person. Religion tends to make you stifle your feelings. The secular world today tends to look at expression and ventilation of feelings and discovery of feelings as a kind of end in itself. But you're not gonna find in the Psalms either of those. The Psalms doesn't say, stuff your feelings or ventilate.

It doesn't say stifle your feelings or bow to them. It doesn't say be under aware of them or overawed by them. You pray them. In all their reality, in all of his reality, you bring his reality together with your feelings, it'll drive you to God in a new way and God's reality will change your feelings.

So that brings me to the third point. He not only does he own and secondly pray his feelings, he limits them. Now I know that doesn't look like that at first, but I wish you would look. Does he say, oh Lord, may my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, you know, may my right hand wither. I swear before God, I will repay them. Does he say that? No.

Does he say, Lord, give me the strength to repay them? No. He says in verse seven, you remember, Lord. Remember, oh Lord, what they did. Now here's what's interesting about this. Almost all commentators point out, and this is fascinating, that this entire song is in the form of a trial.

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And thank you for your generosity, which helps us share the love of Christ with more people. This is not just a ventilation saying, I'm filled with hate, I'm filled with anger, I'm just pouring it out before you, God. Don't you see what they have done? I hate them for what they've done. I'm gonna get them someday.

Help me to get them someday. None of that. Number one, he swears himself in to the court. You see where he says, if I forget you, O Jerusalem, in my right hand, if my tongue sticks, so he swears himself in and says, I'm about to tell you the court. You see where he says, if I forget you, Jerusalem, in my right hand, if my tongue stick... So he swears himself in and says, I'm about to tell you the truth. Secondly, he gives two pieces of evidence. The Edomites coming and saying, raise it to the ground, gloating over our injustice and tragedy. And secondly, the dashing of the little ones on the

rocks. So he brings in the evidence. He swears himself in, then he brings in the evidence, right? Then he suggests a sentence. And what does he suggest? As horrible as that last verse looks, this is what one commentator puts, says, upon reflection, verse eight is an appeal to simple justice. If any fair-minded observer has asked the question, what do the perpetrators deserve?

The normal answer would be just the degree of suffering that they impose on others. And that is what he's suggesting. He proposes a sentence. What somebody should do to them. It should be done to them exactly, no more or less, what they did to us. So it's an appeal to simple justice.

So he swears himself in, he provides the evidence, he proposes a sentence, but here's what's the most interesting thing, and we miss it because we forget what in Hebrew the word remember means. In Hebrew, the word remember does not mean recollection as much as it means action. When God says, I will remember my covenant with Abraham, it doesn't mean he says, oh my word,

there have been so many things happening in the universe the last 500 years, I just had forgot, it slipped my mind. I now recall my covenant with Abraham. No, of course God doesn't mean that. When he says, I will now remember, he means I'm gonna act on it. To remember means not so much to to recall, but to act. And do you know what this man's doing?

He is taking his anger into the presence of God, and he's reminding himself forcefully that this is a judge, that God is a judge. So he brings the evidence. He suggests a verdict. He suggests a sentence. And then he says, but you remember. You do something about it.

I lay this before you. I show you my anger. I show you the injustice. You do something about it. And it's astounding that he doesn't say what you would expect from so many ancient primitive societies, that he would be taking a vow to someday avenge them for what they did to our little ones.

I'm gonna dash their little ones someday because of what they did to ours. He doesn't do that. He doesn't say help me do it. He doesn't say may I never eat or drink until I get it done or anything like that. He says remember, says you're the judge. And he limits his anger.

Now what this means is this. This does not mean, what this means is if you go before God with anger and you forcefully, relentlessly, diligently, spiritually, remind yourself that here is number one, the one person in the universe that has the power to judge and someday we'll put all things right. Secondly, the one person in the universe that has the power to judge, and someday we'll put all things right. Secondly, the one person in the universe

that has the knowledge to judge, so you know exactly what that person really deserves. And number three, the one person in the universe that has the right to judge. Because if you would, in your foolishness, ever say at midnight tonight, I want everybody in the world to get exactly what they deserve,

don't make any plans for 1201 and he's taken his anger and reminded himself I'm not the judge and as a result does it mean his anger is gone? of course not but it's not going to distort his life it's not going to drive him it's not going to be an obsession it's not going to distort his life. It's not going to drive him. It's not going to be an obsession. It's not going to distort and poison him anymore. Miroslav Volf, I'm not going to quote. I'm just going to give you the gist of it because some of you heard the quote so often.

He was a Croatian Christian minister. Of course, so many of his friends and relatives and family went through horrible suffering during both the 80s and 90s, the sufferings in the Balkans. And at one point, there's a fascinating place where he says in one of his books this, and I'll just give you the, this is the paraphrase. He says, if you think believing in a God of justice,

a God of judgment, if you think that leads to violence, to believe in a God like that, you've had a very comfortable life. You've never had your homes burned. You've never had your friends or relatives raped or killed or little ones dashed. Because unless I know that there is a God who alone has the power to judge and will, and alone has the right to judge and will, if I don't know that, I'm just going to pick up a sword and go get the suckers.

I'm going to be sucked right into the violence. I'm going to be completely controlled by it. And Vols says, it doesn't mean I don't want to seek justice and seek the redressing of wrongs. But he says, unless I limit my anger with the knowledge that he is ultimately the only one who's going to do vengeance, I can seek justice, but I won't seek vengeance. I won't seek just pain. I won't have my life distorted because I have brought my anger into the presence of God. The presence of a God who is not just a kind of all loving benevolent esoteric

force but a God who is the maker of heaven and earth and as we know at the end of the Apostles Creed will judge, he will come to judge the living and the dead. Now you say, that's a little better than I thought. Now the psalm doesn't seem quite as awful as I thought it was when I first heard her read it. But let me suggest something to you. Let me, and this is here to help all of you who try to read the psalms.

Is this psalm wrong? Was this prayer wrong? The answer is no. This man did exactly what he should have done. He owned his anger, he prayed his anger, he limited his anger, he did everything that he should do. And yet, I can say this too, there's nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it at all.

No sin in it, nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it at all. No sin in it, nothing wrong with it. But I can also say that if anybody in this room would try to pray this prayer against something that somebody had done to them, it would be wrong. You say, well, how's that? Because you must put this Psalm in context. And we know something that he didn't. And we can do something that he couldn't.

Let me tell you what it is. In Luke 19, Jesus Christ is in the triumphal entry, only Luke tells us this, that on Palm Sunday, as he was drawing you to Jerusalem, riding in triumph, only Luke tells us this. It says, as he approached Jerusalem, this is Luke 19, as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, if you only knew this day the things that would bring you peace, but they are hidden from your eyes, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the

day will come when your enemies will dash you and your little ones to the ground, and not one stone will be left on the other. Now what is so significant about this is, number one, Jesus deliberately, see by the way, how many times have I said, have we said here, Jesus was absolutely saturated with scripture. So he walks, he comes into Jerusalem and he immediately thinks of Psalm 137. That's the only place that word dashed is used

in the New Testament. And he's using both of the eyewitness memories. He says, not one stone will be left on another and they will dash you and your little ones to the ground. And what is he talking about? He is predicting something that absolutely happened. He's predicting as the son of God, he knew something that did come true,

which was the sack of Jerusalem by the Roman general Titus in 70 AD. And all that happened was horrible. But Jesus is talking to a city who's about to kill him, who's about to reject him. He knows they're gonna reject him. He knows that the leaders are gonna kill him. And yet look at what he does.

He doesn't say, ha, they will dash your little ones to the ground. He's weeping. He is utterly reacting in a different way than this. He's weeping for them. He says, if only you knew. But they're hidden from you. If only you knew what I... But it's hidden. You're blind. If only you knew. Instead of saying, you are going to get what you're... You're going to do something to me and you're going to get it right back. Nothing like that.

He's weeping, no gloating. And on the cross, as he's dying, he says, he looks at them and he says, Father, forgive them. Now, how do you explain this change? Is Jesus Christ less concerned with justice than the psalmist? Where is his anger? Let me tell you where it is. Don't you see the answer now to the psalmist?

The psalmist says, what about our little ones? Shouldn't justice be done for our little ones? You can imagine the psalmist saying something like this. I stood next to my best friend and they grabbed his little one out of his arms, the son of his heart, and they dashed him to the ground. Shouldn't someone pay for that? What does Jesus answer? What is the answer of the whole Bible? Look at the psalm in context. What's the message of the whole Bible?

The Bible does not say, well, you know, injustice all depends on how you look at it. You know, from your perspective, that's injustice from another person, well, you know, injustice all depends on how you look at it. You know, from your perspective, that's injustice from another person's perspective, you know. You know, one person's terrorist, another person's freedom fighter. It all depends. No, the Bible doesn't say that. But on the other hand, does the Bible anywhere, even in the book of Psalms, even in the earliest parts of the Bible, does the Bible everywhere say, no, let's go get their little ones?

Let's just smash them. Go. No. Here's what the message of the gospel is. The Father says, of course, that has to be paid for. But do you have to understand, my little one, the son of my heart, was taken from me out of my arms and in an act of horrible injustice he was dashed. He was destroyed. But we did it out of love. He did it voluntarily. I did it voluntarily. Because absolutely you're right. The psalmist is right. We do have that that sin has to be paid for But we have absorbed it My relationship to my son has absorbed it. I've lost my son

why because there's a debt and Even between you and another person who's really wronged you even at the psychological level you all know there's a debt and Somebody has to pay and you can take it out of their hide or you can with a tremendous amount of emotional cost try to forgive them. But it's gonna cost somebody to restore that relationship. And if that's even true at the psychological level of minor wrongs between human beings, how much greater for God to deal with all of the inhumanity

with all the incredible sin and evil that's been perpetrated in the world, how is God gonna reconcile to us? How is God gonna forgive us? How is God gonna embrace us? How is he gonna receive us? And the answer is, he let his little one be dashed to the ground so you don't have to go look

for anybody else's, nor try to relativize it. Now, if you know that, and if you know, if that's not hidden from your eyes, then there's three more things, and I'll be real fast on this, because if you're really interested and you're really concerned and you weren't here February the 20th,

this very year we did a sermon here called Forgiving Grace, in which these three things are laid out But you're gonna get in about two minutes if you'd like 35 to 40 minutes on it by the tape Okay, or go back to your notes or something like that There's three things you can do if you know this if you know that Jesus Christ was dashed to the ground For us that the father lost his little one Voluntarily to absorb the price of all that injustice,

to pay the penalty, so that we can be forgiven. Then there's three things. Number one, you can pay it forward, you can will the good, and then check your idols. There's three more things you have to do with your anger that we can do. First of all, pay it forward. What do I mean by pay it forward?

Well, I've already described it, to forgive somebody who's wronged you so that the anger you have doesn't distort you. The forgive somebody means that every time you see them and you want to be cruel to them or say mean things to them and you're cordial and kind, that's expensive emotionally, it's very hard. To forgive someone means I'm not going to claw their eyes

out when I see them. Number two, To forgive someone means I'm not going to claw their eyes out when I see them. Number two, to forgive them means I'm not going to slice up their character to others behind their back. And number three, I'm not going to sit around replaying the tapes in my head of what they did, hoping and rooting for them to have something bad happen to them. I'm not going to bring the matter up to myself, I'm not going to bring the matter up to others, I'm not going to bring

the matter up to the other person. And it takes weeks, depending on how bad it is, it takes months. But if you do that, and that is very hard work, if you discipline yourself to that, it's far worse than running a marathon. But if you do it, you will pay down the debt and the anger will go away.

It's incredibly expensive. Why should you do it? Well, I already gave you one little psychological hint that it's good for you. It gets rid of the anger and all that. But it won't be enough unless you see that Jesus did it for you. Pay it forward means look at the debt he forgave you

and look at what it cost him. And all Jesus says is, now, give to other people what I gave to you. Pay it forward. And only if you see him doing that, and only you see what the Father did, will you have the power, the psychological and emotional power to pay that debt forward.

But it'll be good for them, it'll be good for you, it'll be good for society, it'll be good for the world. Nevertheless, unless you see Jesus Christ paying that good for them, it'll be good for you, it'll be good for society, it'll be good for the world. Nevertheless, unless you see Jesus Christ paying that debt for you, you're not going to have the power to foot that cost when other people mistreat you. So first of all, pay it forward. Secondly, will the good. What you see on the cross is the image

of how you have to treat wrongdoers. On the cross, on the one hand, the cross is incredibly insulting, do you know that? What is Jesus Christ saying to everybody on the cross? He's saying, you are so lost, you are so flawed, you are so weak, you cannot save yourself, you can't be good enough, you can't get out of the morass you're in.

The cross is incredibly insulting, it's saying, you are so bad, only the death of the Son of God will save you. To believe in the cross is incredibly insulting in saying, you are so bad, only the death of the Son of God will save you. To believe in the cross is to accept that most unbelievably insulting, difficult message. Yet, to believe in the cross is also to receive the most affirming message in the world. And that is the Son of God loved you so much

he was willing to go to this kind of depth rather than lose you. That's how loved you are. That's how accepted you are. That's how valued you are. That is the image of how you should treat wrongdoers. Jesus Christ separated the wrong from the wrongdoer. He separated the evil from the evildoer.

He says, I'm gonna deal with the wrong, but I want it out of your system. See, I care about you. I want gonna deal with the wrong, but I want it out of your system. See, I care about you. I want you free from the wrong. I want you to be awakened to it. I want you to get it out of your system. I want you to be free from it. You're a slave to it. You're immersed in it.

I hate the wrong rather than you. And so I'm gonna tell you things you don't wanna hear, but with no ill will, nothing but concern for you. Can you do that? If you see him doing that for you, that's the key. With wrongdoers, you don't just let them walk all over you, that's not what forgiveness means. You confront, you tell them things

that they don't wanna hear. You seek justice, but you've forgiven them. You've forgiven them. You've got, you see, because of what Jesus has done, you'll be able to forgive them, and then you can seek justice rather than vengeance. You can seek justice rather than just making them squirm and have pain.

In other words, you can seek justice, but not bear them any ill will. You will them the good. And lastly, so you pay it forward, you will them the good, and lastly, check your idols. You know why I say this? I'm just trying to be as practical as I can as a pastor. I mean, this series is as practical as possible.

If you find, after you've thought about all of this, and you've done everything else, and you're still having trouble with your anger, you've owned it, you've prayed it, you've limited it, now you've begun to really forgive, because you've paid it forward, you're looking at what Jesus Christ did, and you're willing the good, you've begun to really forgive because you've paid it forward. You're looking at what Jesus Christ did. And you're willing the good.

You're confronting people, you're seeking justice, but you've still forgiven them and you're willing their good. And you still can't get over it. I'll just throw this in though. Years ago, I counseled two different women at once. They're both mothers, they're both wives, they both had husbands that were being lousy fathers,

and they were both angry at their husbands, and I remember saying, you need to forgive them. And the woman who had the far worse husband, and far worse father did, and the woman who had the far better husband, and the far better father, though he was failing in many ways, couldn't. And I racked my brain, you know, she seemed to be the stronger Christian in some ways,

she seemed to have the better situation, I couldn't figure it out until I began to realize that the first woman who was able to forgive had built her entire life, I mean, had not built her entire life around her son, who was kind of getting into trouble with the law because her husband wasn't being a good father. But the second woman had almost completely built her whole life around her son.

In other words, she was living her life through him. If he loved her, then she felt significant. If he didn't, then she didn't. And as a result of that, she could not forgive her husband for being a bad father and for the fact that her son was starting to get in trouble with the law and so forth. And in other words, in order to forgive she had to go down deeper. She had to check her idols. Her inability to handle her anger came from a lack of orientation to the very gospel that the cross proclaims. If you do those six things, nothing will derail you.

No mistreatment will derail you. In a place like New York, with the politics of New York, with the politics of the workplace like New York, with the racial politics like New York, if you want to live in any city, if you want to live in any place like that, and I hope you do for all the reasons we always rehearse all the time, you better know this discipline. Don't let it be hidden from your eyes

what Jesus Christ did for you, and then you'll be able to handle the anger and handle the mistreatment and do all those things. Let's pray. Father, we do ask that you would help us to understand exactly how we can handle anger with this kind of reality, with this kind of certainty. It's very tough, very tough. And yet we also see in the realism of the

Scripture a way forward. Would you please make the reality of what Jesus Christ did on the cross such a present thing to our hearts that we also can find that we can move beyond, beyond just limiting our anger into having it absorbed, having it actually turn us into people with a passion for justice and yet with a heart filled with love and concern for the people around us, even those who've mistreated us. Make us like your son who said, Father, forgive them for I've paid it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's message from Tim Keller. If you have a story of how the gospel has changed your life or how Gospel in Life's

resources have encouraged or challenged you, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your story with us by visiting GospelinLife.com slash stories. That's GospelinLife.com slash stories. Today's sermon was preached in 2002. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.