“Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
-Romans 12:19

As Christians, we inevitably wonder, “How do we reconcile the Psalms of violence and anger with the non-violence of Jesus and his rabbinic teaching?”

When Jesus teaches us to turn the cheek and love our enemies, how do we reconcile those two? The two are not only reconcilable; they’re harmonizing. We can’t be the kind of people that love our enemies if we don’t process our anger the right way.

Jesus loved the Psalms, he sang the Psalms, and he quoted them all the time. And one of the ways that we can be less angry people is by singing and praying angry prayers. It’s true. We can be less angry by bringing our anger before God and not just pretending that it’s not there.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I don’t want to pretend anymore. I bring my true feelings before your light and wisdom and pray that my angry heart may be healed. Amen.

REFLECTION: Describe the part of your heart that needs to be healed.