Heart Matters

“Be angry, and do not sin.  Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still.  Selah  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.” Psalm 4:4-5

The sacrifices of righteousness!  What exactly is that?!  Well if we just look at this one scripture passage it seems to have something to do with giving up our perceived rights in regards to certain matters or a specific circumstance.  In this passage of Scripture David inspired by The Holy Spirit – wait – let me back up and give you verses 2-3 first so we can truly understand the context:  “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood?  But know that  the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The LORD will hear when I call to Him.”

David starts by addressing the malevolence of those who are grieving him, angering him.   He’s calling for their repentance as he reminds them that he is God’s boy so to speak and as such, the LORD Himself would take care of him -and them on his behalf.  David lets them know that whatever unjust behavior they’ve once again asserted against him, they would be accountable to God for it.  It is then that we get to the Scripture passage listed above under “Heart Matters.”  David starts addressing how we’re to handle anger.  Anger is a valid emotion. It is a God-given emotion.  A product of our conscience and convictions, oftentimes anger is subjective in nature, if not always.  When we feel the strong emotion of anger, the emotion in and of itself is not sin.  However, it is such a passionate emotion that when left unchecked, and we fail to take it into captivity to Christ, it usually is the predecessor of sin.  So here David says it’s okay to be angry-just don’t let that anger lead you-cause you- to sin. Sounds familiar?  Ephesians 4:26-27 says “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” (Once again we’re given till the end of the day to release it and get rid of it before we take it to bed with us and sleep with it.  There must be something about allowing it to rest with us which allows it to rest deeper within us.)

David goes on tell us how we can disperse of such anger-by meditating within our hearts, on our beds, and being still.  This means when we’re angry and we feel compelled to react and take action right away-we mustn’t.  We must be still.  This means when our hearts desire to simmer over the injustice we’ve faced and all the possible consequences the offender could and should sustain-we must instead be still.  Look I can speak from experience that when I’m angry meditation isn’t a problem for me.  My flesh wants to meditate-on all hurt, pain, and disservice that person has just caused me.  My flesh wants to think deeply about how I didn’t deserve what they did to me, how I only did good towards them, and about how I have a right to feel what I’m feeling including how I desire to respond to them.  I want to meditate on all the things that happened so that I can feel justified in my anger-and my plans to sin.  But this isn’t the kind of meditation David’s speaking of.

When we’re told to “meditate” in the Bible we’re told to: “Meditate on: God Himself: His Works: and His Deeds (Psalm 77:12, Psalm 119:15, 23,27,48,78, Psalm 143:5).  “Meditate on God’s Word” (Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1:2, Psalm 119:148), “Meditate on Good Things” -the things that only God’s Word can wrought inside of us. You know, “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy-meditate on these things.” Phil 4:8. And get this-“Meditate on the Ministry He’s Called You To” (1st Timothy 4:12-16). So can you see the secret to David’s success?  David was Big on Meditation as defined and presented to us in God’s Word. (I say that because there is currently so much “new age” religious thought out there in which one meditates to remind themselves that they are “gods.”  Boy I tell you that enemy sure knows how to get people to give into the counterfeit!).  David understood that if he would push pass his “feelings” (his flesh) and purposely decided to align himself with the LORD by meditating within his heart on God, His Word, The good things He’s done, and the good He wants to do through us-He could overcome his natural response to anger and supernaturally find rest.  David said when we’re angry we’re to be still.  Hmmmm?  Could this position and posture possibly constitute what it means to “Offer the sacrifices of righteousness?”  I think so!

The Sacrifices of Righteousness is comprised of sacrificing: giving up something we want or desire, and righteousness: our identity of being right with God because of the righteousness of Christ.  We are to be willing to offer sacrifices to God because of who we are in Christ!  We are to sacrifice our flesh, because we now are in faith.  We are to sacrifice our perceived rights because now we are righteous!  We are to relinquish the anger by remembering our God!  This is so good because Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross made it possible for Him to offer us His righteousness so we can then live in a way that proclaims our redemption!

David says in this Psalm that when we choose to offer the “sacrifices of righteousness” in the place of anger we will reap extreme gladness and peace.  So the next time someone angers you think about how you’ll respond.  Most of the time if we experience the emotion of anger there is some semblance of justice involved.  Meaning we probably have every right  (in theory) to be angry.  But if we just go with that I doubt  the end result will be joy and peace.  The flame of anger will burn us or someone else if we don’t put it out.  If anger is left to itself, it more than likely will result in sin, and sin always leads to death.  “the wages of sin is death”- death of relationships, death of dreams, death of opportunity, and on it goes.  Lets be like David and choose the sacrifices of righteousness instead.  Let’s meditate on our God, on His Word, on His deeds, on our ministry for Him.  Since God is love, lets choose to love like Him!

The next time you’re wronged, remember who you are in Christ Jesus and choose to respond in righteousness!  Offer the Sacrifices of Righteousness by:

• Forgiving Quickly
• Resolving Your Anger Before The Sun Goes Down
• Choosing To Love Your Enemies
• Praying For Your Enemies
• Refusing To Repay Evil for Evil
• Giving Thanks In All Things
• Leaving Revenge To The ONE To Whom It Belongs-The LORD
• Trusting The LORD To Fight Your Battles For You
• Doing Good To Those Who Seek To Harm You
• Putting On The Whole Armor of God
• Resisting The devil
• Doing Good
• Departing From Evil
• Guarding Your Heart
• Examining Your Heart
• Confessing Your Sins
• Repenting Of Your Sins
• Remaining At Peace With Others As Much As It Depends Upon You
• Loving At All Times

HEART TO HEART:  Offer The Sacrifices of Righteousness So That You Can Put Into Practice What You Proclaim!