Reformers and Puritans

Josh April 19th, 2007

Psalm 30:4-5

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. 
For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Most of the time, this generation of American “Churches” want to de-emphasize certain concepts derived from Holy Scripture. It’s not that they do this in a vindictively active sense. It’s not that they want to actively hide certain aspects of God’s character. What is it? They can’t quite grasp some of the so-called “harsher” aspects of God’s character; thus, they skip over or avoid them altogether. The problem, though, is that it emasculates Scripture’s teaching on the wholeness of God’s character.

Countless times I’ve heard the second portion of Psalm 30:5 quoted at the expense of the first part! Let’s face it, we don’t like to think about God’s anger. If anyone has a legitimate claim to anger, then it’s the Almighty. It’s His law we’ve broken. It’s His law we’ve mocked. It’s His law we’ve spurned. In fact, only God may be righteously angry about sin…because he’s not guilty of it. And considering that, we know His anger is both justified and deadly. So, we don’t mind the second part of Psalm 30:5 where it talks about weeping and joy…but there’s just something uncomfortable about God’s anger.

You see, though, before joy can be fully experienced we must have the time of weeping! Before we understand the privilege and need of salvation, we must experience the debts to which are depravity has cast us! I tell you before we can truly rest in God’s favor, we must be sobered by and dreadful of God’s anger…His justified, righteous, and holy anger.

I remember a “Christian” bookstore from my youth that had a sign out side which read, “Try Jesus”, as if He were just a commodity to be tried. If ya like Him, keep Him. If not, return Him. But that’s just not how things work, folks. You don’t “try” Jesus. You beg for Him. You become aware of your absolute need of Him and you seek Him with everything that is within you. Having come to the end of yourself, you understand, know, and believe that He is your only hope. And such a truth of God’s eternal favor cannot be fathomed or understood, until you first consider His righteous and justified anger. Blessed is the man whose evil ways are made known unto him.

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