Slow to Anger

If you grew up with an angry parent, the words "slow to anger" may not sound like good news. They can sound like a countdown. The word "slow" seems to admit that the anger is real and on its way, and everything in you starts working out how much time is left.

So it helps to know where this description was first spoken. David is quoting, and the first setting is the whole point. The words go back to Exodus, where "the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." The Lord named Himself out loud in front of Moses. And look at when He did it. It came soon after the golden calf, when Israel had just committed one of the worst betrayals in their whole story. Right after that, God chose these words to describe Himself. The description in today's psalm was not made up on a good day, about people who were behaving well.

Then David keeps going, and the very next verse answers the countdown you fear: "He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever." He does not pretend there is nothing for God to be angry about, which would make God smaller and less able to help. He says the anger has an end, and the mercy does not. Two verses later the psalm measures the mercy by the sky: "as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him." It never measures the anger against anything at all.

So may the Lord's patience be something you feel this week, and not just something you have read about. May you know that His anger has an end and His mercy has none. And may you be slow to anger with the person who provoked you yesterday, in the same way God has been patient with you.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 335 is There I Will Meet (Exodus 25:22).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna