Reflections on the Psalms (Psalm 37)

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
    

do not fret it leads only to evil.

But the meek will inherit the land

and enjoy peace and prosperity.

The wicked draw the sword

and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,

to slay those whose ways are upright.

But their swords will pierce their own hearts,

and their bows will be broken.

Consider the blameless, observe the upright;

a future awaits those who seek peace.

But all sinners will be destroyed; 

there will be no future for the wicked.

Growing up I watched many cartoons which were soaked with violence.  One of my favorite shows was called G.I Joe.  My brothers and I would play with the action figures for hours on end.  We also loved the original Star Wars movies which were filled with violence.  I played football, I enjoyed learning how to wrestle and box, i played countless games of paintball, I got in my own share of fist fights.  Reading texts like these in the Bible and listening to Jesus own words has made me personally re-evaluate many of these things and topics such as war, national defense, control and the like.

I was watching a short video the other day where two characters were one the screen.  One character was portraying God and another as a regular guy.  The guy was talking about how he gets so angry and God was talking to him about how God created the emotion of anger but the man was misusing it.  It reminded me of the story of Cane and Abel back in Genesis when Cane gets angry.  At that point he had a choice to make as to how he would respond to the emotion.  God wants us to use the emotion of anger for good, God wants us to be angry at the misuse of power in the word.

However, most people take this as an excuse to fight for their own personal cause.  They also forget that our call is to love and forgive one another and not to return evil for evil.  Martin Luther King once said "the ends are pre-existant in the means."  In other words you can't do something evil like kill someone to save another life and ay what you did was good.  You cannot erase the evil action by justifying it through a desired outcome.