RR Psalm 37:8 Part 6

Shalom,

Psalm 37:8 Put away anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret—it only leads to doing evil.
 
Fret!  Fret?  What is “fret?”  See the RR on September 28th about verse 1 and for October 3rd on verse 7.  “Fret” is a ridiculous translation of the Hebrew word, “Charah” (Chet-Resh-Hey) which has many meanings including (most notably) “burn with anger,” but includes being zealous.  My problem with “fret” is that it lacks passion.  “Charah” connotes the passion of anger, the use of the English word, “fret,” does not.

Even the Hebrew for “anger” (“Af”) has a connotation of passion.  It comes from the word for “nose,” indicating “anger that is manifested in flared nostrils.”  In my mind, I see a bull, snorting and pawing the ground before a charge.  Three times this verse warns us not to be a “bull in a china shop.”

The most passionate of these three words of warning against anger is “Chamah” (Chet-Mem-Hey) which is the poison of anger and can mean, "wrath, fury, anger, venom, hot-tempered, or rage.”  The derivation is from the Hebrew for “heat or hot”  Sounds like the antonym of “Shalom.”  Our subject verse contains a warning that sin starts with ungodly emotion.

First, Cain (Abel’s brother) was asked why he was angry.  Then he was warned (and all of us who read this are similarly warned), Genesis 4:7 “If you do well, it will lift. But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the doorway. Its desire is for you, but you must master it.”  Cain did not master his anger, but by grace, we have the power to do so.

Jacob 1:19 Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger— 20 for human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.

For every fruit of the spirit there is an anti-fruit (or its exact opposite).  The opposite of “Shalom” is not “war,” it is “anger.”  There is a reason we use the greeting “Shabbat Shalom.”  Hebrews 4:9 So there remains a Shabbat rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered God’s rest has also ceased from his own work, just as God did from His. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through the same pattern of disobedience.

Yes, let’s make every effort to enter in to “Shalom,” void of anger, not just on Shabbat, but every other day too.  Shalom shalom.

Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Mon6 Oct 202514th of Tishrei, 5786
Ex 33:17-19Zech 132 Ch 33   Rev 18:14-24(Ac 25)

Rabbi H Michael Weiner

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