On Monday I shared a new practice that I am integrating into my prayer time that has been really good. Today I want to offer you a gem that I discovered in Psalm 4. First, allow me to set the stage, if you will.
For many reading this post, social media is part of our lives. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Vine, or any one of a host of other platforms, social media has become a mechanism for expressing ourselves to the world. While many people use social media for good, I am constantly amazed at the thoughtless and inappropriate things that are posted. Unfortunately, most people have posted something at some time that, later, they wished they had not put out there for all the world to see and read. I certainly have.
While the verses that I am writing about today deal with anger, they absolutely could be applied to many emotions. Obviously, King David had never heard of social media when he wrote Psalm 4, but his words in verses 4 and 5 are incredibly pertinent to the social media day in which we live. Consider Psalm 4:4-5 (ESV):
Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
Be angry, and do not sin.
Be hurt, and do not sin.
Be cheated on, and do not sin.
Be misunderstood, and do not sin.
Be _____________, and do not sin. Fill in the blank with the emotion for which you might be tempted to toss out a post on social media.
David admonishes us to ponder your anger/hurt/etc in your heart, in the privacy of your own home. When our hearts hurt our tendency may be to lash out and ‘do to others as we have had done to us’. Nowhere do we see this happen more than on social media. Facebook rants. Twitter tirades. We want the person who caused us pain to hurt just as much as we are hurting, and all too often we try to inflict that hurt in a public forum, i.e. social media. But that is not God’s way.
God says to be silent and offer right sacrifices. What does He mean by ‘offer right sacrifices’? Interestingly enough, the original Hebrew wording for this would have it read ‘sacrifice, sacrifice rightly/righteously’. I think the writer knew that to be angry, yet work it through in private, and not go public-ugly with pain, would be a major sacrifice.
Trusting God with our pain is the mark of a mature Christian. This all reminds me of a couple of verses from Proverbs.
Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; when he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. Proverbs 17:28 (NKJV)
A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back. Proverbs 29:11 (NKJV)
Seems Solomon learned a thing or two from dear, old Dad! I know I want to act rightly in all that I say and do…both verbally and on social media. Perhaps if we all learned to delay emotional posts for 24 hours we might spare ourselves, and others, a great deal of pain and embarrassment. I would love to hear your thoughts on this post.
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Linking on Friday with Grace & Truth
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