Have you ever felt like God was angry at you?
Not distant, not cold, not uncaring. But angry!
At times, when I consider how I have sinned against God, I have trembled in fear that our relationship can never recover. How can God love me, a sinner? After how I have offended him time and time again, how could he like me, much less want to bless me?
It turns out - again - that this is not a new experience.
In Psalm 80 (included in today’s liturgical reading), the Psalmist asks:
LORD God of Armies,
how long will you be angry
with your people’s prayers?You fed them the bread of tears
and gave them a full measure
of tears to drink.You put us at odds with our neighbors;
our enemies mock us.
(Psalm 80:4-6)
Interestingly, Beth Tanner translates verse four like this:
LORD, God of Hosts,
how long will your anger be kindled by the prayers of your people?
(NICOT, Psalms)
That’s pretty deep. Have you ever felt like your prayers were so hypocritical and empty that God is angry with you - not just for your sins, but because of how you pray?
We like to be nice to each other, but it’s a legitimate question: do our prayers please God? Or are they just a spiritual window-dressing that covers up the stench of our sin?
In his discussion of the Psalm, Augustine wrote:
For whatever other words we may say, whatever words the fervor of the suppliant utters at the beginning of his petition to define it or follows up afterward to intensify it, we say nothing that is not found in this prayer of the Lord, if we pray properly and fittingly. But whoever says anything in his prayer that does not accord with this Gospel prayer, even if his prayer is not of the forbidden sort, it is carnal, and I am not sure it ought not to be called forbidden, since those who are born again of the Spirit ought to pray only in a spiritual manner (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture).
I had never considered this before, but it’s an interesting lens. If we are praying as true disciples, then we will pray as Jesus taught us to pray. So it is fitting to evaluate our prayers - including our praying of the Psalms - with how well they align with the prayer Jesus gave us as a model template in Matthew 6:9-13.
So, is God angry with you? With me? With us?
Let’s listen to wiser perspectives:
Tanner concludes, “This psalm tells us clearly that we too need to repent together of our sins and our mistakes and seek reconciliation with God” (NICOT, Psalms).
St. Augustine had a similar idea, “The conversion of people to faith in Christ is a result of God’s grace and mercy, and it comes through humiliation so that they will be motivated to seek him” (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture).
But in both cases, I notice an interesting point: neither of these objectives is consistent with a God who hates us.
Rather, these commentators are describing a God of grace and mercy, who wants to be reconciled to us.
Here’s the paradox I see:
Because God loves us, we can ask him if he hates us.
If God actually hated us, would it be safe to challenge him about this?
Would it be practical to ask him how long he plans to have a temper tantrum?
Violent, unstable people generally don’t like to have anyone point out their issues. If you do, they’ll often retaliate.
But in this case, God authorized this Psalm to be part of the canon of Scripture. It’s a prayer he wants us to know, to meditate on, and even to pray ourselves.
As the Lord’s prayer teaches us: “forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12).
When we feel vulnerable, desperate, or scared, we feel unprotected. What’s the natural response? We ask God if he caused our problems, and if he will protect us.
When we don’t have natural defenses, we seek a supernatural one.
So, is God angry with us? If we dare to pray this prayer, the answer is no.
Anyone who is seeking God in such a spirit of humility, contrition, and confession of sin is someone that God loves.
My conclusion?
Because God loves us, we can ask him if he hates us.
And that can draw us even closer to his loving presence.