We live in an age marked by heightened moral intensity. Outrage has become almost ambient — sometimes justified, often misdirected, frequently exhausting. Christians feel this tension acutely. We are called to love, to forgive, to seek peace — yet we also confront injustice, distortion of truth, and the suffering of the vulnerable. How, then, should believers understand anger?

Psalm 94 offers a profoundly biblical answer: there is a form of anger that leads not to agitation, but to rest. When properly directed, indignation becomes not a burden we carry, but a trust we deposit in God.

This paradox deserves careful reflection.

A Time to Be Angry

Scripture does not flatten human experience into emotional neutrality. Ecclesiastes reminds us:

“For everything there is a season… a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” (Eccl. 3:1,8)

If there is a time to love and a time to hate, then there is also a time to be angry. Anger, in itself, is not sin. It is often the moral reflex of the image of God within us encountering the distortion of God’s order around us.

The psalmist does not hesitate:

“O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O Judge of the earth…” (Ps. 94:1–2)

Modern readers sometimes recoil from such language. “Vengeance” sounds harsh, even unspiritual. Yet the biblical appeal to God as Avenger is not a celebration of cruelty; it is a confession of moral order. It acknowledges that justice ultimately belongs not to human retaliation, but to divine governance.

And here the gospel provides crucial clarity: God’s justice is not opposed to His mercy. At the cross, divine wrath was not denied but satisfied. The Judge Himself bore judgment so that His people might be reconciled. That reality allows Christians to speak of God’s vengeance without fear, for the Avenger is also the Redeemer.

The Danger of Merely Human Anger

James gives the necessary qualification:

“Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19–20)

James does not forbid anger. He distinguishes between two kinds:

• anger according to God’s righteousness,
• and anger that flows merely from human ego, fear, or wounded pride.

Human anger easily assumes the role of judge, jury, and executioner. It seeks control, vindication, dominance. Such anger corrodes the soul and rarely produces justice.

Holy anger, by contrast, recognizes both evil and limitation. It protests injustice, yet refuses to usurp God’s prerogative.

One practical way to express this distinction is simple: direct anger toward the problem, not toward persons made in God’s image. Anger at falsehood, oppression, or cruelty may be appropriate; hatred of persons is not. The Christian resists lies while still praying for those ensnared by them, knowing that some who oppose the truth today may yet become brothers and sisters in Christ tomorrow.

When Institutions Fail

Psalm 94 acknowledges a painful reality:

“Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?” (Ps. 94:20)

Injustice sometimes becomes institutional. Laws meant to restrain evil may be manipulated to justify it. Throughout history, the church has faced moments when political, cultural, or social structures drifted away from God’s moral order.

Yet even here, Scripture calls believers neither to despair nor to rage-driven activism. Instead, it calls them to clarity and faithfulness:

• to speak truth and oppose lies, without panic,
• to defend the vulnerable,
• to maintain conscience before God,
• and above all to entrust ultimate justice to Him.

This perspective resonates deeply across the global church. Many Christian communities today live under pressure — cultural, political, or social. Psalm 94 reminds them that divine justice is never suspended, even when human systems falter.

The Paradox of Rest Through Vengeance

Perhaps the most striking feature of Psalm 94 is this: the appeal to divine vengeance leads not to agitation but to peace.

“Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD…
to give him rest from days of trouble.” (Ps. 94:12–13)

Why?

Because when justice is entrusted to God, the believer is released from the exhausting burden of personal retribution. Anger no longer festers into bitterness; it becomes an act of faith.

Unresolved anger decays into resentment. Anger surrendered to God becomes rest.

The psalmist testifies:

“When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” (Ps. 94:18–19)

Here lies the secret: confidence in divine justice stabilizes the heart. God sees. God hears. God judges. Therefore, believers can resist evil without losing peace.

Faithfulness Without Anxiety

Christians engage the world not because the outcome is uncertain, but precisely because it is not. The decisive victory has already been secured in Christ. History moves toward a consummation God has promised.

This transforms the posture of believers:

• resistance without panic,
• conviction without bitterness,
• courage without despair.

Our faithfulness is not pragmatic — as though everything depended on our success. It is covenantal. We act because obedience honors God, not because we control results.

Some opponents of the gospel will eventually find grace; others will persist in resistance and face divine judgment. Both realities belong to God’s sovereignty, not ours.

The God of Vengeance — Our Rest

And so the paradox becomes clear:

The God of vengeance is not a threat to the believer’s peace; He is its foundation.

Because He judges perfectly:

• we do not need to avenge ourselves;
• because He sees clearly, we need not panic;
• because He reigns sovereignly, we may rest even in turbulent times.

Thus the believer can live with holy seriousness about injustice while maintaining deep spiritual composure.

There is indeed a time to be angry. But there is never a time to cease trusting.

When indignation is surrendered upward, peace flows downward.

And in that confidence, even amid the storms of history, the Christian may say:

The God of vengeance is my pillow.

 

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* Dr. Davi Charles Gomes is the International Director of the World Reformed Fellowship, a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary; he is a minister of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil and the former Chancellor of Mackenzie Presbyterian University, in São Paulo, Brazil. Click here for a brief bio.