2 Samuel 6:8
“Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.”
We are emotional creatures who experience the whole range of emotions. Here David is mad at God. It is understandable. At the same time, God's holiness is something set, that we need to learn about. Uzzah was struck down because they were transporting the Ark of God in an irreverent manner outside of the instructions given to Moses.
It's not wrong to be angry. Ephesians 4:26 says, "Be angry, yet do not sin. Do not let the sun set upon your anger". It's easy for anger to get out of control. It can turn into bitterness and/or unforgiveness. Hebrews 12:15 says, "See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many". Bitterness and anger can cause us to fall short of His grace.
In Matthew 18 Jesus tells a parable of the unforgiving servant. The ruler forgave a servant a big debt, yet this same servant turns around and has a fellow servant arrested because he can't pay a debt. The ruler learns of it and has the original servant jailed. We can be blind to our own hypocrisy. This is part of the problem with anger, it can control us.
This servant made a couple of mistakes. He needed to be thankful for the forgiveness received. God has forgiven us a great debt. It was costly, as we couldn't pay it ourselves. Jesus needed to come down and die for these sins.
While it is past tense for a believer, we need to remember it. This was a big deal which changed our eternities. We also continue to sin. We need to confess those and receive forgiveness.
The second mistake of the servant was to not extend forgiveness and mercy to his fellow servant. He received forgiveness for this impossible debt, but he didn't pass on that mercy. Jesus summed up the commandments into loving God and loving people. Being merciful and understanding with others is God's way.
Emotions are often automatic responses. It's up to us to manage them. We can get a flash of irritation. Sometimes we ignore it as we understand that we need to be merciful. God and others have been merciful, so are we to be. Other times we need to check this irritation. Why this response? Proverbs 20:5 says, "The intentions of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out." We may need to deal with some issues in ourselves.
We may have disagreements with others that need to be worked out. There is much talk today about boundaries. We can easily cross another's boundaries, as they may cross ours. We are to humbly discuss these and come to a resolution.
David was mad at God. He needed to resolve that. This scared him as it did the people as well. They figured it out. A big lesson that God wanted taught was that He was holy and was to be related to by the manner already taught.
David had a wonderful relationship with God as we see in the Psalms. However, when it came to corporate worship, God was more formal. His holiness needed to be part of it.
Lord, thank You for teaching us about our emotions and how to deal with them. Help us to forgive and to be understanding.