Psalm 4:1-8
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer! (2) O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah. (3) But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him. (4) Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah. (5) Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD. (6) There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!” (7) You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. (8) In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
A Quick Course in Anger management.
“Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.”[...] In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” (v. 4-5,
“Be angry…” if you are – anger is a natural, God-given emotion that we are supposed to acknowledge. Nevertheless we are not to sin as a result of our anger. This idea is paralleled in Genesis 4, where the consequences of anger are very well out-lined. So how are we to we deal with anger, according to Scriptures? Well, the Psalmist actually gives us the answer right away: “ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent” Hm. I’d like to think that the ‘pondering’ isn’t synonymous with ‘agonize over’ or ‘nourish a grudge’, but rather a rational assessment of the situation, person, event with which we are angry, because this verse then expresses the manner in which we are to deal with our anger functionally and Godly.
The root used for pondering is ‘amar’, which can also mean ‘challenge’. In which case we are to challenge our own anger, examine it honestly to see where it came from, why we are angry, As it says that we should “be silent” it seems to imply that this self-challenge, self-examination is to be done without involvement of the subject of our anger. Which makes a lot of sense, since the emotion is ours and ours alone 
‘Be silent’ (‘damam’) can also be rendered ‘hold peace’ or ‘wait’. This was Kain’s mistake. He got angry because he felt snubbed, he projected his anger on Abel and it resulted in the very first murder in human history…So is pondering enough?
No. Ephesians 4:26-27 offer this parallel with an interesting advice. It suggests that we are to fix all this BEFORE sun-down, i.e within the same day. “Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath.” and then it continues with a reflection back to Genesis 4:7 “…And if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; and its desire is for you, and you shall rule over it.” by saying: “neither give place to the Devil.” The main point with Genesis 4:7 for the purpose of this ’study’ is “and you shall rule over it.”, as it points to what Kain didn’t do. From a friends writings: “Kayin’s problem is that instead of taking responsible for his own feelings and turn to G-s with a simple question: “Why, what’s wrong?” he looks down and inward, at his own anger, depression, feelings of rejection and fear of inadequacy, away from G-d.” Kain didn’t turn to God with his anger so he could rule over the impulse to murder his brother.
But as we lay there in our beds, having pondered, examined and challenged our anger, we have every possible tool at our disposal to rule over sin. Offer it up to God, the anger, the situation, our part in the matter and trust that God will take care of the out-come; “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.” Trust that He will remove the impulse to “make ourselves miserable” through another human, so that we can succeed where Kain failed. The reward? “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”
Amen
