Pour out your Heart

In today’s verse, the psalmist encourages us to pour out our hearts to God. This is what David himself does on many occasions, telling God exactly how desperate he is feeling, or how angry he is. Psalm 69 is a good example of this. It begins with David saying that he is sinking in the miry depths and is worn out calling for help. He then goes on to talk about his enemies, and how he has been scorned, disgraced and shamed. He starts to express his anger about them and this turns into a real rant, with him asking God to pour out His wrath upon them (verse 24) and to “charge them with crime upon crime” (verse 27). After pouring out his anger to God, his mood seems to change completely. He obviously feels greatly relieved and released, peace is restored, and he is able to end the psalm with praise to God.

This is a good model for us – not with the words he uses about his enemies, which are a bit shocking, but in the way that he expresses his emotions and is being real with God. Sometimes people are embarrassed to tell the Lord exactly how they are feeling, and so they bury their emotions, especially any anger they might be experiencing.  They seem to think that God might be shocked if they express what they are truly feeling! But God knows exactly what is going on inside us and so he cannot be shocked.

Ephesians 4:26 says, “In your anger do not sin,” which shows that anger in itself is not a sin. It is an emotion that is God-given. The problem is that most of us do not handle it well. We can easily express it in such a way as to hurt others, and this gives the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27), or we can decide not to recognise it at all and to bury it, which is also ungodly. Emotions that are buried can cause problems in our lives, emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically. It is therefore much better to follow the advice of the psalmist and to pour out our hearts to God. He is our refuge and will provide the comfort and peace that we need.