Warfield on "The Wrath of Man"

As you may be aware from my previous posting of Warfield sermons, it was customary for the professors at Princeton Theological Seminary to preach a Lord’s Day afternoon sermon in the seminary’s chapel. On this occasion, Warfield chose Psalm 78:10 as his text. You can read the sermon in its entirety here. In it he addresses the wrath of God againt his enemies in light of the deliverance won for us by the Prince of Peace.

After discussing the origin of the Psalm (at a time of the destruction of one of Israel’s great foes—the Assyrian king Sennacherib), the Psalmist speaks in wonder at how YHWH’s enemies end up praising him as he makes his wrath and power known. Warfield says of the content of the Psalm . . .

It celebrates a great deliverance wrought by the power of God; a deliverance beyond all expectation, wrought by God alone. The essence of its representation is that Jehovah is a man of war, above all comparison great. When He enters the field, all the machinery of conflict stops. The lightning-like arrows which fly from the bow cease in their courses; the shield and the sword fall helpless to the ground; the stoutest-hearted with their chariots and horses drop into the inactivity of death. For Jehovah is terrible. None can stand before Him when His wrath begins to burn but a little.

In this we see YHWH’s great power in bringing all things—including the wrath of his enemies—to their appointed and providential ends. When Jehovah speaks he reveals his power over all things.

As the Psalmist contemplates the certain destruction that befalls all the foes of Israel, when Jehovah speaks, he rises from the particular to the general. He proclaims the praises of the eternal and universal providence of God, as it is illustrated in the great fact that even the most violent passions of men are under His control, and conduce only to the fulfilment of His ends. "Surely," he cries, "the wrath of man shall praise Thee, and the residue of wrath Thou wilt restrain," or "the residue of wrath wilt Thou gird upon Thee." The fundamental sense is that the ebullitions of the wrath of man, however violent and outbreaking they may be, are, nevertheless, like all else that occurs, under the complete control of God and are employed by Him as instruments for working out His ends. Like all else that comes to pass, then, they illustrate God's glory.

It is Paul who puts it succinctly in Romans 8:28, “for we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” But the apostle is saying nothing new—the Psalmist made the same point centuries earlier. As Warfield reminds his hearers,

It may be hard for us to understand or even to believe it—for our sight is dim and the range of our vision is narrow—but all things work together under God's governing hand for good. Even the things which in themselves are evil, in all their workings work together for good in this world of ours; for it is God's world after all, and He is the Governor of it, and He governs it for good, and that continually. John Calvin reminds us that though Satan may rage about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, yet he has a bit in his mouth and it is God who holds the reins. "Oh, Assyrian, the rod of My anger," cries Jehovah.

In fact, notes Warfield, the Assyrian acted willfully and in anger, not knowing that he was God’s instrument.

It was for his own ends—lust of conquest, delight in power—that the Assyrian on his part was doing it. He knew not that he was but the instrument in God's hands for working higher ends, and that when they were secured, the sword would drop from his inert fingers and he would himself fall on sleep. "Glorious art Thou and excellent," sings the Psalmist, "more than the mountains of prey: the stout-hearted are made a spoil, they have slept their sleep; and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, 0 God of Jacob, both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep." In the midst of the turmoil of war, let us remember that war too is of God, and that it, too, will His hands work for good: that even the wrath of man shall be to Him for praise.

The very subject of God’s wrath is not to be trifled with, as the destruction of the Assyrian makes plain.

But there is more than even this in the Psalm for our learning, at least by implication. We read in it not only of the wrath of man, but also of the wrath of Jehovah; and the wrath of Jehovah is set over against the wrath of man as greater than the wrath of man—greater, more lasting, more prevailing. None can stand when the wrath of Jehovah only begins: when all other wrath is quenched the wrath of Jehovah abides—He girds Himself with it and is terrible to the kings of the earth. We must not then fall into the fancy that all wrath is evil, and that we must always and everywhere suppress it. There is a righteous anger, as well as an unrighteous. Else we would not read, "Be ye angry, and sin not." If to be angry were already sin, we could not be exhorted not to sin in our anger. God is angry. He is angry with the wicked every day. His wrath is revealed from heaven against all that work iniquity. If it were not so, He would not be a moral being: for every moral being must burn with hot indignation against all wrong perceived as such.

Yet, says Warfield, peace will come one day because the Lamb who exercises the wrath of God against fallen humanity is also the Prince of Peace and the very one who delivers is own from the guilt of our sin and the wrath to come. The coming of the righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel (Romans 1:16-17) will bring peace.

It is only when the world shall have been remade and there is no longer anything in it that can hurt or destroy that the lion and the lamb shall lie down together—because now the lion has ceased to be a lion. These things are to us an allegory. They mean that peace is the crowning blessing of earthly life and comes in the train of righteousness. Peace is, in the strictest sense, a by-product and is not to be had through direct effort. He works best for the world's peace who works for the world's righteousness. It is only when the world shall come to know the Lord and obey Him, that the peace of God can settle down upon it. We may cry, "Peace, peace," and there be no peace. But he who cries, "Righteousness, righteousness," will find that he has brought peace to the earth in precisely the measure in which he has brought righteousness. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, because He takes away sin; and you and I are workers for peace when we preach His Gospel, which is the Gospel of peace just because it is the Gospel of deliverance from sin. Sin means war, and where sin is, there will war be. Righteousness means peace, and there can never be peace where righteousness has not first been realized.