THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT: Reflecting on the Sin of Wrath

This continues a series of reflections on the seven deadly sins, with related scripture for meditation. Begin the series here.

Week 4: Psalm 51 — “From the sin of WRATH, O Lord, deliver me…”

A lady once tried to rationalize her out-of-control temper to her priest. “It’s no big deal,” she said. “I blow up, and then it’s all over.”

“So does a shotgun,” he replied, “and look at the damage it leaves behind!”

Anger is an emotion, one of the “principal passions” along with love and hate, desire and fear, joy and sadness. Sometimes it is good to be angry: at injustice, for example. At loss, at waste, at needless pain.

Yet anger can cause us to sin. “Be angry, but do not sin,” wrote St. Paul; “…give no opportunity to the devil” (Eph 4:26-27).

Anger is a deadly sin because it leads to other sins. That’s why Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says you’ve heard the commandment against murder, “but I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment (Mt 5:22).”

 

It’s not the anger itself that is the problem, but the nurturing of anger so that it turns destructive. After all, Jesus was angry plenty of times (see Mark 3 or 11 and Luke 17 for starters).

For this reason, I prefer the old-fashioned word “wrath” to describe this deadly sin.

Anger can be a stimulus to constructive action. When it turns to wrath, it rarely solves, builds up, or heals. Wrath is a heated, pent-up explosion of rage. It aims at retaliation and punishment. It takes judgment into one’s own hands and inflicts it without mercy. With wrath, the person gives up control to the emotion.

I love this description by Frederick Buechner:

Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. … To savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

Examine your heart

Are you eaten up by anger? Whether justified or not: what are you doing about it? Spend some time meditating on one or more of these passages before praying with Psalm 51*, using the antiphon “From the sin of wrath, O Lord, deliver me…”

• Sirach 27:30 – 28:7
• James 4:1-2
• James 1:19-20
• Psalms 37:8
• Proverbs 29:22

 

* Psalm 51 is one of the best-loved psalms of all time: “Create in me a clean heart,” King David cries—after sleeping with another man’s wife and then sending that man to his death to cover it up. You don’t need to commit as grave a sin as that to need God’s mercy, and this beautiful prayer is a good place to start if you can’t find the words to pray.

 

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• Download instructions here: Praying-the-Penitential-Psalms-download.pdf
• Read my reflection on Psalm 51 here.
• Up next: Week 5, Psalm 102 — “From the sin of Lust, O Lord, deliver me…”

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FIND GRACE IN THE PSALMS AS YOU CONTINUE YOUR LENTEN JOURNEY

I encourage you to reflect on the Penitential Psalms many times during Lent. Maybe as you sit before the Lord in adoration, before you go to confession, or in your daily prayers. And may your heart open wide to the graces Christ has for you!

© 2025 Sarah Christmyer. Adapted from a series on the 7 Deadly Sins that appeared on this website during Lent 2014.

Quote by Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking Transformed by Thorns, p. 117.