A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.
The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
No rational person seeks to stir up anger. Someone who is angry is unpredictable; there are many directions they can take to vent their feelings.
That's not to say there are people out there who don't enjoy stirring the pot. Just because it is irrational, there are still those who enjoy doing it. And those who do incite anger can often help direct the flow of the reaction they create, because even though some individuals may not choose to vent in the expected manner and follow their prodding, often times enough people follow to make it worth the inciter's effort.
Ever watch a stampede? One of my favorite movie scenes in the old classic "How the West Was Won" shows a herd of buffalo incited to stampede toward a railroad construction site. Buffalo, by nature simple, grass gnawing beasts, are incited through fear to plow over train cars and water towers; driven to this crazy behavior because they were incited and directed down to the job site.
Of course the best way to see the scene is in the manner for which it was filmed: Cinerama, which was basically three cameras lined up to make a super-wide screen that wraps around the viewer. It was early Hollywood tech to simulate a virtual "You Are There" experience. So it comes as no surprise that in the widest visual perspective of the scene, you can see more than what was intended. And yes, in the middle of this wild, crazy stampede, you can look off to the side of the screen and see one or two animals walking along casually, refusing to go along with the madness. (At the time the scene was shot, the buffalo were actually cattle in make-up. The endangered bison were too few in number to play themselves. They had stand in actors instead)!
But the point is, even when those who would stir us to anger manage to sway a large portion of the population, you don't have to join the stampede.
I think there are times to act on our anger, but I also think that when we are angry, it becomes hard for us to determine just how much reaction is too much. That's why the psalmist encourages our hearts to choose a gentle answer in the face of wrath. Now, I've been around long enough to realize that doesn't always work. Sometimes a gentle word doesn't stand up against someone who is just crazy wicked. We've probably all tried at some point to turn the other cheek, only to have it slapped harder than the first.
But the takeaway here is that harboring a spirit that chooses knowledge over folly, life and peace over the perverse voices in our world is the ultimate winner.
This Lent, as you continue your 40 day journey to become more Christ-like, work to be a soothing voice in a world gone mad. Respond to the rally cries with calm assurance, and let God take the duty of judgement against the wicked. It's such a liberating thing to release the need to respond to evil. Turn away from it, and focus on the Glory of God.
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