Ps. 103.9 (anger contained)

He does not / perpetually rebuke
nor does he / retain his anger forever. 

These lines represent a type of counterpoint to the preceding lines of Yhwh’s lavish loving-kindness. They also offer us an important insight into Yhwh’s anger. A first thing to see is that Yhwh’s anger is set in direct contrast to his loving-kindness. It is framed entirely in the negative: “he does not …. Nor does he….” The effect of this is to ‘contain’ his anger; to see it entirely within the context of his loving-kindness. In other words, the primary, or most foundational, expression of Yhwh is his loving-kindness, patience and affection. In so far as he is angry, it comes forth from that primary source. This is also evident from the second insight. There are two ‘negatives’ to Yhwh’s anger. The first is what we just saw. The second is that it is limited: it is “not perpetual” and it is “not retained”. This is key and confirms much of our insight into Yhwh’s wrath from other psalms. We have described it elsewhere as ‘penultimate’ to his blessings and joy. It is not, in this way, ‘on par’ with his blessings. It is subservient to it, and serves it. This is why it can ‘dissipate’, it can ‘end’ and it is ‘not perpetual’. This further highlights the contrast with Yhwh’s loving-kindness. Whereas his anger his ‘not perpetual’, his ‘loving-kindness’ is. It remains; it is the ‘foundation’. Importantly, as we will see later, Yhwh is ‘the perpetual one’. The covenant is what brings his people into his realm of perpetuity; it enables heaven and earth to meet, and for earth to partake of heavens perpetuity. In Yhwh, there is ‘forever’. Here, this ‘forever’, this ‘perpetuity’ is understood to be the realm of ‘loving-kindness’. His anger is, in sense, both literally and theologically, ‘consumed’ by his loving-kindness. This ‘transient’ nature of Yhwh’s anger is key too because later in the psalm the psalmist will mention that Yhwh’s is patient precisely because humans are so transient. It seems to me that this psalm is attempting to draw us into the realm of Yhwh’s perpetuity; to see it as expressed, constantly, in his regard for his people and in his sacrificial cult; that it, in a sense, encases the covenantal life between them and Yhwh, and is its core. It both ‘begins and ends’ the covenantal life, with the anger of Yhwh occupying a type of purely transitional stage, and a stage that Yhwh himself actually provides for a means of removal.