Watch Your Anger – Psalm 37:8 (Sermon Illustration)

A sermon illustration about the danger of anger:

It is said that the powerful emperor, Genghis Khan, once went out into the woods for a day’s sport. On the King’s wrist sat his favorite hawk who was trained to hunt down prey. Although there was much expectation among the group about the hunt, to their disappointment, they could not find much prey.

On the return journey, the discouraged king decided to  take a different route home alone, with his pet hawk flying ahead of him. It was a hot day and the king soon became very thirsty. To his joy, he then saw some drops of water trickling down from an overhead rock.

The ignored warning that led to anger

Thrilled at the sight of water, the king took a silver cup from his bag and started to fill it with the trickling water. After the cup filled up, the king was about to drink the water when his pet hawk swooped down and knocked the cup off his hand, spilling all the water on to the ground. Surprised, the king filled the cup a second time, but as he brought it to his lips, once again, the hawk swooped down and knocked it off his hand.  This was repeated a third time as well.

The enraged king now decided to teach the hawk a bitter lesson on his next attempt, and sure enough, as the hawk swooped down and grabbed the cup from his hand, the king reached for his sword and killed the bird. In the process, the cup fell into a place where the king could not reach it. Determined to still have his drink, the thirsty king climbed towards the spring. When he reached it however, he was shocked to see a huge poisonous snake lying dead in the water. 

Horrified at the sight, the king then sadly realized that the dead hawk had actually been trying to save his life. Deeply disturbed at what he had done to his beloved pet, the king said, “I have learned a sad lesson today, and that is, never to do anything out of anger.” 

Biblical advice about anger

In Psalm 37:8 David advises us, “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil” and Proverbs 14:29 says, “Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick tempered displays folly.” Let’s ask the Lord to help us put aside all the roots of anger today!

Story adapted from pages 37 -39 of ‘The Book of Virtues – A Treasury of Great Moral Stories’ by William J. Bennett and published in 1993 by Simon & Schuster Inc.  

For a sermon about a man that ‘nobody missed’ click here. 

You can download a meaningful Palm Sunday sermon here.