Thinking About Arrogance
Psalms 119:17-24
October 3, 2021
Tonight we come into the 3rd stanza of the 119th Psalm.
The last time we studied it we talked about “Dealing with Distress”.
• We noted that the Psalmist admitted to being (19) “a stranger on the earth”
• That he was under (22) “reproach and contempt”
• That (23) “princes sit and talk against me”
And yet how in the midst of such distress
He found his solace and satisfaction in the word God.
God’s word was sufficient for him during that time of distress.
But I think this time we’re going to look at this stanza in a different light.
I specifically tonight want to call your attention to verse 21.
• This verse certainly stands out from the rest.
• It is the only verse that is theological based in the stanza.
• It is also the only verse where the Psalmist doesn’t mention himself.
Verse 21 rather is basic theological truth
And it seems to me to be the driving force
Behind the rest of what he says in the stanza.
Verse 21 says this: “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, Who wander from Your commandments.”
This is simply something that the Psalmist believes about God.
“You rebuke the arrogant”
And I don’t think that is a surprise to anyone.
We’re well acquainted with passages like:
Proverbs 16:18 “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.”
Or
Proverbs 3:34 “Though He scoffs at the scoffers, Yet He gives grace to the afflicted.”
(that verse being quoted by both James (4:6) and Peter (5:5), only there it is quoted as “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”)
So when we read that “You rebuke the arrogant” we are NOT SURPRISED
Isaiah 57:15 “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite.”
And it apparent that the Psalmist knows this.
He is well-aware that the worst thing he can do is be arrogant before God.
THE WORST THING HE CAN DO IS WALK IN PRIDE.
In fact he said, “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed…”
The Psalmist used a synonym there.
• He gave another name for “the arrogant”.
• He also called them “the cursed”
The Hebrew word means “to be despised or abhorred or detested”
So another word for “the arrogant” is
“the detested” or “the despised” or “the abhorred”.
It carries the opposition of God to a whole new level.
God cannot help but have feelings of animosity and anger
Toward those who walk in arrogance.
There is NOT a fondness followed by a RELUCTANT PUNISHMENT.
No, they are cursed before God.
Might I also remind you that
This was the first description which God assigned to SATAN.
Genesis 3:14 “The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;”
This is far more than just saying people will hate snakes.
God placed enmity and abhorrence on Satan.
He is despised, he is detested, he is abhorred.
The Psalmist knows that the arrogant are also cursed
And thus they receive God’s negative attention.
And here in the Psalm he speaks of a “rebuke”
And we don’t find many of those that were pleasant in Scripture.
We think of God asking Job:
Job 38:1-2 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge?”
To which Job responded:
Job 42:1-6 “Then Job answered the LORD and said, “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.” ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.”
Or like Asaph who was brought into the sanctuary of God to see the error of his envy of the wicked.
To which Asaph responded:
Psalms 73:22 “Then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.”
We think of God causing Nebuchadnezzar to eat grass like a cow for 7 years, to which he said:
Daniel 4:37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”
So certainly we can understand WHY
Our Psalmist would like to avoid the rebuke.
None of us wants that distinction.
But there is MORE TO HIS THEOLOGY
Than just the fact that God rebukes the arrogant.
The Psalmist even gives us an example of arrogance.
He says the arrogant are those “Who wander from Your commandments”
The Hebrew word for “wander” is: SHAGA (shaw-ga)
And it can mean to “wander” or “to stray” or “to err”
And it can thus speak to open rebellion and insubordination.
That certainly is arrogance, to openly rebel against God.
Which seems to be what the Psalmist had in mind LAST WEEK when we read:
Psalms 119:10 “With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.”
He prayed against his propensity to rebel against God’s word.
But the word can also simply be those who go astray IN IGNORANCE.
It can be those who err simply because they don’t know any better.
For example:
Numbers 15:22-25 “‘But when you unwittingly fail and do not observe all these commandments, which the LORD has spoken to Moses, even all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses, from the day when the LORD gave commandment and onward throughout your generations, then it shall be, if it is done unintentionally, without the knowledge of the congregation, that all the congregation shall offer one bull for a burnt offering, as a soothing aroma to the LORD, with its grain offering and its drink offering, according to the ordinance, and one male goat for a sin offering. ‘Then the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and they will be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering by fire to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, for their error.”
• There you see a person who “unwittingly” disobeyed God.
• That is the same Hebrew word SHAGA.
• They “wandered” from God’s commandments unintentionally.
It was still a sin and atonement still had to be made
Even though it was unintentional.
But what you should understand is that
In both cases it is still arrogance.
• One was arrogant in that they openly disobeyed God’s command.
• The other was arrogant in that they didn’t care enough to learn it in the first place.
BOTH are arrogance and BOTH brought a rebuke from the lord,
And BOTH required atonement.
And so the simple theological truth here is that
A FAILURE TO KNOW AND OBEY GOD’S WORD IS ARROGANCE.
It either indicates that we don’t care to know what God has said,
Or that we know what God has said but we think He is wrong.
Both are arrogance; both are pride; both will earn a rebuke.
And the Psalmist knows that.
So at the center of this stanza is the theological understanding that
Those who either ignore or neglect God’s word
Are considered arrogant and cursed by God and deserve a rebuke.
And of course the Old Testament certainly bears this out.
We don’t have time to read all of Deuteronomy 28, but it is the chapter where God lays out the blessings of obedience to the Law and the curses of disobedience to the Law.
You see how disobedience and the curse are linked.
And then comes the summation or invitation from Moses.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. “But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
THE BLESSING of God was LINKED to obedience to His word.
THE CURSE of God was LINKED to disobedience to His word.
And that is seen throughout Scripture.
Psalms 1 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”
The obedient man who loves God’s word is blessed
Whereas the wicked man who does not obey is cursed.
And this is THE FOUNDATION of the stanza.
(21) “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, Who wander from Your commandments.”
Now what I want you to see is
HOW THAT UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATED HIM IN LIFE.
The other 7 verses of this stanza all have to do with
The Psalmists appreciation for and commitment to God’s word.
If you believe like the Psalmist
• That those who wander from God’s commandments are considered arrogant and bring God’s rebuke into their lives
• Then certainly your objective should be not to wander from them.
Don’t be willfully ignorant of God’s truth.
Don’t disobey what you do know.
DON’T BE ARROGANT.
Well, based on that understanding, look at the statements of the Psalmist.
(17) “Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word.”
“Deal bountifully” is GAMAL
And last time we talked about how it can mean to “Deal fully”.
It can even be a word that means “to wean” or “to ripen fruit”.
Finish me or complete me.
But having studied again I’m not sure that’s really the idea here.
We see this same verb used in:
Psalms 13:6 “I will sing to the LORD, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.”
Psalms 116:7 “Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.”
The idea there is that GOD HAS DONE GOOD,
And that is what the Psalmist requests here.
He asks God to do him good.
His desire is for blessing.
• He asks God to treat him well.
• He asks God to show favor to him.
But the important part is THE REASON why he asks that.
“That I may live and keep Your word.”
THIS IS TOTALLY OPPOSITE
Of why most carnal men want God’s blessing today.
• TODAY men typically want God to do them good so they can go back to living it up in the world.
• They want the illness gone or the finances to be blessed so they can go back to the world.
That is not the request of the Psalmist.
He asks for God’s good and God’s favor first “That I may live”
God let me live and let me live that I may “keep Your word.”
This is a man who knows his purpose in life.
• He is here to obey God.
• He is here to humbly submit to God’s word.
Any good that he asks from God is merely that he might obey more
His life has the purpose of obedience.
Have you ever contemplated the purpose of your life?
You are aware that we have a Disciple Now coming up in about a 3 weeks.
The theme is “Identity Crisis”
Because identity has become a huge topic of conversation in our culture.
One of the threads I’ve studied a little bit
Comes from John MacArthur’s book “Slave”.
• The book is titled “slave” because that is the preferred title of believers in the
New Testament.
• Only our bible doesn’t typically translate the word “slave”.
• The word in the Greek is DOULOS and in Greek culture it never meant
anything but slave.
• Yet in our Bibles it is typically translated “bond-servant.”
MacArthur’s point there is that it produces identity confusion.
In the New Testament if you are to ask who you are,
The answer will be given that you are Christ’s slave.
Our entire identity is wrapped up in the fact that
WE ARE UNDER THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST.
We are His. He is our Master, He is our Lord, we are His slaves.
We live to obey Him.
Romans 14:7-9 “For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
Well that is what the Psalmist seems to understand.
THE PURPOSE OF MY LIFE is to “keep your word.”
That certainly is not arrogance.
He would go on to say:
(18) “Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your Law.”
We understand the “open my eyes” part.
• We are well-aware that God’s word is spiritually appraised.
• We know that apart from God’s Spirit we cannot understand it.
• The Psalmist knows that.
But the beauty of the statement here is
WHY he wants to understand God’s Law.
He doesn’t say, “Open my eyes so I can read Your Law and stay out of trouble.”
There is a joy and an eagerness to read God’s Law.
He expects to “behold Wonderful things”
The word “Wonderful” there is a unique word.
It speaks of that which is EXTRAORDINARY and beyond comprehension.
When Samson’s parents wanted to know the name of the angel who spoke to them, he said:
Judges 13:18 “But the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?”
When Job came to his senses regarding his pride before God.
Job 42:3 “‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ “Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
Job said, “I was talking about things that were beyond my comprehension”
Well listen to the Psalmist.
• God, I’m going to Your Law!
• I’m going to Your word!
• But one thing I am sure of is that it is too lofty for me.
There are things there more glorious than I can comprehend,
“open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your Law.”
• That is not a reluctant spirit…
• That is not someone who is reading simply out of compulsion…
• It is certainly not an arrogant man who would rather neglect God’s word.
He is a man who is amazed by God’s word, not wearied by it.
And he continues:
(19) “I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.”
• This man is a foreigner.
• This man does not belong.
• This man stands out.
And I don’t think he is a literal foreigner in Israel,
I simply think he is reiterating the fact that
He is SET APART and he DOESN’T FIT in.
We know the cost for following Christ can be severe in the social scene.
• I learned it quickly after salvation.
• I got saved the summer between my freshman and sophomore year of college.
• People weren’t flocking to hang around a Christian college student.
• There weren’t a lot of places where a Christian fit in on the college scene.
The Psalmist is feeling that in his culture and society.
BUT WHAT IS HIS ONE SOLACE?
God’s word.
• There is only one place he feels truly at home.
• There is only one place he feels truly satisfied.
So he says, “Do not hide Your commandments from me.”
That certainly isn’t arrogance is it?
A carnal man would distance himself from God’s word
Because of the trouble it brings, this man wants more of it.
In fact, look at the next verse.
(20) “My soul is crushed with longing After Your ordinances at all times.”
That’s poetic language but it speaks to his depth of love.
If you wrote a love letter to your sweet thing and said,
“My soul is crushed as I long for you.”
I promise you she’d know what that meant.
My soul is unsatisfied without you…
There is pain without you…
There is no rest without you…
That is the Psalmist’s love letter, but it is to God.
I need Your word.
And I need it “at all times”.
I can’t get enough of You.
Do you see his humility?
Do you see his desire to hear from and obey God?
It’s because he has learned that
Arrogance is to wander from God’s word.
Arrogance is to disobey God’s word…
Arrogance is to disregard God’s word…
He doesn’t want anything to do with that.
He wants the word of God all the time.
It is a great description of humility.
And again you see his theological basis for all of this.
(21) “You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, Who wander from Your commandments.”
And I certainly don’t want to be that guy.
BUT THEN WE COME TO THE PECULIAR PART OF THE STANZA.
This is why the first time we studied it together we talked about the Psalmist’s distress.
For look at him in verse 22
“Take away reproach and contempt from me, For I observe Your testimonies.”
• He just said that it is the arrogant who are cursed.
• He just said that it is the arrogant who wander from God’s commandments.
But here is the problem.
He is under “reproach and contempt”
HE FEELS CURSED!
And this is peculiar to him because, “I observe Your testimonies.”
The cry of verse 22 is that he is not being treated as he deserves.
All of a sudden this stanza becomes a defense of his humility.
But what a common issue this is.
This was Job’s entire defense in Job 31.
I don’t deserve the treatment I am receiving.
Or look at these Psalms.
Psalms 13:1-4 “How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.”
Psalms 69:16-21 “Answer me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; According to the greatness of Your compassion, turn to me, And do not hide Your face from Your servant, For I am in distress; answer me quickly. Oh draw near to my soul and redeem it; Ransom me because of my enemies! You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; All my adversaries are before You. Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Psalms 88:14 “O LORD, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?”
Psalms 89:46-47 “How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire? Remember what my span of life is; For what vanity You have created all the sons of men!”
It was a continual cry that my affliction doesn’t make sense.
That is our Psalmist.
• God, I know you are opposed to the proud.
• God, I know the arrogant are cursed.
• God, I know the arrogant bring about a rebuke.
But God, I don’t wander from Your commands, I live to obey them.
• God, I don’t neglect Your law, I beg for further understanding of it.
• God, I don’t reject Your commandments, they are all I have.
• God, I don’t resist Your ordinances, I crave them.
“I observe Your testimonies”
So I should not feel Your reproach.
Well what you notice here is that the ANSWER IS NOT GIVEN.
OH, WE COULD SPECULATE.
• It could be that he is not as righteous as he thinks. Job wasn’t, we aren’t.
Regardless of what we think not all of our suffering is undeserved.
• It could be that God was merely sanctifying him further and using affliction to
do it.
We don’t know why he suffered “reproach and contempt”
Even though he was humble.
But that is NOT the issue of the Psalm.
The ISSUE IS the humility he continued to demonstrate.
There are some who, if they devoted themselves to God’s word like this,
And then still found reproach would say,
“Well then forget it, I’m out of here!”
That would be arrogance, but that is not this man.
Look at his stance.
(23) “Even though princes sit and talk against me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes.”
• Don’t you like the “even though” there.
• That is to say, “I’m not quitting, even though”
Furthermore his affliction sort of comes to light here.
He has become an enemy of the state.
Princes hate him.
They may even hate him for his love of God’s word.
They certainly hated Jeremiah for it.
But still there is no arrogance, only humility.
“Even though…Your servant meditates on Your statutes.”
You recognize that concept of meditation there from our study last week.
This is no light-hearted search.
God’s word has not paid off in temporal blessing,
It has resulted only in reproach
But he is still committed to it.
THAT IS HUMILITY.
And finally he says:
(24) “Your testimonies also are my delight; They are my counselors.”
His final statement is, “God I love your word!”
It encourages me!
And God your word guides me.
It is my “counselor”
Even though I suffer reproach and contempt…
Even though I don’t know why…
I’m not going anywhere.
• Your word motivates me! (17)
• Your law amazes me! (18)
• Your commandments satisfy me! (19)
• Your ordinances consume me! (20)
• Your testimonies guide me! (22)
• Your statutes console me! (23)
• Your testimonies counsel me! (24)
That is humility.
That is the opposite of arrogance.
To neglect or abandon God’s word in favor of our own understanding is never anything more than arrogance.
But there is one more thing I think we must see tonight.
THAT IS CHRIST!
In verse 17 the Psalmist said that he lived for one purpose and that was obedience.
Hebrews 10:5-7 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’”
John 8:29 “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
In verse 18 we saw that He loved and was amazed by the remarkable things in God’s law.
In verse 19 we found Him as a stranger consumed with learning God’s commandments.
Luke 2:48-49 “When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.” And He said to them, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?”
In verse 20 He was a man consumed with a longing for God’s ordinances.
John 4:31-34 “Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
In verse 22 He suffered reproach for His obedience and yet still obeyed God’s word.
John 19:28-29 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth.”
In verse 23 He was despised by princes, but still meditated on God’s statutes.
Matthew 26:51-54 “And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
In verse 24 God’s word was His counsel.
Matthew 4:3-4 “And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’”
Christ then becomes our example of this great humility.
Christ, who was the word incarnate.
Christ, who was in very nature God.
And yet no one ever showed
A greater commitment to God’s word than Christ did.
His was true humility.
He is our example.
