Psalm 119:51

Psalm 119:51

Who are the arrogant?

It’s a description that seems to embrace a great many people. When you think about it, the arrogant could include anyone who does not acknowledge, obey, or worship God Almighty. The arrogant are those who know best, who have their own schemes and agendas, who make their own rules and who think that they do not need to involve the Lord God. They do not pray to Him, they do not see His handiwork around them, they think that they are in control of their own destinies. The arrogant even believe that when death comes, they will be accepted by God, if there is such a Being, because they have not been bad people. The arrogant think that they can proudly parade all their good deeds, their good character, and thus their entitlement to justice from a benign God when they leave this world.  The arrogant trust in the ways of men, they could never humble themselves at the feet of the Lord, any more than they would be willing to acknowledge their sin and failure and their inability to reach the standards that He has set for mankind.

It is people such as these who mock those who of us trust in the Lord by faith, we who bow at the throne of a greater Being, who readily admit our sin and imperfection, and who recognise our dependency on a higher power. The arrogant mock us for our obedience to the Word of God and our insistence in putting Him first. They mock our faith and our hopes and are incredulous at our assertions that the God we believe in actually interacts with us in our daily lives! 

All that the psalm-writer had to cling to, in the face of all of this, was the Law of God. We have the entire Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, let’s live lives that show those who look down on us, how ignorant and misguided they are! 

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