Proud or Humble

DEVOTION

PSALMS

PROUD OR HUMBLE

Ps 140

140:1 For the director of music. A psalm of David.

Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men; protect me from men of violence, 2 who devise evil plans in their hearts and stir up war every day. 3 They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent's; the poison of vipers is on their lips. Selah 

4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from men of violence who plan to trip my feet. 5 Proud men have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path. Selah 

6 O LORD, I say to you, "You are my God. "Hear, O LORD, my cry for mercy. 7 O Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer, who shields my head in the day of battle — 8 do not grant the wicked their desires, O LORD; do not let their plans succeed, or they will become proud. Selah 

9 Let the heads of those who surround me be covered with the trouble their lips have caused. 10 Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise. 11 Let slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down men of violence. 12 I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. 13 Surely the righteous will praise your name and the upright will live before you.

NIV

It seems this is another psalm with contrasts between the righteous and the wicked. The difference, however, is the traps, the snares, the temptations, the wicked set be for the righteous in order to get them to fail pray to their evil schemes. We might think the world has some very nice people, and indeed many seem to be pleasant enough. But the fact remains, if people do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, if they have not been born again, they are considered as the wicked and their life plans are not based upon scripture, but rather upon their own self-pleasures. Some of them might even say they are Christians, but they are not believers as God defines believers. They are also defined in this psalm as the proud, or the arrogant. They do not humble themselves before the Lord, as we are supposed to do. Their arguments against religion or God may sound solid enough in their own minds, but we know they are lies, snares in an effort to change our mind. But God has supplied us with a helmet of Salvation among many other armor to protect our mind and heart from their schemes. There schemes come in many forms in an effort to create within us desires for a multitude of things. They want us to lust after their stuff, to allow greed, envy, jealously, and just plan want to fester within us. Every place we turn their pictures, their ads, their programs designed to promote their social agendas are all traps, some so subtle we might not even be aware of them. But God has given the gift of discernment so we can see those traps, those cords set to ensnare us, those lips of the silver tongued purveyors of lies. They will not ever stand in the assembly of the righteous before God, so why would we ever listen to them? If we take our stand against all the forces of evil, if we put on the full armor of God and stand our ground, their schemes will come to nothing, they will in fact perish along with the wicked. Nothing evil will stand before God. We will praise him for he has always rescued us from the hands of the wicked. He has always brought their plans to fail, for he cares for us and keeps us in the palm of his right hand. Surely as long as we remain in him, we will stand before him with praise on our lips and thanksgiving in our hearts. So that is how we live now, and how we will live forevermore. It’s a matter of being the proud or the humble. We will be the humble.