“You rebuke those cursed proud ones who wander from your commands.” Psalm 119:21, NLT

God hates arrogance even more than we do and will deal with proud people in His own ways. It is not up to us, no matter how annoying this is to us. Our focus is to make sure it isn’t US who are the proud, arrogant ones who are willingly and willfully ignoring God’s commands. Pride is at the core of disobedience and leads to thinking we are above the law code of integrity. And that brings the cursed life. Cursed with pride.

“You rebuke the arrogant, who are cursed, and who stray from your commands.” Psalm 119:21, NIV

This gets leaders into trouble, cursed if you will, every time. “Well, because of who I am and what I’ve done, I don’t have to…or I don’t need to… or I have done enough to prove how important I am, so it’s okay to do…” Yikes! But this is the attitude of the arrogant. The kings of the Psalmist day had this kind of “I can do anything” arrogance.

Do you feel cursed? Do you feel things are just not falling into place? 

Sometimes we can be so humbled that we are proud to be humble! There, I said it. Out loud. This is not abundant living, either! ONLY reading God’s Word and not venturing out to live it to the full is a humble pride. Not allowing God’s Word to change the way we think and behave is a type of humble pride. Judging others for what they are doing is a type of humble pride, thinking you have it all together because of all the scriptures you know well. None of us has it altogether. “All have sinned and fall short…” as Paul puts it in Romans. 

This is not abundant life living. The writer of this Psalm is trying hard to follow all of God’s commands and looks around to see others not doing so and is struggling to stay true to God’s Word himself, it seems. But he finds comfort in God’s Word, even hungers for it, like we talked about yesterday, and stays focused on God’s rich commands that give life.

“And those who think they know so much, ignoring everything you tell them–let them have it!” Psalm 119:21, Msg

Well, okay then, the Message version brings out the cry of the Psalmist’s broken heart, pleading with God to take care of the arrogant. We should all do the same. Then move on in God’s Word and stay focused and excited about how God is changing us, one verse at a time.