Psalm 119:85 – Arrogant
The arrogant have dug pits for me
which were not according to your instruction.
I chose the word “arrogant” here as the translation as a description of those who think they can make their own rules and trap people with them. I’d like to offer translations from a couple of other people.
Bob MacDonald, in the book Seeing the Psalter, translates:
For me the presumptuous dig ditches
Psalm 119:85, from page 384
that are not of your instruction
I think “presumptuous catches what I hear in this verse quite well. Bob translates quite directly in an effort to clearly convey the structure of the Psalm.
Mitchell Dahood, in his Anchor Bible commentary on the Psalms translates,
The presumptuous have dug pits for me,
Psalms 100-150, Anchor Bible, p. 166, on Psalm 119:85
who are not in conformity with your law.
His translation is quite possible, but I tend to disagree on what is not according to your law. I would see the pits as violations, rather than a general declaration that the diggers are not in conformity.
Now there are many ways in which one can dig pits for another person. Sometimes it can be an attack on their reputation, falsehoods told about them, or even truths told in a harmful way. I am a strong proponent of privacy. Not everyone needs to know everyone else’s business. Often we do harm even in passing on prayer requests. I’m going to go far afield. I don’t think the psalmist was thinking all these things, but I do think they are based on the same principle expressed in this verse.
But there’s another form of pit, and that’s making up our own rules and then tripping others with them. I recall a complaint against a pastor because he had not mowed the grass on the rather large property. It happened that I knew and was friends with the former pastor, who had really enjoyed riding a tractor and mowing the grass. That was really not the new pastor’s thing. In this case nobody was arrogant, but they tripped the new pastor with a rule that was imaginary.
At another time I was working with a visiting singing group from overseas who were at our church to present a program. The leader came to me to ask me if they could move any of the furniture on the platform. I say, “Why not?” He said that they had gotten into considerable trouble in churches for rearranging furniture in order to fit their equipment in.
I should have realized that, because it takes very little time for things to become traditional in a church, and the positioning of pews and items of furniture can take on an oversize role in “church order.”
At another time I recall people complaining that a pastor had changed the order of worship. In one case the change had been accidental. But people piously claimed that the service had not be conducted “decently and in order.” That’s from 1 Corinthians 14:40, but I doubt the complainers had read the chapter. I wonder what they would have thought if two or three prophets (1 Corinthians 14:29) had spoken in the service!
There’s nothing like fake, pious-sounding rules to trip people up. And the “orderly” people are good at sounding pious. We impose this on newcomers. We impose it on our youth. We find things that they have to get right. We want them to learn how to “do church right!” God deserves our best, from clothing to respectful silence, to offerings, and more.
I recall an American who was in Guyana before us who informed my parents that he had told Guyanese church members to “wash their hair and take off their hats” for church services. I have no idea where the “wash their hair” came from, but the women in the church wore really gorgeous hats. This man had a rule in his mind that was not according to God’s instruction (there are biblical statements that say quite the opposite!), that these women should not wear hats. I assume this came from his local church. Some of my fondest memories of church services are from my time in Guyana. They had no need for someone to tell them how to do church.
I think we need to be just as clear as to what God hasn’t said as to what God has said. Don’t go digging pits, or ditches, or building walls where God hasn’t placed them.
I’m going to include a video of some young people discussing things that have driven them away from the church. I found quite a number of really good points here, especially when they discuss telling young people they have to clean up or give up bad habits before they can come to God. That’s a big, ungodly barrier. Grace is a free gift, not a payment for fixing yourself.
Full disclosure: Two of these young people are my granddaughters!
(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
