In Psalm 30:6-7 David talks about his prosperity and strength and then says that God hid his face which caused David great distress. One thing that I love about the Psalms is the transparency of Psalmists like David who are willing to call out their own pride publicly. These men have shown that pride truly does come before a fall and when we trust in our own abilities and thinking, we deny God. The consistent teaching in Scripture is that our pride and arrogant self-confidence is not a righteous virtue but a selfish opposition to our Creator. God opposes pride, He turns his face, and we are left in the hopelessness of our human futility.
The New Testament gives no lesser warning in the book of James. James 4:5-8 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us"? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
While there is some debate about how to translate this section in James, there does seem to be a basic truth that everyone can see. If we are God's children, our desire should be to listen to Him, love Him, submit to Him, believe Him and obey Him. We should seek for God's Word to be the driving truth in our life. We should desire for God's glory to be the ultimate outcome of our life. In fact, those in Christ know how much we have needed the mercy and grace of God to begin with. Our whole position in life before God should indeed be one of humility and reliance on God for all things from our thinking to our speech and actions.
Is it any wonder that God opposes pride? The more we trust in ourselves and this world, the more we walk away from our Creator who has all knowledge and wisdom. We think we know better and ultimately reject God in applying our own ideas and running after our own desires. How can God endorse such actions from those professing to be his children?
David found out where confidence in self and complacency toward God ultimately leads. It leads to God hiding his face. James describes it as God opposing the proud.
As we read Psalm 30 we can be thankful that David not only confessed his own pride before the Lord but he also described his cry for mercy and God's kindness in giving it. Rooting out pride is not always easy, but when we see each and every consequence of our own pride it is a wonderful opportunity for repentance and then replacing another area of misdirected trust in our life. Our falls from pride may humble us, but as we respond toward God's mercy, that's always a beautiful result. He does give grace to the humble.