4 To the arrogant I say, ‘Boast no more,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns.
5 Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak so defiantly.’” Psalm 75:4-5

The horns in the Bible are frequently a sign of power and strength, much like they are on many animals. The second part of verse five is merely rephrasing the earlier part.

In this part of the song, Asaph was merely exhorting the proud and arrogant to keep it all in check. They could shake their fist at God but that’s about it.

Recently I’ve had a chance to play with my 18-month-old niece. She really loves to be “chased” so I chase her around the coffee table over and over again. I stop and change course and she goes the other way. We do that until she figures out that she doesn’t need to go around in a circle to “get away” from me, so she goes into another room. If I had really want to, I can take one medium step and scoop her up.

The proud and arrogant are somewhat similar to my chasing my niece (not at all saying my niece is proud and arrogant). They absolutely think they have pulled one over on God and that they can outrun Him in the long run (and they’re smarter and wise them Him). What they clearly don’t realize is that it would take one tiny step for God to “get” them if He so chose. But they continue to defy Him at every chance possible.

Similarly, there are times we try to outfox God. Oh, we would never admit it, but we do things because we forget He’s watching (or worse, we don’t care that He’s watching). Then we turn course and try to outwit Him again going a different direction.

For that reason, it’s important for all of us to keep “short accounts” of our relationship with God. Confess when we need and get back to doing Kingdom work.