Psalm 119:85 NKJV

The proud have dug pits for me,
Which is not according to Your law.

Pits in the Path of the Righteous

A man walking along a path in a forest, holding a wooden cross, with a deep pit in the ground beside him.

My Notes

“The proud have dug pits for me, which is not according to Your law.” — Psalm 119:85

David speaks of enemies who laid traps—snares and temptations designed to lead him into sin and destruction. Their schemes were like pits dug for wild beasts, revealing how lowly they regarded him. These were not hidden sins or subtle offenses; they were open acts of rebellion against God’s commands.

Such behavior stands in stark contrast to the law of love. The Levitical law calls us to lift the fallen, not ensnare them. If men truly followed God’s statutes, they would fill in the pits so others wouldn’t stumble—not dig them deeper.

David found comfort in knowing that his enemies were also enemies of God. Their attacks had no divine sanction. And because he was aware of their devices, he remained vigilant—watching his steps, guarding his heart, and staying close to the Lord.

He longed to be free from the company of the wicked, not out of pride, but because their influence was dangerous. They tempted the godly with worldly pleasures—fleeting, filthy, and false. These empty promises could never compare to the lasting joy found in obedience to God’s Word.

In God’s justice, the wicked often fall into the very traps they set. Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai. Saul, who schemed to kill David with the Philistines’ sword (when he sent him out to seek two hundred of their foreskins in a dowry), was ultimately slain by the sword himself.

David’s hope was not in retaliation, but in righteousness. He trusted that God would vindicate him and that the snares of the proud would not prevail. His eyes were fixed on the path of truth, and his heart remained anchored in the law of the Lord.

Note: Psalm 119 is an acrostic pattern. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet; each of the 22 sections is given a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and each line in that section begins with that letter. Today, we’re looking at verse 85, which is in the 11th section, which is called “כ KAPH”. According to the hebrews4christians.com website, the letter כ KAPH is the 11th letter of the Aleph-Bet, having the numeric value of twenty. The pictograph for כ KAPH looks like the palm of a hand.

The website https://www.abarim-publications.com/Hebrew_Alphabet_Meaning.html defines the meaning of the letter כ KAPH as:

One of two regular words for hand (the other being the 10th letter). The noun כף (kap) denotes the hand as outstretched, asking, and weak. The word basically encompasses anything that is hollow or outstretched in order to receive something: a dish, a plate, etc. The letter kap is written ך when it occurs at the end of a word, and כ when it occurs at the beginning or halfway through a word.

As a prefix, the letter כ (kaph) expresses comparison (“like” as in the name Mi-ka-el, what’s God like?), and as a postfix, it governs pronouns of the second person singular. Note the graceful transition between the self-oriented fist of the letter yod and the other-oriented open hand of the letter kaph.

……Bill

A top-down view of a deep pit surrounded by cracked earth and stones, with green vegetation at the edges.

Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“The proud have digged pits for me, which are not after thy law.” As men who hunt wild beasts are wont to make pitfalls and snares, so did David’s foes endeavor to entrap him. They went laboriously and cunningly to work to ruin him, “they digged pits;” not one, but many. If one would not take him, perhaps another would, and so they digged again and again. One would think that such haughty people would not have soiled their fingers with digging, but they swallowed their pride in hopes of swallowing their victim. Whereas they ought to have been ashamed of such meanness, they were conscious of no shame, but, on the contrary, were proud of their cleverness; proud of setting a trap for a godly man.

“Which are not after thy law.” Neither the men nor their pits were according to the divine law: they were cruel and crafty deceivers, and their pits were contrary to the Levitical law, and contrary to the command which bids us love our neighbor. If men would keep to the statutes of the Lord, they would lift the fallen out of the pit, or fill up the pit so that none might stumble into it; but they would never spend a moment in working injury to others. When, however, they become proud, they are sure to despise others; and for this reason, they seek to circumvent them, that they may afterwards hold them up to ridicule. It was well for David that his enemies were God’s enemies, and that their attacks upon him had no sanction from the Lord. It was also much to his gain that he was not ignorant of their devices, for he was thus put upon his guard, and led to watch his ways lest he should fall into their pits. While he kept to the law of the Lord, he was safe, though even then it was an uncomfortable thing to have his path made dangerous by the craft of wanton malice.

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Enduring Word

The proud have dug pits for me, which is not according to Your law: The traps set for the psalmist were in fact directly against the law of God. Exodus 21:33-34 gives the principle that a man is responsible for damage when he digs a pit. (Guzik)

i. The idea is that they hunted him as if he were a wild animal. “The manner of taking wild beasts was by ‘digging pits,’ and covering them over with turf, upon which when the beast trod, he fell into the pit, and was there confined and taken.” (Horne)

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Albert Barnes

Which are not after thy law – The word which here refers not to the pits, but to the proud. They who have done this are people who do not regard thy commands; people who are open and public offenders. It is that class of people with whom I have to contend – inert who set at defiance all the laws of God; men high in rank, who wield great power, and who have no regard to the law of God in their conduct. Even they have sought my destruction in the meanest way possible – by covert arts, by underhanded means, by digging pits, as they would for wild beasts.

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John Gill

The proud have digged pits for me,…. Laid snares and temptations in his way, to draw him into sin, and so into mischief; they sought indeed to take away his life, and formed schemes for it. The allusion is to the digging of pits for the taking of wild beasts; which shows the ill opinion they had of David, and their ill usage of him; see Psalm 7:15;

which [are] not after thy law; no, contrary to it; which forbids the digging of a pit, and leaving it uncovered, so that a neighbor’s beast might fall into it, Exodus 21:33; and if those might not be dug to the injury of beasts, then much less to the injury of men, to the hurt of the servants of the Lord, or to the shedding of innocent blood, which the law forbids.

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Matthew Henry

They were spiteful: They dug pits for him, which intimates that they were deliberate in their designs against him and that what they did was of malice prepense; it intimates likewise that they were subtle and crafty, and had the serpent’s head as well as the serpent’s venom, that they were industrious and would refuse no pains to do him a mischief, and treacherous, laying snares in secret for him, as hunters do take wild beasts, Ps. 35:7. Such has been the enmity of the serpent’s seed to the seed of the woman.

They herein showed their enmity to God himself. The pits they dug for him were not after God’s law; he means they were very much against his law, which forbids to devise evil to our neighbor, and has particularly said, Touch not my anointed. The law appointed that, if a man dug a pit which occasioned any mischief, he should answer for the mischief (Ex. 21:33, 34), much more when it was dug with a mischievous design.

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Miscellaneous Comments

“The proud have digged pits.” It seems strange that a proud man should be a digger of pits; but so it is, for pride, for a time can submit itself to gain a greater vantage over him whom it would tread under foot. “The wicked is so proud that he seeks not God, yet he croucheth and boweth, to cause heaps of the poor to fall by his might,” Psa 10:4, 10. So proud, Absalom abased himself to the meanest subjects that so he might prepare a way to usurpation over his king and father. But mark, he saith not that he had fallen into the pits which his enemies had digged. No, no: in God’s righteous judgments, the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands, while the good escape free. “He made a pit, and digged it,” and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Psa 7:15-16. Thus Haman hanselled the gallows which he raised for Mordecai; and Saul, when he thought by subtlety to slay David with the Philistine’s sword (when he sent him out to seek two hundred of their foreskins in a dowry) was disappointed of his purpose; but he himself at length was slain by the sword.

—William Cowper.

Let men beware how they dig pits for others. All God’s word testifies against such wickedness. How many tests are invented simply for the purpose of entangling men’s consciences and furnishing ground for persecution?

—William S. Plumer.

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Cross-References

Psalm 35:7 (KJV)

⁷ For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit,

Which without cause they have digged for my soul.

Psalm 57:6 (KJV )

⁶ They have prepared a net for my steps;

My soul is bowed down:

They have digged a pit before me,

Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

Jeremiah 18:20 (KJV)

²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them.

Psalm 9:15 (KJV)

¹⁵ The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made:

In the net which they hid is their own foot taken.

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Closing Thoughts

“God, who foresaw your tribulation, has specially armed you to go through it, not without pain but without stain.” – C.S. Lewis

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 NKJV

כ KAPH כ: Fainting from affliction, revived by God’s word.

Psalm 119: 81-88

My soul faints for Your salvation,
But I hope in Your word.

My eyes fail from searching Your word,
Saying, “When will You comfort me?”

For I have become like a wineskin in smoke,
Yet I do not forget Your statutes.

How many are the days of Your servant?
When will You execute judgment on those who persecute me?

The proud have dug pits for me,
Which is not according to Your law.

All Your commandments are faithful;
They persecute me wrongfully;
Help me!

They almost made an end of me on earth,
But I did not forsake Your precepts.

Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.