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THE CHAIN OF PRIDE “Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain . . .” (Psalm 73:6)In this text, Asaph is describing the wicked. He says in this chapter that he had made the mistake of getting his eyes off of God by paying too much attention to the wicked and that his steps had “well nigh slipped.” (vs. 2) He tells us in the last half of the chapter that his hope was in the Lord, not in worrying about man, but in the first half of the chapter he spends about nine verses describing the wicked. In verse six he says that “pride compasseth them about as a chain.”I learned a long time ago to pay special attention when God uses the words “like” and “as” because association is one of His favorite teaching methods. It’s like the Lord says something, but you say, “Lord, I don’t understand that.” Then the Lord says, “Okay, do you understand THIS?” “Yes, I do,” you reply. Then the Lord says, “Well, THAT is like THIS.” He does it all the time. That’s what the parables of Jesus are all about, and that’s what our text is about: He says that pride is AS a chain. In other words, if you know a proud person, then you know a CHAINED person.I. CHAINS ARE FOR BINDING PEOPLE OR THINGSA man of pride is a man of bondage, and he wears a chain of bondage. You might remember Scrooge’s partner, Marley, from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” He appeared to Scrooge as a ghost in chains. The idea was that every day of his greedy life had been spent adding links to his eternal chain. Now, in the afterlife, he was condemned to drag this long and heavy chain around forever. Rather than enjoy a free and happy afterlife, he was to be bound forever in chains because of his sins.About the only thing that Dickens got wrong in the story was that you don’t have to wait until eternity to wear a chain. Sinners burn in hell in eternity, but they wear their chains right now in this life. Every day we have the responsibility to humble ourselves before God and give no place to the sin of pride. In every word, every thought, and in every action, we have the responsibility to reject pride and embrace humility and grace. When we succeed, we enjoy God’s blessings and the companionship of good people. When we fail and let pride in, we add links to an invisible chain that binds us and keeps us from enjoying the abundant and free lives that Jesus preached about. If we refuse to repent, then we keep adding links to the chain with every passing day. Some links are small, and some are very large, but they all make up a binding chain of pride that gets heavier as life drags on.Now, this chain is a very strange chain because most everyone sees it except for the man wearing it. I know a man who is in his mid-forties, a father and even a grandfather. This man has lived long enough to have learned well how to conduct himself around others and how to properly converse and interact with them, yet he has less social skill than many teenagers because he wears a great and long chain of pride that keeps him held back. He’s a work-out fanatic, and he’s eaten-up with himself. His bodily exercise isn’t just for health and fitness; it’s a cult mentality that has his head pumped-up about ten times larger than it ought to be. Regardless of how a conversation starts, it will always ends up with him in the spotlight. If you were to check out his Facebook page, you would find yourself nearly nauseated by the self-centeredness and pride found dripping from most every post. The guy’s pride chain is so large and visible that even unsaved people see it clearly and speak of it often. Jesus Christ could set him free from all that, but, no, that would move HIM out of the spotlight. So he keeps it up, day after day, adding link after link to the devil’s chain of pride.There are many people like this in all walks of life. Some have the physical fitness pride, like the man above, while others have intellectual pride, financial pride, fashion pride, pride in their good looks, or even religious pride like the Pharisees. In the land of the free, such people live lives of bondage because they refuse to repent of self and put the Lord and others first.II. CHAINS COME IN DIFFERENT SIZESJust because you aren’t dragging around a big and long chain like Jacob Marley doesn’t mean that you have no pride. Pride can be very subtle and can remain a subtle sin in one’s life for many years. In fact, it can be a very small chain that is detectable only by the most spiritual observers. Many preachers have a reputation for being great men of God, yet, as Paul warned Timothy, they often become lifted up with pride and fall into the condemnation of the devil (I Tim. 3:6).I once heard a street preacher talking about how “tough” one had to be to preach on the street. You could almost hear the words “like me” echoing in every word. That’s PRIDE, subtle little spurts of self that quench the Holy Spirit and rob a man of God’s blessings. Now he has to bless and promote himself because God won’t do it.We’ve all seen proud parents shining like Lucifer when they rebuke their kids openly and embarrass them in front of others. This is done to make you think that THEY have THEIR kids under control. If they really had their kids under control, then they wouldn’t have to prove it to anyone. It would be well known. But since they DON’T have a godly home, they are insecure as parents and afraid that someone might notice. So, they go to great lengths to make sure that everyone sees them shine as authoritative parents. In reality, the only thing shining is their chain of pride. It might not be a big chain that everyone sees, but it’s there for anyone who WILL see.If our church kept every person that visited, we’d be a whole lot bigger, but I am sure thankful that we don’t keep them! What a mess I would have on my hands, if I couldn’t get rid of proud people! I never say much about it, but I can usually tell when someone will stay at our church or leave. Proud people almost always leave. Others leave for other reasons at times, and some stay, but proud people almost always leave because their chain will not allow them to relax and enjoy humble and joyful Christian fellowship.There was one man in particular who attended our church for a while with his wife and two dear children. The wife and kids clicked just fine with the church folks, but I saw from day one that he was going to be a problem. His first question for me was, “Are you a registered church or unregistered?” He didn’t have the sense to know it, but he told me all I needed to know with that one question. One day during a fellowship meal he was running his mouth about something, and his wife quietly said to one of our ladies, “He always does that. I wish he would learn to keep quiet.” It was like she knew that he would wear out his welcome and then “feel led” to take her and the kids out of the church in search of something “better.” That’s exactly what he did in just a few months. He wears a chain of pride and will never know the true joy of the Lord, unless he repents.That’s what pride does, friend. It restrains you and keeps you from abounding in the Lord. You might blame others for your troubles, but it is often just your own selfish pride that keeps you imprisoned at the devil’s will (II Tim. 2:26).III. CHAINS ARE NOISYI mentioned Jacob earlier. You know, scrooge HEARD him coming a long time before he saw him, and that was because of that long chain he was dragging around. If you had to wear a long chain like that everywhere you went, you would make a lot of noise, and folks would get tired of it real quick.Well, lots of people wear such a chain all the time. It’s an invisible chain of pride, and it keeps their mouths running constantly telling everyone what THEY like, what THEY did, what THEY are going to do, what THEY think about something, and so on. Sometimes such conduct is justified with passing little comments like, “Well, that’s just how he is,” but the word of God plainly states that a man is to be swift to hear and slow to speak (James 1:19). The Bible is filled with admonitions to keep your big mouth shut, yet some people just won’t do it, and it’s because they wear a NOISY chain of pride that just won’t be quiet.IV. CHAINS ARE ANNOYINGImaging having to drag a long and heavy chain around all the time. It would annoy you (and others) to no end. It would get in the way of most everything you do. Sleeping, taking a shower, getting dressed, eating, driving, trying to work among others, playing ball with your kids, trying to act civilized around church folks, and just about everything else would be a real challenge because of that ridiculous chain that you keep dragging around.Even if you grew used to it, others never would. They would always dread to see you coming, and they would be glad to see you leave. We all have people like that in our lives, and they usually look better going than coming, don’t they? Maybe you’ve never thought much about it, but their trouble might just be that age-old stinking sin of pride. They’ve never quite grasped the Christian concept of self-denial, so self-promotion and self-advancement is their first law of life. That’s why so much of life is so frustrating to them and so annoying. They might blame their troubles on others, but their biggest trouble is that long, heavy, annoying chain that keeps holding them back, getting in the way of everything, rubbing them raw, and making them (and others) miserable.V. CHAINS ISOLATE PEOPLEIf a man is chained, then he is not at liberty to do all the things that others do. Consequently, he gets left behind, or left alone. Most convicts in prison get to leave their cells at times and play ball, exercise, or even work, but the worst of the worst must remain in their cells all the time because they can’t be trusted to roam the yard as others do.Many proud people are like that. Nobody wants them around, since they’re so annoying, so they start feeling distanced and lonely. Even when they are around others, they often sense a wall between themselves and others, and it prevents them from functioning smoothly.I recall a situation from just a little while back when a proud man didn’t know how to respond to a joke. Others would have just smiled and laughed it off, but his chain wouldn’t allow him such grace. He sat there with a puzzled look on his face, tilted his head sideways a bit, and just stared into space in search of an explanation as to why anyone would crack such a joke about HIM. It was truly comical and one of the highlights of my day, yet it was also very sad to think that that was a real man with real problems.Now, some like to suggest that such people can’t help their condition and that we should be more understanding and try harder to accept them. WRONG! “. . . God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” (James 4:6) Pride is a sin, and it must be repented of like any other sin. The proud man isolates himself by clinging to his foolish sin instead of repenting of it. That’s no one’s fault but his own. His responsibility is to DENY SELF just like the rest of us have to deny ourselves. The fact that he refuses to tell SELF to drop dead is his fault and no one else’s. God will fellowship with him, as will many good Christians, but not until he submits to the first law of Christianity, the law of SELF-DENIAL.Friend, if you carry such a chain in your life, I urge you to take it immediately to the throne of grace and LEAVE it at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only then will you truly begin to live the free and abundant life that the Lord has waiting for you.