III. The certainty of success if the conditions are fulfilled.Thenshaltthou understand, etc. The mariner puts out to sea, and fulfils all the conditions known to him for reaching the country to which he is bound, but he may find a grave midway between his starting-point and his goal. The husbandman sows the seed, and fulfils all the conditions upon which a good harvest depends. But his crop may fail notwithstanding: he may not reap the golden grain. But no such disappointment ever befals the earnest seeker after the knowledge of God.
illustration of verse4.
“There are frequent allusions to hid treasure in the Bible. Even in Job we read that the bitter in soul dig for death more earnestly than for hid treasure. There is not another comparison within the whole compass of human action so vivid as this. I have heard of diggers actually fainting when they have come even upon a single coin. They become positively frantic, dig all night with a desperate earnestness, and continue to work until utterly exhausted. There are, at this hour, hundreds of persons engaged in it all over the country. Not a few spend their last farthing upon these ruinous efforts. . . . It is not difficult to account for this hid treasure. The country has always been subject to revolutions, invasions, and calamities of different kinds. . . . Warriors and conquerors from every part of the world sweep over the land, carrying everything away that falls into their hand. Then, again, this country has ever been subject to earthquakes, which bury everything beneath her ruined cities.”—Thomson’s “Land and the Book.”
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verses 1 and 2. The sinner is here told how he may become serious. In any conceivable path if thou wilt do that lowest conceivable thing—just listen; and, that thy listening may not be a mere passing flash, if thou wilt pause upon it, and attend. If a man just takes a chair and thinks for a moment of death and judgment and eternity, his heart begins to feel, and it will go on feeling to any length. It required the Spirit, no doubt; but what is the Spirit but the Spirit of the God of Nature? He will come in the track of thought just as surely as a star is dragged after Him in the track of gravitation.—Miller.
The Word of God is a vital seed, but it will not germinate unless it be hidden in a softened, receptive heart. It is here that Providence so often strikes in with effect as an instrument in the work of the Spirit. The place and use of providential visitations in the Divine administration of Christ’s kingdom is to break up the way of the word through the incrustations of worldliness and vanity that encase a human heart, and keep the word lying hard and dry upon the surface.—Arnot.
Angels, who are so much our superiors, apply themselves to the learning of it: they are already supplied with the stories of truth, and yet they desireto pry deeper into the mystery of it. Surely, then, the wisest of us ought to apply our whole hearts.—Lawson.
There are some whodohear, or rather,seemto hear. They profess to be all attention; but it is mere pretence—the mere result of politeness and courtesy to the speaker. This is worse than not hearing at all, inasmuch as it is the reality of neglect, with all the guilt of hypocrisy added to it.—Wardlaw.
Verse 2. Lie low at God’s feet and say,—“Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.” His saints “sit down at His feet, every one to receive His word.”—Trapp.
Even as worldlings, when they hear of some good bargain, hearken very diligently; or as they who think that one speaketh of them put their ears near to him that speaketh.—Muffet.
Verse 3. Earthly wisdom is gained by study; heavenly wisdom by prayer. Study may form a biblical scholar; prayer puts the heart under a heavenly pupilage, and therefore forms the wise and spiritual Christian. But prayer must not stand in the stead of diligence. Let it rather give life and energy to it.—Bridges.
Knowledge is God’s gift, and must be sought at His hand, since He is the “Father of Lights,” and sells us “eye-salve” (Rev. iii. 17).—Trapp.
It is not any longer a Nicodemus inclined towards Jesus, he cannot tell how, and silently stealing into His presence under cloud of night; it is the jailer of Philippi springing in and crying with a loud voice: “What must I do to be saved?”—Arnot.
Verse 4. The same image occurs in John v. 39: “Searchthe Scriptures.” Not merely scrape the surface and get a few superficial scraps of knowledge, but dig deep, and far, and wide. The “treasures” are “hidden” by God, not in order to keep them back from us, but to stimulate our faith and patient perseverance in seeking for them.—Fausset.
Men never prayed that way and were not answered. Men seek money—(1) always; (2) as a matter of course; (3) against all discomfitures; (4) under all uncertainties.—Miller.
Will not the far-reaching plans, and heroic sacrifices, and long-enduring toil of Californian and Australian gold-diggers rise up and condemn us who have tasted and known the grace of God? Their zeal is the standard by which the Lord stimulates us now, and will measure us yet. Two things are required in our search—the right direction and the sufficient impulse. The Scriptures point out the right way, the avarice of mankind marks the quantum of forcefulness, wherewith the seeker must press on.—Arnot.
This intimates (1) a loss or want of something. Else men seek not for it. (2) A knowledge of this want or loss. Else men sit still. (3) Some goodness indeed, or, in our own opinion, of the thing sought. Men are, or should be, content to lose what is evil. (4) Some benefit to ourselves in it. Else few will seek it, though good in itself. (5) An earnest desire to find it. Else men have no heart to seek it. (6) A constant inquiry after it, wheresoever there is any hope to find it. Else we seek in vain. So in seeking wisdom—we must want it, and know that we want it, and see good in it, and that to ourselves, and seek it earnestly and constantly, if we would find it.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 5. That which impels men to the pursuit is also the prize which rewards them. If any distinction between God (Elohim, see“Critical Notes”) and the Lord (Jehovah) can be pressed here, it is that in the former the glory, in the latter the personality of the Divine nature is prominent.—Plumptre.
He understandeth the fear of the Lord, whose understanding feareth the Lord. The knowledge of God is found in all His creatures, but he findeth the knowledge of God who, being lost in his sins, is found by God in the acknowledgement of them. . . . And as fearadvanceth to the knowledge of God, so the knowledge of God bringeth us to the fear of Him.—Jermin.
This knowledge of God is the first lesson of heavenly wisdom. On the right apprehension of this lesson all the rest necessarily depends. Wrong views of God will vitiate every other department of your knowledge. Without right views of God you can have no right views of His law. Without right views of His law you can have no right views of sin, either in its guilt or in its amount. Without right views of sin, you can have no right views of your own condition, and character, and prospects as sinners. Without right views of these you can have no right views of your need of a Saviour, or of the person, and the righteousness, and atonement of that Saviour. Without right views of these you can have no right views of your obligations to Divine grace, etc. . . . The fear of the Lord, founded on the knowledge of Him, is something to the right understanding of which experience is indispensable. To a man who had never tasted anything sweet, you would attempt in vain to convey, by description, a right conception of the sensation of sweetness. And what is true of the sensations is true also of the emotions. To a creature that had never feltfearyou would hardly convey, by description, an idea of its nature; and equally in vain would it be to make love intelligible to one that had never experienced that affection. It is thus to a depraved creature with regard to holy and spiritual affections. “This fear of the Lord”—a fear springing from love and proportioned to it—such a creature cannotunderstandbut by being brought to experience it.—Wardlaw.
The knowledge of God regulates the fear and prevents it from sinking into terror, or degenerating into superstition, but guides it to express its power in checking and subduing every corrupt affection and animating the soul to every instance of obedience.—Lawson.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses6–11.
God as a Giver and Man as a Receiver.
I. The fact stated—that God gives.The nature of the good is to give. God is the best of all beings, therefore He is the greatest giver. 1. Thekindnessof God is manifested in the character of His gifts. 2. Theresourcesof God are revealed in the abundance of His gifts. The character and disposition of men are made known bywhatthey give and byhowthey give. God’s gifts are “good and perfect,” and are given ungrudgingly (Jas. i. 5–17). But men’s resources are not always equal to their desires to give. But God is rich, not only in mercy, but in power; He has givenup to Himselfin the gift of His Son, in whom dwell all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and beyond whom the Father Himself cannot give.
II. Some of His gifts enumerated.1.Wisdom. Sound wisdom.Real wisdom as opposed to that which is only a sham (see“Critical Notes”). The serpent—the devil—possessescunning, but not real wisdom. Our first parents were led astray by believing alie—the fruit of following the tempter’s guidance was unsoundness of body and soul. The results of this “wisdom of the serpent” proved its falsity. God gives the true wisdom. He gives men thetruth. A knowledge of the truth about themselves, about Him (ver. 6), brings stability of character—leads men into the right way of life (ver. 9)—and thus tends to peace and blessedness of soul. 2. He givesprotectionby giving true wisdom. “He is abuckler,” etc. (ver. 7). When Abraham undertook to deliver Lot from the hands of his enemies, the skill with which he planned and carried out the attack (Gen. xiv. 14) showed his wisdom. After the victory God came to him and said, “Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. xv. 1). How had God just proved Himself to be his shield? Not by sending a legion ofangels to deliver him, but by giving him the wisdom by which he had defended himself. This is how He is a buckler to His children. He “preserveth the way of His saints” (ver. 8) by giving them wisdom and grace to “understand” and keep “every good path” (ver. 9).
III. Man as a receiver of God’s gifts.1. This wisdom and protection is only given to those who fulfil certain conditions.Wisdomis for therighteous, thebucklerfor them thatwalk uprightly, preservationfor hissaints. These terms must be regarded as relative, as we shall see presently; but the fact that God has “laid up” His “wisdom,” implies that it must be sought. God had laid up a store of wisdom of Joseph’s guidance when Pharaoh summoned him from the prison, even as Joseph afterwards stored up corn for the needy people; but in both instances the gifts had to be sought for (Gen. xli. 16). Daniel had wisdom laid up for him, but he had to ask for the wisdom kept in store for him (Dan. ii. 18). 2.This best gift of God must be received into man’s best place.The knowledge which God gives must enter theheart, the affections—thus it will bepleasantto the soul (ver. 10). He who holds the rudder guides the vessel. There may be many important positions in a fortified city, but he who holds the highest place commands all the rest. Understanding the wordhearthere to mean the affections, the heart commands the man. The will, and even the conscience to an extent, are wheeled about by the affections. They are the rudder of the man; they are the key to the position in the town of Man-soul. 3.Man, by thus receiving God’s gifts, attains a relative perfection.The “understanding” of every good way implies a walking in them. Those who receive God’s wisdom “walk uprightly”—are “saints.” The man who has long followed any profession may be said to be a perfect master of his business, of his handicraft. This does not imply that he can go no further—can attain to nothing higher. The Apostle Paul speaks of an absolute and a relative perfection. He had attained to the last but not to the first (Phil. iii. 12–15). To know what we ought to strive after and to choose the right way, is the relative perfection, which leads on to that which is absolute and entire.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 6. One may, indeed, by natural knowledge, very readily learn that God is a benevolent being; but how He becomes to a sinner the God of love, this can be learned only from the mouth of God in the Holy Scriptures.—Lange.
Verses 1 to 5 teach plainly that a man may get “light,” and that there are steps to it like money-getting; and yet hardly have the words left his lips before Solomon guards them: “Jehovah gives wisdom”—and guards them in a striking way, for he says: “For,” that is, the fact that it is the gift of God is the reason it can be proceeded so hopefully after by man.—Miller.
Solomon knew this by experience. The “for” gives the reason why he who is anxious to have wisdom should learn to know and worship God.—Fausset.
Every beam of reason in men is communicated from the wisdom of God (1 John i. 9). The simplest of the mechanical arts cannot be acquired unless men are taught of God. How, then can we be expected to understand the mystery of the Divine will without light from the Father of lights.—Lawson.
Verse 7. We are ill keepers of our own goodness and wisdom: God, therefore, is pleased to lay it up for us,—and that it may be safe, Himself is the buckler and safeguard of it. . . . In this life, he that walketh, although he walk uprightly, and seeing evil, shuns it, yet may receive hurt behind, where backbiters too frequently make their assaults. Wherefore, as he walketh to God before him, so God walketh after him, and even there, where they cannothelp themselves, He will be abucklerto His servants. . . . But learn also that the buckler shows that they who will live uprightly must strive and fight.—Jermin.
Heb., substance, reality (see“Critical Notes”): that which hath a true being in opposition to that which hath not.—Trapp.
He layeth upthat which is essentialfor the righteous.—A. Clarke.
The righteousness of our conduct contributes to the enlightenment of our creed. The wholesome reaction of the moral on the intellectual is clearly intimated here, inasmuch as it is to the righteous that God imparteth wisdom.—Chalmers.
“He lays up” or “hides away.” 1. That the wicked may not find it. 2. That the righteous may have to dig to get it (the verb is the same as that from which “hid treasures” is derived in Verse 4). 3. That it may be safe from the evil one.—Miller.
He walks uprightly who lives with the fear of God as his principle, and the Word of God as his rule, and the glory of God as his end.—Wardlaw.
The most dreadful enemies of those who walk uprightly are those who endeavour to turn aside the way of their paths; but against these enemies God defends, for He keepeth the paths of wisdom and righteousness.—Lawson.
Verse 8. Well may they walk uprightly that are so strongly supported. God’s hand is ever under his; they cannot fall beneath it.—Trapp.
“Paths of judgment” or “justice” are here, by the substitution of the abstract for the concrete expression, paths of the just, and therefore synonymous with “the way of His saints.”—Lange’s Commentary.
We have certain vicarious rights. One is, to come out all well at last. Another is, that all things shall work together for our good. Another is, that we shall grow up into Christ, increasing day by day. To realise each and all is required of God. The track this takes Him into for all is, as to each man, His path of judgment. Each such path He must walk in strictly. To do so, He must watch the saints.—Miller.
He is not the guardian of the broad way—the way of the world and of sin.Thatway Satan superintends, “the god of this world”—doing everything in his power, by all his various acts of enticement and intimidation, to keep his wretched subjects and victims from leaving it.—Wardlaw.
He preserveth the way of His saints both from being drawn out of that way, and from all evil while they walk in it.—Jackson.
If men will not keep their bounds, God will keep His. There is a right way for the saints to walk in. 1. Because else it were worse living in God’s kingdom than in any other kingdom. For all kingdoms have rules of safety and of living. 2. God would be in a worse condition than the meanest master of a family. He would have no certain service.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 9. Not as standing in speculation, but as a rule of life. Knowledge is either apprehensive only, or effective also. This differs from that as much as the light of the sun, wherein is the influence of an enlivening power, from the light of torches.—Trapp.
Not only does it enlarge ourknowledgeof God, but it brings us to a fullunderstandingof every practical obligation.—Bridges.
Good signifies, 1. That which is just and right. 2. That which is profitable. 3. That which is pleasing. 4. That which is full and complete (Gen. xv. 15). . . . Men must grow from knowledge of some good duties to knowledge of others. They must go on till they know every good path.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 10. Another picture of the results of living unto the Lord. Not that only to which it leads a man, but that from which it saves him, must be brought into view. Here, as before, there is a gradation in the two clauses. It is one thing for wisdom to find entrance into the soul, another to be welcomed as a “pleasant guest.”—Plumptre.
Spiritual joy mortifies sin. His mouth hankers not after homely provision that hath lately tasted of delicate sustenance. Pleasure there must be in the ways of God because therein men let out all their souls into God, the foundation of all good, hence they so infinitely distaste sin’s tasteless fooleries.—Trapp.
It was to open thus thy heart for wisdom that Christ’s heart was open upon the cross; it was to make an entrance for wisdom into thy heart that the spear entered into the heart of thy Saviour. And what though wisdom enter thy heart at a breach, a wound? It is this that must heal thee and make thee sound.—Jermin.
Here only has it any life or power. While it is only in the head it is dry, speculative, barren. . . . Before it was the object of our search; now, having found it, it is our pleasure.—Bridges.
It is pleasure that can compete with pleasure. It is joy and peace in believing that can overcome the pleasures of sin. . . . A human soul, by its very constitution, cannot be frightened into holiness. It is made for being won, and won it will be, by the drawing on this side or the drawing on that.—Arnot.
Verse 11. The man who has let knowledge come into his heart does but watch afterwards as he does in common walking: “discretion” or “reflection” will keep him straight.—Miller.
Men are subject to many dangers till they get wisdom. 1. Their reputation is in danger. 2. The goods and estates are in danger. 3. Their body and life are in danger. 4. The soul is in danger of eternal misery. Therefore sin is called folly, and wicked men that go to hell are chronicled as fools all over this book.—Francis Taylor.
Though the heart of man by nature be a rebellious fort, so that wisdom at first must enter it by a kind of force, yet, being entered, it makes itself pleasant, and keeps out and preserves the soul which kept her out.—Jermin.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses12–20.
The Character of Those from Whom Wisdom Preserves.
I. The evil man.1.His speech is corrupt, verse 12. The closed grave contains death and holds within it the seeds of pestilence, but while it remains unopened the corrupt influence remains enclosed in its narrow walls. But should it be opened, and its foulness allowed to fill the air, it begins to set in motion that will strike men down to its own level. The mouth of the wicked man while kept shut is a closed grave, his iniquity is shut up within himself, but when he speaks out the thoughts of his heart his mouth is as an open sepulchre, and he spreads around him moral disease and death. 2.He is a man of progressive iniquity.“He walks in the ways of darkness.” When a stone is set in motion, the momentum given to it, if no other law comes into operation to prevent it, will carry it to the lowest level in the direction in which it travels. The progress of wickedness is downhill, and walking in the ways of darkness implies a destination which in Scripture is called “outer darkness.” 3.He delights in his downward progress.Sorry and joy are reveals of human hearts. The saint rejoices in whatever things are pure, lovely, and of good report, and in his increase of power to do the same. That which rejoices him reveals his heart. The sinner that “rejoices to do evil and delights in the frowardness of the wicked,” brings to light the hidden things of darkness that are within him.
II. The wicked woman.1.She is, pre-eminently, a covenant-breaker.The ribs of a vessel hold and keep together the whole structure, and enable it to keep its cargo safe. If the ribs give way, all goes to pieces, and the precious thingswhich have been stored up within the ship are lost in the ocean. Human society is belted together—kept from going to pieces—by covenants. They are the ribs which keep together the State. The marriage covenant holds the first place. The woman whose character is here depicted has broken the bonds of this most sacred covenant—to which God was a witness (the covenant of an institution of His own ordination)—and has taken to the “strange” way of the devil. Well may she be called astrangewoman. That a woman should be guilty of such a crime—should choose such a course of life, so opposed to all that is pure and womanly—is indeed a mystery. 2.She is a destroyer, not only of herself, but of others.When the river has broken through its proper boundaries there is apresentandcontinualdestruction, of which the bursting of its banks was only the beginning. This woman in the past broke the moral boundaries of her life, and is now not content to go to ruin herself, but tries to take others with her. To this end are her false and flattering words, of which we shall hear more in chapter v. 3.She carries her victims beyond hope of recovery.There are no rules without exceptions. We know that there are those who have for a time been under the influence of such characters, and have returned to the paths of virtue and honour. But these are rare exceptions. In the main, it is, alas! true that “none that go unto her return again.” A vessel founders at sea, and we say that the crew is lost, although one survivor may have been rescued. We speak of an army being destroyed if one escapes to tell the tale. Where one who has taken hold on her paths struggles back to life and purity, thousands go down with her to death, bodily, social, and spiritual.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 12. Tosnatch(see“Critical Notes”). “The way of evil.” The terms begin gently. It is only the gentle aspects that are dangerous at first. These are so fascinating that it requires us to besnatchedto keep us out of the ways of darkness.—Miller.
Verse 13. Among the pests of men, none are such virulent pests of everything that is good as those that once made a profession of religion, but haveleft the way of uprightness.The stings of conscience which such persons experience, instead of reclaiming them, tend only to irritate their spirits, and inflame them into fierce enmity against religion.—Lawson.
Darkness, as thus set in contrast with uprightness, may be interpreted as descriptive both of thenatureof the ways, and of theirtendencyandend. The man who walks in uprightness walks in light. His eye is “single.” There is “none occasion of stumbling in him.” He has butoneprinciple; his “eyes look right on, his eyelids look straight before him.” He is not always looking this way and that, for devious paths that may suit a present purpose, but presses on ever in the same course; and this all is light, all plain, all safe. “The ways of darkness” are the ways of concealment, evasion, cunning, tortuous policy and deceit. He who walks in them is ever groping; hiding himself among the subtleties of “fleshly wisdom”: and being ways of false principle and sin, they are ways of danger, and shame, and ruin.—Wardlaw.
There is a strictly casual and reciprocal relation between unrighteous deeds and moral darkness. The doing of evil produces darkness, and darkness produces the evil doing. Indulged lusts put out the eye-sight of the conscience; and under the darkened conscience the lusts revel unchecked.—Arnot.
The light stands in the way of their wicked ways as the angel did in Balaam’s way to his sin.—Trapp.
Verse 14. Though it be wormwood which they drink (Lam. iii. 15), yet being drunk with it, they perceive not the bitterness thereof, but like drunkenmen rejoice in their shame and misery.—Jermin.
Better is the sorrow of him that suffereth evil than the jollity of him that doeth evil, saith St. Augustine.—Trapp.
Here is a note of trial to discern our spiritual estate. Wicked men rejoice in sin; good men sorrow more for sin than for troubles. . . . Many triumph in their evil deeds because they have no good to boast of. And men are naturally proud and would boast of something.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 16. There is no viler object in nature than an adulteress. Though born and baptised in a Christian land, she is to be looked upon as a heathen woman and a stranger, and as self-made brutes are greater monsters than natural brute beasts, so baptised heathens are by far the worst of pagans.—Lawson.
This strange woman is an emblem of impenitence. The passage 16–19, means the seductiveness and yet the betraying wretchedness of impenitence. The woman who has left her husband has also left her God; and thenulla vestigia retrorsumwitnessed in her dupes is the warning for the saint by which he keeps clear of her undoing. No man would err who would treat of adultery as having its lessons here. But no man would understand the passage who did not understand it further as a great picture of impenitence. The warnings are two: (1) the un-stopping-short character of sin; she who wrongs her husband will be seen universally wronging God: and (2) the unrecuperative history of the lost.—Miller
Twice Solomon uses a similar expression, “the strange woman (even) the stranger,” to impress more forcibly on the young man the factthat her person belongs to another.The literal and spiritual adulteress are both meant. The spiritual gives to the world her person and her heart, which belong by right to God. In this sense the foreign women who subsequently drew aside Solomon himself, were “strange women,” not so much in respect to their local distance from Israel, as in respect to being utterlyalien to the worship of God.Lust and idolatry were the spiritual adultery into which they entrapped the once wise king. How striking that he should utter beforehand a warning which he himself afterwards disregarded.—Fausset.
We are not to forget that the accomplished seducer has herself perhaps been seduced. The fair and flattering words, the endless arts of allurement, are on both sides.—Wardlaw.
One who is as it were, a stranger to her own house and husband by faithlessness (Hitzig), and hence a type of anything that is false and seductive in doctrine or practice. . . . By God’s goodness Solomon’s words in this Divinely inspired book were an antidote to the poison of his own vicious example.—Wordsworth.
Verse 17. False doctrine and false worship are in Scripture compared to harlotry and adultery. (Numb. xiv. 33; Judges ii. 17; viii. 33; Psa. cvi. 39; Rev. xvii. 1, 2; xviii. 3.)—Wordsworth.
It is God that is the guide of her youth, whoever may be under Him; it is God’s covenant that is made, whosoever may be the contractor in it. It is God who is firstforsaken,thenforgotten;forsaken in the beginning of wickedness, forgotten in the hardened practice of it. God hath appointed guides for youth—to stay the weakness of it, and to which, as unto God, youth ought to yield obedience. For elder years He hath appointed covenants as bonds and chains to hold them sure.—Jermin.
There is no trusting them that will fail God and their near friends. If they fail God, they will fail men for their advantage. If they fail friends—much more strangers.—Francis Taylor.
Verse 18. When you get into the company of the licentious, you are among the dead. They move about like men in outward appearance, butthe best attributes of humanity have disappeared—the best affections of nature have been drained away from their hearts.—Arnot.
Her house is not a building reared up, but inclined and bowed down, and she who dwelleth in it will, by her life, bring thee to the dead. . . . Death is here twice mentioned to show that it is a double death, a temporal death, and an eternal death, to which she bringeth men.—Jermin.
Verse 19. Who would cast himself into a deep pit in the hopes of coming out alive, when almost all that fell into it were dashed in pieces.—Lawson.
It is as hard to restore a lustful person to chastity as it is to restore a dead person to life.—Chrysostom.
A sin which, I am verily persuaded, if there be another that slays her thousands, may with truth be affirmed to slay itstenthousands.—Wardlaw.
Verse 20. Here follows the whole ground of the exhibition: “That,”for the very purposethat “thoumayest walk in the way of good men.” This is a grand, pregnant doctrine. This bad life was abandoned to its worst partly as a lesson.—Miller.
It is not enough to shun the evil way, unless man walk in the good way.—Muffet.
He that walks in the way of good men shall meet with good men, and that shall keep him from the company of evil men and women. The paths of the righteous are too narrow for such: he shall not be troubled with them.—Jermin.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses21–22.
The Contrast in the End from the Contrast in the Way.
If men walk in two directly opposite directions they cannot possibly arrive at the same goal.I. The historic illustration of this truth.The first inhabitants of Canaan were allowed to dwell in the land until they defiled it to so great an extent by their sins that they were “rooted out,” to be replaced by the Hebrew people. These, in their turn, became “transgressors” of God’s law, and consequently forfeited their inheritance.II. The reasonableness of this dealing.Uprightness leads to industry, and the land which is industriously cultivated fulfils the end for which God gave it to the children of men. Uprightness leads to the rightful dividing of the land or of its produce among all its inhabitants. It is God’s will that none of his creatures should suffer bodily want: if all men were truly upright and godly, the poor and needy, if they did not cease out of the land (Deut. xv. 2) would have a much larger share of its good things than they at present enjoy. The Hebrew civil and social laws show us what God’s intentions are in this matter. Therefore none ought to complain if they are deprived of a gift which they have mis-used.III. The typical suggestion of the subject.Dwelling in the land of Canaan was typical of the eternal dwelling in the heavenly country. Some of the first inhabitants ofthatcountry have been “rooted out” because of sin (2 Pet. ii. 4), others have dwelt safely there for ages, because they are, literally,perfect. This is the destined home of all just men made perfect (Heb. xii. 23; xi. 13–16. Matt. xxii. 32).
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 21. The Israelite was, beyond the power of natural feeling, which makes home dear to every one, more closely bound to his ancestral soil by the whole form of the theocracy: torn from it he was in the inmost roots of his life itself, strained and broken.—Elster.
As surely as a righteous man hath this right unto temporal things which a wicked man hath not, that God doth account him to be worthy of them . . . . Wherefore it is observed, that in Scripture, although the wicked are said to possess the things of the earth, they are never said to inherit them; butthe godly are said to inherit the good things of the earth as receiving them from the love of their heavenly Father.—Jermin.
Verse 22. The very earth casts out the wicked. . . . The whole has a typical meaning. This earth, many conjecture is to be restored as heaven. In that event, the old Canaan types will be very perfect.—Miller.
Must not the righteous leave the earth too? Yes; but the earth is a very different thing to the righteous and to the wicked. To the latter it is all the heaven they will ever have; to the righteous it is a place of preparation for heaven.—Lawson.
The event seemeth to be contrary to the promise here made, for the earth commonly is possessed by those who take evil ways, whilst in the mean season the godly are tossed up and down with many afflictions. But we must consider for our comfort that, the wicked wrongfully and unlawfully as usurpers, possess the earth and the goods of this world; and again, that by many troubles, and by death in the end, they are put out of possession at last. As for the godly, they, by right, inherit the earth, so that, as Abraham was the heir to the land of promise even when he had not a foot of ground therein, in like manner all the godly are heirs of this world, according to the saying of the apostle, that all things are theirs (1 Cor. iii.–22); howsoever often here they possess little or nothing. In right they are heirs, and in part possessors, looking for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein the just shall dwell (2 Pet. iii.–13).—Muffet.
Suddenly, when they have feathered their nests and set up their rest, the wicked may die sinning. The saints shall not die till the best time—not till the time when, if they were rightly informed, they would desire to die.—Trapp.
Critical Notes.—1. Keep.This word, says Miller primarily means to lookhard at, and generally tokeep watch over, as over a vineyard.2. Length of days,properly “extension of days.”4. Good understanding,or “good success,” “good reputation.” Some read “goodintelligence,”i.e., thou shalt be esteemed before God and man as one of good understanding.6. Acknowledge,“take notice of,” “recognise” Him.Direct,“make level” or “smooth.”8. Navel,“body” or “muscles.”Marrow,literally “refreshing,” “moistening,” in contrast to the condition described in Psa. xxxii. 3, 4.11. Despise not,or “loathe not,” “shrink not.” The word, according to Miller, means “to melt.”Chastening,“discipline,” “correction.”12.The latter clause of this verse should be read, “and holds him dear, or does him a favour, as a father does his son.”13. Gets,“draws out.”18. Lay hold,“grasp,” from a Hebrew rootstrong.Retaineth,“holds her fast.”20. Depths,&c., “were the floods divided” into rivers and streams for the blessing of man.Dew,or “gentle rain,” or else the clouds signify the lower regions of the atmosphere where the dew is formed.21. Them,i.e.“sound wisdom and discretion;”Sound wisdom,the same word as in chap ii. 7 (seenotes there). Miller translates here as there, “something stable.”25. Desolation of the wicked.This is interpreted in two ways. 1. The desolation in which the wicked strive to overwhelm the good; or, 2. The destruction which will sweep away the wicked, leaving the godly unharmed. “A positive decision is probably not possible” (Lange’s Commentary). Stuart, and most modern commentators, adopt the latter view.26. Confidence.“Jehovah shall be as loins to thee” (Miller).27. Withhold not, &c.,literally “hold not good back from its master,”i.e., from him to whom it belongs.31. Envy thou not, &c.,or “emulate not” (Vulg.) “Donot anxiously covet” (Stuart).32. Secret.His “secret compact,” “familiar intimacy.”34.“If,” or “Seeing that He scorneth the scorners,” &c.35. The promotion,&c., literally “shame lifts up,”i.e., in order to sweep away and destroy them; so Lange translates. Miller reads, “fools are each piling shame.” Stuart says on this verse, “Glory means here honour or an exalted station. Ziegler and Ewald render the next clause, ‘Shame shall elevate fools,’ spoken sarcastically. I prefer the meaning sanctioned by Ezek. xxi. 23; Is. lvii. 14, viz., to take off, to sweep away, as the dust which is elevated by the wind and is swept off, as may be seen in Isa. xvii. 13. Compare Isa. xxix. 5; Psa. xxxv. 5. At least, the image understood in this way is very vivid. It stands thus: ‘Fools are elevated like the light dust, and then areswept awayin the samemanner.’ ”
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses1–4.
Blessings from the Remembrance of God’s Commandments.
I. The natural desire of a moral instructor.Every teacher desires that his pupil should remember his instructions, and unless that which has been given is remembered it is useless to carry him further on. Memory holds a very important place in the formation of moral character. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you; . . . by which also ye are saved, if yekeep in memorywhat I preached unto you” (1 Cor. xv. 1 and 2). Paul likewise exhorts his son Timothy by means of his memory (2 Tim i. 6). See also Hebrews x. 32; 2 Pet. i. 15, iii. 1, etc. Solomon knew that his son could only profit by his counsel so long as he remembered it.
II. When the memory does not retain moral teaching, it is a moral rather than an intellectual fault.“Let thineheartkeep my commandments.” We find it difficult to forget where we love. If a child loves his father, he is not likely to forget his words. Christ reminded his disciples that they did not “remember” because theirheartswere hardened (Mark viii. 17, 18).
III. When the heart keeps the Divine Word, mercy and truth will not forsake the character.Where God’s precepts find a place of abode, there will likewise be found a merciful disposition towards men, and a truthful and sincere piety before God. If a tree has its roots in the waters, we know that its greenness will not fail: “its leaf shall not wither.” The freshness and beauty of the foliage is the necessary outcome of its roots dwelling in the stream. The mercifulness and the truthfulness of a man’s character will be in proportion to his affection for, and consequent retention of, the words of God.
IV. The blessings which will accompany a remembrance of the Divine teaching.1.Length of days.We may infer from this that, as a rule, long life is to be desired. The longer distance a pure river runs through a country, the greater the amount of blessing which it diffuses on its way to the ocean. The longer a man of “mercy and truth” lives, the more he is enabled to bless his fellow-creatures. A long life gives a man time to attain great knowledge of God, and thus enables him to glorify Him upon the earth. A long life is also to be desired because the peculiar experience of earth belongs to the present life only. When that is ended we have reason to believe that we shall enter upon an entirely new experience; that which belonged to earth will have passed away with our earthly life. It has often been remarked that a godly manner of life is favourable to “length of days.” Sin and anxious care tend to bring men to an early grave, while purity, and trust in a living and loving Father are promoters of bodily health. 2.Divine and human favour.The human ruler is favourable to those who make it their business to obey his commands. A wise and good father makes a difference in his treatment of those children who seek to please him and those who defy his authority. God is the Father, and consequently the rightful Ruler of men, and having made laws for the guidance of His children, it follows of necessity that those who seek to obey those laws must find favour with Him. He is in this sense a respecter of persons. He has respect to those who “have respect unto his commandments” (Psa. cxix. 6). Favour in the sight of man is also promised. The value of a man’s favour depends upon a man’s character. To find favour with some men would be to be known as an enemy of God (James iv. 4). It is written that Jesus increased “in favour with God and man” (Luke ii. 52). But we know that He found little favour with the rulers of the Jews. Therefore, these words must be taken to refer to the favour of those whose favour is worth having. 3.Peace(Verse 2). Where the conscience and passions are at war there can be nothing but unrest, but when the conscience is reinforced by the Divine precepts, she rules, and the soul, as a consequence, enjoys peace. Peace must flow from the possession of Divine favour, and also from the consciousness of the good-will of good men.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 1. Here we advance another step. Not only is it necessary to renounce and shun evil (i. 10) and to listen to the voice of Wisdom and go in quest of her (i. 20; ii. 1–4), but it is also requisite to hold her fast under trial and tribulation (ver. 11), and to practise her rules by love to God and man (verses 9, 27, 30).—Wordsworth.
“My law.” He who made us knows what is good for us. Submission to His will is the best condition for humanity. Our own will leads to sin and misery. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. . . . Silently to forget God’s law is a much more common thing amongst us than blasphemously to reject it.—Arnot.
Where love makes the impression, care locks it up. . . . Philo saith, “Thou forgettest God’s law, because thou forgettest thyself.” For didst thou remember thine own condition, how very nothing thou art, thou couldst not forget His law whose excellency exceedeth all things; and therefore to fasten His law in our hearts, God saith no more than that it ismy law, as if the strength of that reason were sufficient to strike them into us not to be forgotten.—Jermin.
We should be able to say to Wisdom as Cœnis did to her lady Antonia, “You need not, madame, bid me do your business, for I so remember your commands, as I need never be reminded of them.”—Trapp.
The mental faculties have a close relation and a mutual dependence upon each other. There are, without doubt, original diversities in the power of memory. But memory depends greatly onattention, and attention depends not less upon the interest which the mind feels on the subject. He who feels no interest will not attend, and he who does not attend will not remember.—Wardlaw.
Verse 2.Length of daysis the promise to the righteous—whether for earth or for heaven as their Father deems fittest for them. In itself, the promise, as regards this life, has no charm. . . . Butpeace addedforms the sunshine of the toilsome way.—Bridges.
The original is “length of days and years of lives.” They are lives which religion promiseth, one on earth, another in heaven: here such a long life as short days can make up, but there days shall be years: there shall be but one day, lengthened into eternity.—Jermin.
Where is the consistency of promising long life to wisdom? Where is the truth of such an assurance? But certain grammatical endings give us immediate signs of another interpretation. The verb “add” is masculine; the words “law” and “commandments” are feminine. On the contrary, all are masculines among the nouns of the next clause. Unless there should be reason to do violence by an ungrammatical exception, the nouns should be the subjects rather than the objects of the verb. We translate therefore, “For length of days, and years of life, and prosperity, shall make thee greater.”—Miller.
Such declarations are certainly not to be interpreted as a promise of long life in this world in every instance, as the result of obedience to God’s commands. There are promises to Israel of their days being prolonged in the land which are greatly mistaken when interpreted of the life of individuals; and as pledging in every case its prolongation to all the good. Such passages relate to the continued possession of the land of promise by the people, if they, in their successive generations, continued to serve God.—Wardlaw.
Simple duration of life in itself to Jewish mind, a great gift of God. “Years oflife,”i.e., of a life truly such, a life worth living, not the lingering struggle with pain and sickness (compare the use of “life” in Psalm xxx. 5, xliii. 8).—Plumptre.
Verse 3. There was such a similitude of nature between the twins of love that at once they wept, and atonce they smiled; they fell sick together, and they recovered jointly. Such are these twins of grace. In policy, mercy without truth is a sweet shower dropping upon barren sands, quite spilt, and no blessing following it; truth without mercy is extreme right and extreme injury. Consider them toward God and heaven. A faith of mere protestation without good works, such as truth without mercy, and all the integrity of the heathen, all the goodness that Socrates could teach, such is mercy without truth.—Bishop Hacket.
Theneckis, in Solomon’s writings, the organ and symbol ofobedience. To bind God’s law about the neck is not only todoit, but torejoicein doing it; to put it on and exult in it as the fairest ornament.—Wordsworth.
I. The matter to be recorded—mercy and truth. These two, meeting and kissing in the Mediator, constitute the revealed character of God Himself; and He desires to see, as it were, a miniature of His own likeness impressed upon His children.II. The tablet for receiving it—the human heart. The reference is obviously to the tables of stone. The tables were intended to be not a book only, but a type. An impress should be taken on our own hearts, that we may always have the will of God hidden within us.—Arnot.
Let these graces be, as with God, in combination. The want of one buries the commendation of the other. “Such a one is merciful to the poor, but there is no truth in him.” “Such a one is very just in his dealings, but he is as hard as a flint.” Nor must these virtues be in occasional and temporary exercise. “Let them notforsakethee.”—Bridges.
Intimating—I. Their forsaking us is more than our forsaking them. Our forsaking them may come of our weakness, but their forsaking us comes of our wilfulness and hardness of heart in not entertaining them. II. It sets out the easiness of the loss of them through our corruption. III. It sets forth our great need of them. IV. It intimates our great care and pains needful for the retaining of them. They are easily lost, but hardly kept. A hawk must be well tamed before he is let fly, else he will return no more. These graces must be as carefully kept as providently gotten, like riches. And they must both be kept together, else mercy may lie to do good, and truth may reveal without cause what may do hurt. Therefore join both as God does (Ps. lxxxv. 10).—Francis Taylor.
Mercy and truth are dear sisters, blessed companions in God, sweet companions in man. Mercy loveth truth, truth loveth mercy, God loveth both; and if man love himself, he will do so likewise.—Jermin.
These words correspond to the two tables of the law. Benevolence is at the bottom of the command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour,” and what is right is that great glory which we are to love in God.—Miller.
Verse 4. In other words, “Thou shalt be favoured and truly prospered, God and man both bearing witness to thy well-directed efforts.”—Stuart.
He that shows mercy to men shall find mercy with God . . . and men love to be dealt truly and mercifully with themselves, even though they deal not so with others; especially they that get good by our merciful and just dealing will favour us.—Francis Taylor.
This favour of God and man,i.e., not of all indiscriminately, but first and pre-eminently of the wise and devout, such as agree with God’s judgment, is evidently in the view of the poet the highest and most precious of the multiform blessings of wisdom which he enumerates. What, however, is this favour of God and man but the being a true child of God, the belonging to the fellowship of God and His people, the co-citizenship in the kingdom of truth and blessedness? We stand here manifestly at the point at which the Old Testament doctrine of retributions predominantly earthly begin to be transformed into the supersensual or spiritual realistic doctrineof the New Testament (Matt. v. 10–12; xix. 28–30).—Lange’s Commentary.
The promise is all one with that of the Apostle Paul, when, speaking of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, he saith, “that he which in these things serveth Christ, pleaseth God and is acceptable to men” (Rom. xiv. 18).
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses5and6.
Exhortation to Confidence in God.
Man is so constituted that, in some respects, he must have objects outside of himself to lean upon. As a child, he leans upon a wisdom and strength which is superior to his own, and few men are so self-sufficient as entirely to lay aside this habit in after life. In many things we must, whether we will or not, depend upon the guidance and help of others. Every man, in common with the lower creatures, must of necessity lean upon a power greater than his own. “The eyes of all wait upon Thee” (Psa. cxlv. 15). But this is a leaning which needs no exhortation: it springs from necessity. The exhortation of the text implies that in some things men have to choose whether they will lean upon God or not.
I. What is necessary in order to comply with the exhortation.1.A knowledge of God.We cannot place entire trust in any person of whose character we have no knowledge; or, if we do so, we show our want of discretion. If a traveller across Central Africa were to give himself up to the guidance of the first native whom he met, he would probably find that his confidence had been misplaced. The youth who trusts in the first companion who offers his friendship is like a blind man placing his hand in that of any stranger who may offer him guidance. All lasting trust is based upon knowledge. “They thatknowThy name will put their trust in Thee” (Psa. ix. 10). The confidence of a wise man is born of knowledge of character. God can be known. His only-begotten Son hath declared Him (Luke x. 22; John i. 18, xvii. 3). 2.Love to God.The character must be known, and, being known, must be loved, if there is to be a lasting confidence. We shall not lean with much weight where we do not love. The trust of a Christian will be in proportion to his love to his Lord. The more intimate the knowledge, the deeper will be the love; the deeper the love, the more entire the trust. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew His Father (John xvii. 25) as no creature could know Him, and His love being based upon this profound knowledge, His trust was entire and His obedience perfect, even in His darkest hours. “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.” “Arise let us go hence” (John xiv. 31). We cannot do better than write after this copy.
II. The necessary effect of such a confidence.We shall acknowledge God in all our ways. This must mean—1.A practical recognition of His presence.We may be in the presence of a superior, and know that we are in his presence, without acknowledging it by showing him the respect that is due to him. If this is the case, we virtually ignore his existence. A child whose behaviour is not deferential to his parent practically ignores him. Acknowledging God in all our ways implies a reverent attitude of soul towards Him. 2.A belief in God’s care for the individual life.God makes himself known as the God of the individual man. The care of the individual is his self-imposed task. “I am the Lord God ofAbraham, thy father, and the God ofIsaac, . . . and behold I am withthee, and will keeptheein all places whither thou goest” (Gen. xxviii. 13, 15). 3.The reference of all our affairs to His guidance, and a submission of our will to His.This will be easy and natural in proportion to our knowledge, and love, and conviction that God will not think any of our concerns beneath His notice. Our submission will be in the ratio of our confidence—our confidence in the ratio of our knowledge.
III. The promise of direction guaranteed to compliance with the exhortation.1.Men have many ways in life.Man’s many ways spring from his many needs. He has a living to earn in the world. His hunger must be satisfied—his body must be clothed and fed. His social wants must be met—he must have companions, form relationships. His mind must have food as well as his body. The aspirations of his spirit form another way, and demand direction and enlightenment. But one way—the way of acknowledging God—is needful to make any and all the other ways profitable and pleasant. 2.The certainty of right guidance from the foreknowledge and power of the guide.An Alpine guide, who has traversed a road many times, knows from memory what is at the end of the journey. He sees the end while he is on the way. God’s foreknowledge answers to our memory. He sees the end to which He is bringing us while we are on the way. And His power makes the accomplishment of His plans certain. He can speak of them as finished before the means are set in motion to bring them to pass. He said to Joshua: “Behold, I have given into thine hand Jericho” (Josh. vi. 2), before any steps had been taken to overthrow it. His guidance makes it certain that His designs will be accomplished, whatever becomes of our plans.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verses 5 and 6. The heart, the seat of the affections, and also, in Hebrew psychology, the conscience, which is not a sure guide unless it is regulated by the Lord’s will and Word.—Wordsworth.
Once, indeed, man’s understanding gave clear, unclouded light, as man’s high prerogative—created in the image of God. But now—degraded by the fall, and darkened by the corruption of the heart—it must prove a false guide. Even in a renewed man—a prophet of God—it proved a mistaken counsellor (2 Sam. vii. 2, 5). Yet throw it not away; cultivate it; use it actively; butleannot to it.—Bridges.
“He shall Himself,”i.e., by His own Spirit. There is an emphatic pronoun. When we walk, it is not we that walk, but God.—Miller.
“Leaning to our own understanding” is, as far as it prevails, a kind of practical atheism. To form and prosecute our plans in this spirit of self-confidence, is to act as if there werenoGod—as if the fool’sthought, or the fool’swish, were true.—Wardlaw.
I. The duty enjoined.1.Entire.2.Exclusive.3.Uniform.II. The blessing promised—Direction.Necessaryon account of—1. Our fallibility. 2. The hazards of the way. 3. False guides.Promised.1. By the pointings of Providence. 2. By the lessons of the Bible. 3. By the influences of the Holy Spirit.—Outlines by Rev. G. Brooks.
The fundamental principle of all religion, consisting in an entire self-commitment to the grace and truth of God, with the abandonment of every attempt to attain blessedness by one’s own strength or wisdom.—Lange’s Commentary.
The distant and unconfiding will come on occasion of State formalities to the sovereign; but the dear child will leap forward with everything. The Queen of England is the mother of a family. At one time her ministers of State came gravely into her presence to converse on the policy of nations; at another, her infant runs to her arms for protection, frightened at the buzzing of a fly. Will she love this last appeal because it is a little thing? We have had fathers of our flesh who delighted when we came to them with our minutest ailments. How much more should we bring all our ways to the Father of our spirits, and live by simple faith on Him.—Arnot.
We may be led for the exercise of our faith into a way of disappointment, or even ofmistake. But no step well prayed over will ever bring ultimate regret.—Bridges.
Every enlightened believer trusts in a Divine power enlightening the understanding; he therefore follows the dictates of the understanding more religiously than any other man.—M. Cheyne.
The moralist, in preaching this trust in God, anticipates the teaching that man is justified by faith.—Plumptre.
See your confidence be not divided, part on God and part on man. Such a confidence may keep you from the lions (2 Kings xvii. 25) but it cannot keep you out of hell. A house built partly on firm ground, partly on sand, will fall. To trust in God is so to lean upon Him that if He fail thee thou sinkest.—Francis Taylor.
He shall direct, as He carefully chose out the Israelites’ way in the wilderness; not the shortest, but the safest way.—Trapp.
1. That our reliance may be rational we should know what it is that God has promised, and what we may expect from Him; else we may be disappointed in all our hopes. 2. Reliance must be accompanied with obedience, with a purpose, and endeavour to do the things that are pleasing to God. 3. Reliance must also be connected with particular supplications to Him to bless us. 4. It must be accompanied with diligence and prudence in our worldly affairs. 5. It excludes immoderate cares, vain desires, fretful discontent. 6. Although reliance be so advantageous to us, even for the present, that it ought to be considered rather as a privilege than a duty, yet it is a noble virtue and a disposition of mind most agreeable to God. It is the greatest honour we can pay to Him. By it we show our belief in His wisdom, power, equity, and goodness.—Jortin.
main homiletics of the paragraph.—Verses7–12.
The Way (1) to Health, (2) to Wealth, (3) to Endurance.
Three exhortations are here given, to each of which is attached a promise on reason to induce the young man to obey.I. An exhortation to humility.(Verses 7 and 8.) Its peculiar appropriateness and importance will be seen if we consider—1.The person to whom the exhortation is addressed.“My son” (ver. 1). Lack of experience has a great tendency to breed self-conceit. As a rule, those who have lived the longest and have most acquaintance with men and things are the least disposed to be “wise in their own eyes.” Ignorance is the mother of self-conceit. These words are addressed to a young man, because his youth would render him very liable to this fault. 2.That self-conceit does not end with oneself but is dangerous to others.The man who insists upon the correctness of his knowledge of a dangerous way, and will not listen to the experience of those who are better acquainted with it, is sure to find some who believe in him and follow his guidance. Thus he may not only lose his own life, but be the murderer of others. 3.It shuts a man up to his ignorance.The only way to become wise is to feel we are ignorant. As a lunatic must be shut up with others in a like condition while his madness is upon him, so a self-conceited man must be imprisoned with the fools of the universe while he remains in that condition. 4.The Divine woes which are levelled against such an one.All the woes pronounced by our Lord against the Scribes and Pharisees were against sins born of this sin. The charge against them was that they were wise in their own eyes. “For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him said, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say,We see;therefore your sin remaineth” (John ix. 39–41). “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight” (Isa. v. 21).II. The remedy against self-conceit.“Fearthe Lord,” etc. When those who arewise in their own eyes begin to reverence those who are much wiser than they are, they will begin to depart from this evil which is the root of many evils. Esteem for those who deserve esteem will lessen their esteem for themselves. A knowledge of the character and wisdom of God will produce reverence. When a man renders to God the reverence which is due unto Him, and which is born of a right appreciation of what God is, the scales of self-conceit will fall from his own eyes. As the sun melts the hoar-frost from the windows and leaves a clear medium for the rays of the sun to enter the chamber, so the contact of God with the human soul will melt away the self-esteem which shut Him out. How entrenched was Saul of Tarsus in his own opinions before he met the Lord on the road to Damascus. How high an estimate he had of himself, but how great was the change which acquaintance with Christ wrought. When Job got an insight into God’s greatness, he said, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job xlii. 6). Self-conceit cannot live where there are right views of God.III. The promise here given to those who walk reverently before God.Certain it is that such a mode of life leads to bodily health. Those who walk in the fear of the Lord live lives of purity, of temperance, of freedom from the consuming passions and corroding cares of the ungodly. Other things being equal, or anything like equal, godliness has the promise of the life that now is in this respect as in others. But if we understand the words in this narrow sense only, they seem to express only a small part, and the inferior part, of the blessing that comes to a man from the “fear of the Lord.” The bones here, as in Psalm xxxii. 3, xxxv. 10, are put for the whole man. And as the Psalmist, in the first-mentioned psalm, expresses his sad condition of soul as well as body when he says, “My moisture is turned to the drought of summer,” so the “marrow,” or “moisture,” of the bones here expresses a vigour of the entire man. Sin breaks the bones of a man’s spirit; the consciousness of the Divine favour which will flow from a reverential walk with God makes them “to rejoice” (Ps. li. 8).
Verses 9 and 10 contain—I. An exhortation to a right use of temporal riches.1.Those who honour God with their gifts honour Him who has first honoured them with their stewardship.The man who is entrusted with the property of others, has an honour put upon him by the trust. Potiphar put a great honour upon Joseph when he committed all that he had into his hand, and Joseph felt that it was so. This of itself should be a motive to a strict integrity and to devotion to the interests of One who has thus honoured us with confidence. All temporal, material blessings are given to men as stewards of God’s property (Luke xvi. 1–12), and in this light they ought to regard themselves. 2.If men honour God with their substance, they turn what would otherwise be a snare into a blessing.The tendency of wealth is doubtless to make men god-forgetting, self-confident, selfish (Mark x. 23; Luke xii. 16; Jas. v. 1). But those who use it for the advancement of God’s kingdom—for the alleviation of human suffering—make afriendof this “mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke xvi. 9). 3.God cannot be honoured with our substance unless we first give ourselves to Him.The great desire of a true father in relation to his children is to secure their love. Having that, everything else that is theirs will be his. Without that, no offering, no service, can be acceptable. God must have the man before He will accept his wealth.
II. The promise annexed to this exhortation.This cannot be themotive, but it is theconsequence. Any man who gave his wealth because he believed it was a good investment in this sense, would not be honouring God with it. We mustgive, as we are commanded tolend, hoping for nothing again (Luke vi. 35). And, although the material rewards which are appended to a certain line of conduct under the old dispensation do not invariably follow it in the new and more spiritual one, there is probably no Old Testament promise of earthly reward which is, and ever has been, fulfilled with so few exceptions.
Verses 11 and 12.I. An exhortation to patient endurance of affliction.1.From the constitution of our nature we can but dislike or loathe(despise, see“Critical Notes”)affliction itself.There has never been one of the human kind who has welcomed affliction for its own sake; nay, more, there has never been one who has not shrunk from it, considered by itself. No man can do other than grieve for the death of his friend when he considers his own loss merely. No child of God can love pain or loss. The man who is under the knife of the surgeon must groan in the unnatural condition in which he is placed. Even Christ Himself, though He delighted to do the will of His Father (Psa. xl. 8), shrank from the bitter cup of suffering. If, then, pain—probably mental pain—was felt to be bitter by the Sinless Man, how much more will a sinful man find it hard to bear. 2.The pain itself is that which renders us unable to see the connection between it and the benefit it is to work out.While a man is suffering pain of body or mind, his feelings, more or less, overpower his reason. Although we know that it is to work good in the future, we fail often to realise the fact—feeling holds us down to the present.
II. Four considerations to help us in times of affliction.1.Its individuality.“Myson, despise notthou,” which implies that God chastises men as individuals—that he distinguishes between them. There may be many sons and daughters in a human home; no two are exactly alike, therefore a wise discrimination must be exercised with regard to the chastisement or the discipline administered. So God discerns the needs of His children. No son or daughter need think that another cross would suit them better; they may be assured that the one they bear is the one that has been especially prepared for them and is therefore peculiarly adapted for them. 2.Its end.It is educational. It is correction, not destruction. Even if it is rebuke, or punishment for a particular sin, it is designed to eradicate that sin, and thus add to the character; and we are assured, on the highest authority, that tribulation worketh patience, experience, and hope—all of which graces go to form a higher type of man (Rom. v. 2, 3). 3.Its signification.It means son-ship, adoption. It means that God has taken us in hand; that He is Himself presiding over our education; that He loves us and desires our spiritual growth. 4.Its Author.“The Lord.” We accept that from one who we know, which we would not from a stranger. If we can be sure that a man’s motives are pure, we judge of his conduct accordingly. The consideration that affliction comes from the “righteous Father,” the King who cannot wrong any of His subjects, ought to help us to take the rebuke with meekness,—to bear the pain, although we cannot now see the profit.
outlines and suggestive comments.
Verse 7. This warning against self-confidence is closely connected with the preceding verse.The wise in his own eyesis he thatleans to his own understanding. How striking is this connection between the fear of the Lord and the fear of sin (ch. xiv. 27; xvi. 6. Gen. xxxix. 9–10; Neh. v. 15).—Bridges.
Get all the wisdom thou canst. That is the very burden of these Proverbs. But as thou gettest it if thou seemest wise, be sure that thou art weighed down with folly. Gabriel, who has never sinned, is foolish because he knows not the end from the beginning, and we are foolish from a further cause, that our wisdom has remains with it that are corrupt.—Miller.