Recap

So far in Proverbs, we’ve read through the introductory speeches from a father to his son and started the wisdom one liners. We learnt that wisdom is to be practised and that these aren't promises or laws. They are principles for living out righteousness and justice. The father started out by warning his son to avoid following those who are wicked. Instead, he should chase after Lady Wisdom, the embodiment of wisdom. Lady Wisdom calls out to all to listen to her, but the foolish ignore.

The father explained the value of wisdom and how it only comes from God. It comes when we put our trust in God and not ourselves. And it also comes as part of righteousness. They’re a package deal. If you’re not living righteously, you’re not listening to wisdom. Wisdom should be a lifelong journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.

The father then brought a second character, the adulteress. While pursuing Lady Wisdom leads to righteousness and life, pursuing the adulteress will destroy your life. This wasn’t meant to serve on a commentary on women. It’s a father using the idea of a good woman and a bad woman to teach his son wise principles. The ways of the adulteress seem attractive to begin with, but they soon lead to destruction. Instead, the son should hold to integrity and right living. The father also offered some practical advice. From handling debt, to working hard, to keeping your talk honest.

Again the father warned about the temptings of the adulteress, the life that looks good but quickly destroys. He explained that she uses all sorts of tricks to distract you from thinking so she can lure you in. In order to protect yourself from this, you need to guard your thoughts from being clouded, not stray too close to temptation, and look beyond the immediate promises of pleasure to the consequences of these actions. In contrast, Lady Wisdom is an open feast where all are invited and should be encouraged to join. As long as you fear God and put your trust in him and his wisdom, then you will be blessed. All of this then becomes the lens through which the wisdom sayings are looking through.

Proverbs 16-18

As we’ve mentioned so far, because the proverbs aren’t passages you study, but passages you soak yourselves in, I’m not unpacking what they mean. Instead, I’m modelling what applying the proverbs to your life could look like. Try to find a handful of proverbs that jump out to you in today’s reading. Here are some that jump out to me.

"When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Proverbs 16:7). If we are living the way God calls us to, then we should be peacemakers, spreading peace even to our worst enemies. As we've mentioned, these proverbs are principles, not promises. For some of us, there may be people that will always hate us. But our goal should always be to bring peace and reconciliation. We may need to humble ourselves to do it. We may need to lay down our need to be right. But peace pleases the Lord, and it is our responsibility to help spread it.

"Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord." (Proverbs 16:20). As someone who has been to Bible College, I'm potentially biased here, but I fully believe that God's word is an essential part of the Christian life. I see too many well-meaning Christians read the Bible to get a little inspiration for the day and think that's enough. The Bible is a deep book. We need to read broadly; read the whole thing. Many of the passages we'll get to in the New Testament won't make sense without all these passages we've been reading in the Old Testament.

We also need to read deeply; taking our time digging deep into shorter passages. The Bible wants to be understood, but it also wants to be bathed in. This is how we allow our minds to be shaped by the Bible. To allow biblical thoughts to be our thoughts. If you feel you're missing out on some good in your life, commit yourself to daily allowing your brain to soak in the Bible a little. "Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good".

"Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends." (Proverbs 17:9). Many of us find it too easy to hold grudges. Someone offends us and we store it up and save it for later, maybe bringing it up multiple times. This isn't the loving thing to do, however. The loving thing to do is to deal with it at the time, or as close to the time as possible, to process it and reach a point of forgiveness, maybe set boundaries where appropriate, and then drop it.

This is a difficult process, but love is difficult. It's something we have to work at continually. The alternative is that we don't do these things; we allow it to fester, and then bring it up multiple times whenever we're hurt. As this proverb says, "he who repeats a matter separates close friends." Let's choose the difficult path of love, rather than the default path that leads to division.

"A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion." (Proverbs 18:2). We see this everywhere; in our personal relationships, on social media, even in our politics. What we want to do is express our opinion and prove our point. Someone believes differently to me? I need to prove them wrong. At no point do we allow for the possibility that maybe the person we're talking to has a reason for saying what they're saying, or thinking what they're thinking, or feeling what they're feeling.

Because we never allow for that possibility in our minds, we never slow down enough to listen and try to understand why they're taking the stance they are. We'd much rather jump in and tell them why they're wrong. Let's slow down. Let's take the time to listen and understand. We might find that 1) we're not actually disagreeing, we're just using different language to express it, or 2) they actually have a point. Either way, your life is enriched from learning from someone else and your relationships will be stronger for it.

Psalm 1

While Psalm 1 has no author attributed to it, it falls into the category of wisdom psalm. These psalms focus primarily on sharing wisdom with the reader and often reference the Torah or God’s law (the scriptures). The structure of this psalm is interesting and is known as a chiasm. This is where a passage mirrors itself. This psalm then ends with a comparison between the righteous and the wicked. 

(a) Psalm 1:1-2 - A blessed man should not stand in these contexts

(b) Psalm 1:3 - A blessed man is like a well-watered tree

(b) Psalm 1:4 - A wicked man is like chaff

(a) Psalm 1:5 - A wicked man can not stand in these contexts

(c) Psalm 1:6 - The comparison between the righteous and the wicked

 The focus of the psalm is to layout the key difference between those who are blessed or happy, and those who are wicked. Those who are blessed avoid anything wicked and take delight in God’s law. They meditate on it. The wicked do not.

As a result, the blessed will be sustained by God’s law and prosper, while the wicked will dry out and perish. Here, right at the start of the book of Psalms, the psalmist is laying two paths before you. Are you going to join with many before you as they have meditated on God’s law to write these psalms, or are you going to ignore or reject them? One leads to life and prospering with God. The other to death.