At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold”

Proverbs 22:1

The style of reasoning displayed in this proverb is common throughout the book of Proverbs, and we should not be surprised at its presence here.

The structure is this. It is better to have X and not have Y than to have Y and not have X. It is sometimes assumed that this gives us a binary choices between X and Y, but the reasoning is more subtle than that. What we actually have are four options.

1. We could have X and not Y.
2. We could have Y and not X.
3. We could not have X or Y.
4. We could have both X and Y. 

The following statement is copying the structure of our proverb. It is better to be good at golf than to a grand master champion at chess, and praise in the clubhouse is better than awards from all the chess geeks. 

So someone could be good at golf and bad at chess. Or they could be good at chess and bad at golf. And in the world most of us live in, we could be bad at both. And last, there is the rare fellow who is good at both golf and chess. Obviously, if given a choice, we would all go for #4.

With our proverb, that would mean having a good name and great riches. It would mean having and loving favor more than you value silver and gold. So great. If you get the option of both, go with both. 

But the writer of Proverbs knows that we often have to choose, and because we often have to choose, we should have our metric ready beforehand. To the extent that it depends on me, what do I pursue? A good name or great wealth? The biblical answer is that you must pursue the one most favored by the Word, and that would be a good name.  

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: How much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?”

Proverbs 21:27

One of the essential characteristics of the unbelieving mind is the conviction that the gods can be placated with externals. There is also a corresponding sense that the gods always need to be placated, but we flatter ourselves into thinking that they will be satisfied if we just show up and tick the box. 

This is even the case with highly developed forms of paganism. The gods must have their due, and so if you show up and give them their due, you may call it good and go off to do what you want. Just don’t make them angry over something.

But the God of the Bible is, if we may speak this way, an “in-your-face God.” He is omnipresent (Ps. 139:8) and omniscient (Ps. 147:5). He is the one in whom we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). And He is not just present with us everywhere we go, including the worship of the church, He knows all about everything that is going on inside us while we worship (1 Kings 8:39).

This is why Scripture teaches us that mere formality in worship is a great wickedness. As our proverb here puts it, it is an abomination. God desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hos. 6:6). To obey is better than sacrifice (1 Sam. 15:22). Sacrifices and burnt offerings God did not require, but rather a humble and contrite heart (Ps. 40:6). This is a regular theme throughout Scripture. “When ye come to appear before me, Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?” (Isaiah 1:12).

This kind of hypocrisy is called an abomination. But believe it or not, our proverb says that there is a way to make everything worse. If a man is living like a libertine, but then carves out time to go to worship, that is bad enough. But it is much, much worse when the wickedness is paraded into the worship service itself, and incorporated into it. It was bad enough in old Israel for an adulterer to come to worship unrepentant, in order to offer up a lamb. But how much worse if he and his consort come together to consecrate their adultery, and they seal it with the sacrifice of a hyena?

The modern version of this would be all those mainstream desolations—those haunts of owls and jackals—the ones with pride flags flying, and who have lesbian priestesses officiating, rainbow stoles around their chubby necks.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue keepeth his soul from troubles”

Proverbs 21:23

Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles

Proverbs 21:23, NKJV

The fact that Scripture teaches us to guard the tongue is widely known, but Christians generally locate the requirement in the famous passage in the book of James. The tongue is a fire, set ablaze by the fire of hell, and it is capable of burning the whole course of nature down (Jas. 3:6). This is true enough, of course, but it needs to be more widely recognized that this emphasis is something we find throughout all of Scripture.

Solomon gives us really good counsel here. An excellent way of staying free from troubles is to make a point of not getting into that trouble in the first place. The best way to get out is not to get in. And the very best way to avoid getting into to trouble is to set a guard on your mouth and tongue. 

This protects you from the consequences of what you said, but more than this, it protects you from the consequences of what people thought you might have said. When there are a lot of words, sin is not very far away (Prov. 10:19). Sin just waits at the door, listening for the opportunity that promises to come along shortly. 

If Solomon were alive today, he would quite possibly add our thumbs to his list. Guard your mouth, and tongue, and thumbs. The advent of the smart phone has given many Christians the opportunity to multiply words—and sin is not far away—and in a new area of human communication where we do not yet have cultural guardrails firmly established. 

Many Christians—via Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, or Facebook—type things with their thumbs that they wouldn’t dream of saying to anyone’s face. And because mass communication is new to them also, they don’t know how to read the feedback signals. In many cases, there are no feedback signals. But the fact that they can’t recognize the ways they are wrecking havoc does not mean that they are not wrecking havoc. I know of Christians who in person are very concerned about demeanor and tone, but who, once online, turn into obnoxicons.

There is a better way. Guard your thumbs.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“Say not thou, I will recompense evil; But wait on the Lord, and he shall save thee”

Proverbs 20:22

The Scriptures do not teach us that vengeance is sinful and wrong, but they do teach that vengeance belongs to the Lord . . . and to those the Lord has plainly deputized as His agents of vengeance.

When someone does the believer an evil turn, the carnal impulse is to strike back, to get even, or—as these things usually go—to get ahead. This proverb is very clear that this impulse must be mortified, put to death. Do not say that you will make things level. Rather, step aside. Wait on the Lord, and He will undertake for you. 

This is precisely the pattern that Paul follows in Romans 12 and 13. He quotes Deuteronomy 32:41—“vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.” But he does this right after he has told the Roman Christians not to take vengeance into their own hands. This is precisely the pattern urged by our proverb. Don’t take it up yourself, but step aside and let God do it. 

But the apostle adds one more layer to this. His exhortation to the Romans is that they “give place unto wrath,” but then, just a few verses down, in Romans 13, he teaches us that the civil magistrate is God’s appointed deputy. He is a deacon of wrath, a deacon of God, assigned to execute vengeance on the one who does evil.

And so this is what we are to do when we are declining to settle things ourselves. We do not go home to get our gun into order to go make things even. Rather, we step aside, and let God do it. But this is not inconsistent with calling the cops. In fact, it is exactly what we are instructed to do.

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At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“Every purpose is established by counsel: And with good advice make war”

Proverbs 20:18

There is a common assumption about that spontaneity represents that which is genuine and sincere, while planning something out beforehand is somehow artificial and contrived. This comes out frequently in discussions about devotion or worship, where a planned liturgy is assumed to be something that will quench the Spirit. 

In contrast to this, our proverb says that good counsel is the foundation upon which every purpose is to be established. And the proverb goes on to emphasize the same thing again if the enterprise is one of great important . . . like a war. You should not find yourself in a war because one of your high-ranking officials lost his temper. Neither should you find yourself in a war ill-prepared because of some impetuous action by the enemy. Planning, foresight, preparation, and thoughtfulness are all to be commended.

A 19th century Prussian general once observed that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. From this, some might conclude that plans are worthless. Why plan and prepare if all of that goes up the chute as soon as you begin to execute it?

The paradox was highlighted by Dwight Eisenhower, who once said that “plans were useless, but planning is indispensable.” The person who plans, provided he does so in wisdom, is more likely to be adaptable than the person who didn’t think about anything beforehand and was caught flatfooted. This means when that first contact with the enemy occurs, one of the features of the wise planning would include the necessity of adapting to the new circumstances. 

If a man is wise and has a sincere heart, there is no downside if he thinks through what he is going to do beforehand. While it remains true that man proposes and God disposes, the man who proposes wisely is aware of this. His plans have budgeted for that possibility. He does not say that he is going to go this town or that one and make a pile of money. He rather says. “If the Lord wills . . .” (Jas. 4:15). 

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