Grace & Peace

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

“The fear of the Lord prolongeth days: But the years of the wicked shall be shortened” (Prov. 10:27).

This proverb is a good example of the truth value of generalizations. And one of the things that good proverbs excel in would be generalizations.

“Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise” is true. “Two parallel lines will never cross each other” is also true, but it is true in a different sort of way. The second statement is an each-and-every-time truth. There will never be a time when parallel lines cross. There have been when early risers and so on . . . have gotten sick.

This proverb says that righteous living in the fear of the Lord extends your life span, and states the opposite with regard to the wicked. This is not true in every instance, but it is nevertheless generally true. Clean living is good for you, and cocaine-fueled motorcycle crashes are not.

This is not the only place where the Lord promises this as a reward. Honor your father and mother, Paul says, and this is the first commandment with a promise. That promise is that those who obeyed the command would “live long” on the earth.

Contextually, the original command in Ex. 20 and Dt. 5 were referring to long life in the land—the land of Canaan that they were going in to possess. But Paul applied this command, originally given to Israelites, to Gentile children well outside the borders of the “land.” The command now goes everywhere, along with the promise. That your life may be long in the earth.

But in both instances, long life is promised, just as it is in this proverb. The righteous walk a steady path, while the wicked like bungee jumping with frayed cords. We are allowed to make note of what usually happens.

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

“He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: But he that refuseth reproof erreth” (Prov. 10:17).

A teachable man is walking in the path of life. He keeps instruction. He pays attention. He draws on the wisdom of others. He sorts through counsel. He weighs what he hears from various sources.

He obviously doesn’t do what absolutely everybody else says because there are disagreements between “everybody else.” The Bereans were good examples of this mentality. They received the Word with great eagerness, and searched the Scriptures to see if these things were so (Acts 17:11). They were eager for the good news to be true, but they didn’t just accept it blind. They cross-checked it against the Word. Because the message lined up with Scripture, it was sound, and so they “kept instruction.”

Another kind of person is set up by way of contrast. He is the person who refuses to accept correction from outside himself. He knows what he wants, and he is going to have what he wants. Well, he is going to have what he wants in the abstract. He insists upon having what he wants, which is why he is not going to get what he wants.

The proverb here says that such a foolish person “errs.” Because he insists upon winging it, he meets with disaster.

The other contrast that is implied is the difference between life and death. The prudent man, the one who receives instruction, is one who walks the way of life. The implication is that the fool who follows his own way is walking in the ways of death. This is the way in which he “errs.” This is the foundational error.

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

“He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool” (Prov. 10:18).

As we study the Scriptures, we are made well aware of the sinfulness of sin. Sin is bad, we know that. We shouldn’t do bad things because they are, well, bad. We learned that in Sunday School also.

But the Bible also teaches us, in multiple places but especially in Proverbs, that sin is stupid as well as being bad. Sin would be bad even if it were profitable, and it sometimes is profitable in the short term. But the Scriptures repeatedly teach us that sin is actually unprofitable. It does not achieve its desired or intended end.

In this proverb, the sin in question is hatred of the heart, hidden by means of lying lips. And the companion to this is slander of others. Piecing these two together, we see that when the person who is guilty of this is together with the person he hates, he keeps that hatred hidden by means of lies. They might be flattering lies, or nondescript lies, but they are lies that cover up the hatred, keeping it out of sight. And then when the victim of the hatred is out of sight, the hater vents, and it comes out in slander.

The bottom line of this proverb is that the person doing this—bottling up hatred, and then pouring it out in slander—is a fool. He thinks he is striking his enemy, but he is simply fouling his own nest.

As someone who has been slandered in many ways over many years, it is worth saying that it is not necessary to answer all your critics. And that is because you can see the fulfillment of this proverb in many of the cases if you simply say nothing and sit tight. I am not saying that it is always a mistake to answer a slander—the apostle Paul answers them. But I am saying that God governs the world in such a way that slanderers frequently fall into the pit they they dug for you.

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

“The rod and reproof give wisdom: But a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame” (Prov. 29:15).

This is not the only place in Proverbs that praises the rod of correction in the practice of child rearing. Here the word child means “lad,” or young man. This verse, and others like it, give the lie to those advocates of “gentle parenting,” who want children to grow up into the paths of righteousness—with parents only supplying a gentle nudge from time to time.

But much more is required than that. Our proverb says that a rod and reproof deliver wisdom. Wisdom, in other words, comes from the flat of the rod. But it is only going to be the case if the rod has wisdom on the other end of it also. The one wielding the rod must be wise if the one receiving the strokes is to grow in wisdom at all. Inconsistent discipline, or erratic discipline, or petulant discipline, is not going to impart wisdom. This is because wisdom is not going from the wood to the boy, but rather from the man to the boy.

Two other things must be mentioned. The first is that children are not to be thought of as naturally good. What happens when a child is left to his own devices? Where will a child wind up if he is left to himself? The answer here is plain—it will be something that humiliates his mother.

We can see that wisdom can be imparted, or not, by the behavior of the parents. We know this for two reasons. The first is that the verse commands parents to impart wisdom by this means. If God tells us to do something like this, it must be possible to do. That’s the first thing. The second is the mother’s humiliation. Parents are shamed by the bad behavior of their children because their behavior had something to do with it.

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

“When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increaseth: But the righteous shall see their fall” (Prov. 29:16).

When people give up on righteousness, it is because righteousness (in this fallen world) is hard. But when people give up on wickedness, it is because everything has collapsed. Righteousness is like climbing a steep hill, while wickedness is like falling off a steep cliff.

When you go off a cliff, particularly if you do so in the grip of a delusion, the entire first part is easy. It can feel like you are flying. No exertion whatever is required. We sin, as we sin, by the pull of gravity. The difficulties come when we reach the rocks at the bottom. The righteous watch all this from the top of the cliff, and then they resume their difficult and arduous climb.

This proverb teaches us that wickedness can flourish for a time—for a very short time. The wicked multiply, and the transgressions they bring with them are greatly increased. But if we might borrow some terminology from the environmentalists, this strategy is not at all sustainable. In the long run, taking the long view, stupidity never works. This would include every form of moral stupidity.

As the righteous watch the wicked in their multiplying stage, they do not panic. They have seen this before. Short cuts, including ethical short cuts, rarely fulfill their promises. They are liars, and so why should they fulfill anything? And so the old saying comes to fulfillment . . . if you don’t have time to do it right, where will you find time to do it over?

This proverb encourages the righteous to cultivate the virtues of faith and patience. We have the Word of God, and so we that the grasping approach that promises results quickly is a snare and a delusion. One of the things that the righteous must learn how to do is wait. Wait and watch.

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