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

“It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: For the throne is established by righteousness.”

Proverbs 16:12

We already know—or should know, at any rate—that sin is bad. We already know that wickedness is evil, and that evil is abominable. But this proverb provides us with a little bit more insight. Evil is not just wrong, it is also stupid.

Sin is counterproductive. Notice how this proverb runs. It is an abomination for kings to do wicked things. And why is that? Because a throne is established (made secure, firmed up) by righteousness. One of the things that we can safely say about thrones is that kings like to sit on them. Kings like it when thrones stay put so that they can sit on them.

Solomon here says that a throne is established by righteousness.

But this is not pragmatism, that view that substitutes carnal “wisdom” for the law of God. Pragmatism evaluates everything on the basis of what works or not, and so this is a good reason for rejecting pragmatism. Pragmatism is hoist on its own petard; pragmatism doesn’t work. If a king turns from his own pragmatic wisdom, and turns instead to the law of God, his throne will be established.

Impudent rebellion on the part of a ruler does nothing but destabilize his own rule, really. We have seen a great deal of this on the part of our own rulers these last several years. They are doing what seems right in their own eyes, and everything seems calculated to aggrandize their own power, and yet everything they have been doing is causing their moral authority to evaporate like dew on a hot summer morning.

Pragmatism is a sin. Power tripping is a sin. Grabbing at authority is sin. Tyranny is a sin. And so when rulers try to grasp more authority by such means, the effects are the opposite of what they wanted. God gives authority to those who don’t want authority in the wrong way.

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

“A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”

Proverbs 15:13

We can easily imagine situations where someone is keeping an upbeat attitude because he simply doesn’t understand how dire his problems are. There is such a thing as whistling in the dark, where the whistling doesn’t accomplish anything objective.

But there are also situations, like the one described in this proverb, where a merry heard equips, and a sorrowful hearts cripples or hobbles a man. A man whose spirit is “broken” is going to have trouble going on, even when his duty demands it. A man whose merry heart informs his countenance, and he goes into times of difficulty cheerfully, is a man who is better equipped to handle what he finds there.

John Wayne famously said that life is hard, and it is harder if you are stupid. We can modify this somewhat, and say that life is hard, life is already hard. It is harder if you are discouraged. It may not seem very pastoral, but I have often told people that there is no situation so bad but that you by your responses to it can’t make it worse. Things can always get worse, and giving up in despondency is one of the ways we make it worse.

When your legs are whole, you can walk on them. When your legs are broken, you cannot do so. When your spirit is whole, you can face the day. When your spirit is broken, you can’t face anything. And the way to a broken spirit, in this text, is by means of harboring sorrow in your heart.

A healthy sorrow is a process. There are stages, and you expect to get through. An unhealthy sorrow is a prison cell. You are just locked in, and by the end of your sentence, your spirit is maimed.

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

Where no counsel is, the people fall: But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 11:14

Before you do something significant, you should take counsel. When the rulers of a society do not do so, we are told, the people fall. On the opposite side, which would be in the realm of safety, a multitude of counselors is much to be desired.

This is yet another area where we find a ditch on both side of the road. A man with a watch knows what time it is, but a man with two watches is never sure. A king with one counselor knows what to do, and a king with two counselors might find himself pulled this way, and then that. And if the king has a multitude of counselors, might not the result be paralysis?

Not necessarily. First, we should note that this proverb tells us unambiguously which option should be preferred. When there is no counsel, there is danger. On the other hand, where there are many counselors, there is safety. So we should know that if we are in positions of responsibility—parents, pastors, business owners, and so on—and a big decision is coming up, we should want to gather up input from many.

But we shouldn’t want to get that input from a yelling mob, right? It says a multitude of counselors, not from simply “a multitude.”

In order to keep the multitude of counselors functioning in an orderly way, they should not be allowed to think of themselves as a rudimentary democracy. They are advisors, not voters. Wise counselors (which would be the only kind you should want) should understand that their role is to get all the best options out on the table before the person who must make the decision. And when that decision is made, the advisors step back, knowing their task has been completed.

Those who are privileged to occupy this position should also labor to avoid using tactics other than their counsel. In other words, they should want to be part of a body of advisors, and to do this without getting dragged into palace intrigues. That kind of thing is no good—unless of course you are Hushai thwarting the evil schemes of Ahithophel (2 Sam. 17).

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

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

Proverbs 10:26

There are some valuable lessons that we can take away from this proverb. The first is that laziness in servants is a royal nuisance, which is the lesson we probably already knew. If you have had the misfortunate to have employed a sluggard, the on-going aggravation will be like smoke in the eyes, like vinegar to the teeth—both really unpleasant.

The second thing is something that is obvious when you think about it, but we sometimes don’t think about it. That is the fact that laziness is a public affair. When an employee is sent to do something, to discharge a task, the nuisance that results if that employee is a foot-dragger is a very public nuisance. Private laziness has public consequences. The thing that needed to get done didn’t get done, and everybody knows who was sent to do it. And realities that God has determined (through the nature of things) should be public should be . . . well, public. There is no reason to accentuate this kind of thing, but there is no reason to hide it either.

And this is related to the third thing. Sometimes we cover for the laziness of our employees out of a pretended solicitude for the feelings of those employees—like Joseph resolving to divorce Mary quietly. We think we are being godly and considerate, like Joseph was being. But perhaps something else is going on.

The reason this proverb is in Scripture is so that we might learn wisdom from it, and learning wisdom from this proverb means that we learn not to send fools on a wise man’s errand. The lesson of the proverb is not so that we might develop a taste for vinegar, or learn the next stage in smoke endurance. The lesson is for us to stop engaging the services of lazy fools. We need to stop suffering fools gladly.

But if we didn’t cover or mitigate the consequences of this, then not only would everybody see what the lazy servant keeps doing, they would also see what we keep doing when we entrust them with yet another task to make a hash out of. We sometimes think we are covering the sins of others when we are actually refusing to deal with our own.

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

The memory of the just is blessed: But the name of the wicked shall rot.

Proverbs 10:7

The management of lies requires ongoing maintenance. This means that as long as a hypocrite is active, and overseeing his own reputation, he can usually keep things together, at least for a time. But time is a great conveyor belt, and like it or not, everybody gets ushered into the presence of God at the same basic rate of speed.

When we are gone, our memory remains. This proverb says that the memory of the just is like wine, it ages and improves over time. The name of the wicked, however, rots, and a bad smell attends it.

It is not recognized often enough that men who are greatly revered by Christians today were men who were often roundly vilified during their lifetimes. The kind of men who have statues and memorials built in their memory, after they are safely dead and gone, are the kind of men who were a perfect nuisance to the complacent in Zion while they were here. The list of such men, were we to assemble one, would be very long indeed.

Jesus notes how this works. The memory of the just is blessed, and even those who would have conspired in their murder are forced to honor them now (Matt. 23:29).

The hypocrite tries to curate his reputation now, and loses it in the long haul. The righteous care only what God thinks, meaning that they don’t care about their reputation short term—and this is why God blesses their reputation long term.

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