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

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; A stranger, and not thine own lips.

Proverbs 27:2

This particular doctrine is one that has gained widespread recognition in our culture, and even acceptance (on paper). In the ancient world, it was possible for a well-bred man, according to Aristotle, to be very open about his virtues.

But Scripture teaches us that it is perilously easy to be self-deceived, misguided, or delusional about our virtues.

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Rom. 12:3).

Because of the teaching of Scripture, the expectation that we should avoid too much self-praise has been incorporated into our manners. For those who have been taught good manners, they do avoid this blunder in speech. But only the Spirit of God within us can mortify the silent wish that others would notice us more.

Now while we are the closest witness to our thoughts, efforts, intentions, and deeds, we are also the witness who has strong incentives to inflate the splendor of what was actually accomplished.

And so this proverb says that we should leave the task of praising us to others. Let someone else do it. This creates a problem for us, because it immediately occurs to us that these others might fail in their responsibility of praising us. They might not pick up the ball, and they might not run with it. It is like the two people conversing at the party, where one says, “Well, enough of me talking about me. Time for you to talk about me.” He gives the other a nudge because it turns out that others cannot be relied upon when it comes to how much praise should be lavished on us.

But this proverb would have us contented to receive whatever praise came naturally. And by contented I mean really content.

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

The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, Yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; The earth that is not filled with water; And the fire that saith not, It is enough (KJV).

The leech has two daughters: Give and Give. Three things are never satisfied; four never say, “Enough”: Sheol, the barren womb, the land never satisfied with water, and the fire that never says, “Enough” (ESV).

Proverbs 30:15–16

A leech is a worm that has suckers on both ends. Many of them are parasitic, blood-sucking worms, while the remainder are predators. If you like, you may file the next thing under the category of things you were not expecting to learn today, and that is the remarkable fact that a leech has 32 brains. The worm is divided up into 32 sections, and each one has its very own brain. Apparently getting blood out of your ankle after your dip in the pond is a more complicated task than you thought.

The point of this proverb is that a leech has two daughters, and each one of them is named Give. In modern English, we might be tempted to nickname each of them as Gimme. They are the Gimme Gimme twins. These two daughters are never going to say anything like “that’s enough,” or “that’s satisfying,” or “enough for me, thanks.” It is not in their nature.

Agur then gives us a short list of the sorts of things he has in mind. He does this in the typical Hebraic fashion of giving us an enumerated list, and starting with the penultimate number. “Three things I have in mind—no wait, there are four actually . . .”

The four ravenous things he lists are Sheol, a barren womb, parched earth, and fire in search of more fuel. Sheol has been receiving the dead for a long time now, and will continue to do so until the day of resurrection. A childless womb does not want to forsake the hope of becoming fruitful. And when you pour a jug of water into the desert dirt, a moment later it is like you have done nothing at all. It is as dry as ever. And fire goes out, not because it is tired of burning, but rather because the combustible material is no longer available.

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

“A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; And a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.”

Proverbs 17:4

One of the things we really need to understand is that in a world so affected by the prince of liars, and given the essential deceitfulness of this world and its baubles, there must be an economy of lies. Put another way, there is a marketplace of lies. And put yet another way, when it comes to liars, lies, and lying, there is a supply and demand curve.

When talking about household goods, if no one buys something, then the factory will stop producing them. If the market for purchasing something heats up, then it is not long before the factory heats up.

In this proverb, we are told about the sin of buyers, and not just the sellers. What does a wicked man do? He gives heed to false lips. He went out into the market to buy. And what does a liar do? He gives ear to someone with something negative to say?

It is obviously lying to tell lies, and this is something that pretty much everyone should grant. But it is also a form of lying to listen to them. It is a sin to behave in such a way as to create a market for lies, because someone is going to be there to fulfill the demand.

How does this work? It happens whenever a “buyer” wants to hear something negative. When he hears a juicy bit of gossip, he wants to treasure it under his tongue. And because he is after the sweetness of a lacerating report, it does not matter to him whether or not the report is true. He gets the same kick regardless. The same thing is true of words published online. The satisfaction of circulating truth is not the satisfaction he was after.

This is also the motivation for not caring to learn what the Scriptures teach about the principles of justice. Learning those principles would be tiresome.

So the bottom line is this: being a consumer of lies is a sin, and it is what keeps the devil’s factories humming.

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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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