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

A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.

Proverbs 19:9

The doctrine of the final judgment teaches us that every last person will be judged according to their works (Matt. 16:27; 2 Cor. 11:15; 2 Tim. 4:14). This even includes Christians, as the apostle Paul plainly teaches. Now there is a sense in which the ultimate judgment for Christians (with regard to Heaven and Hell) was paid by Christ on the cross, and so we are not judged in that way according to our works (2 Tim. 1:9). Christians are therefore not judged at the last in order to determine what their ultimate destiny will be. There is no condemnation for those who are Christ (Rom. 8:1).

At the same time, God will evaluate our lives, and we will render an accounting to Him.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

But this ultimate judgment is not just something that happens there, outside of history. There are also all kinds of foreshadowings. Coming back to the theme of this proverb, which is the destiny of liars, we know that liars are thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8). In this life, God is not mocked, and a man reaps what he sows (Gal. 6:7). In many cases, the crops start to be gathered into the barns of sorry consequences in this life.

“If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? And he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? And shall not he render to every man according to his works?” (Proverbs 24:12)

There is absolutely no reason why God needs to wait until the last day in order to direct the consequences of our actions to return to us. In this proverb, the action is that of bearing false witness, which would be perjury, and speaking lies, which would be free lance work out in the general public. Sometimes liars are bribed to lie in a courtroom setting, and other times they just do their work on discernment blogs pro bono.

I have lost track of all the times that individuals, professing Christians, would tell the most shameless lies about me, and who would, in the same breath, call me to repentance in the name of Jesus. I was apparently supposed to repent of whatever it was they were lying about. It has been at times quite the breathtaking display. One comfort has been that God is just, and God notes all of it. Taking all this into account, we must remember that it is far better to be lied about than to lie. Comparatively, to be lied about and slandered is by far the more privileged position.

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

A fool hath no delight in understanding, But that his heart may discover itself (KJV).

A fool has no delight in understanding, But in expressing his own heart (NKJV).

Proverbs 18:2

We are told here that the fool has no delight in understanding. From the contents and placement of the second part of this proverb, we may piece a few things together. The understanding that he does not delight in is an understanding of the world outside him, and we can determine this from what does delight him—and that is expressing his own heart.

A wise person wants to take in from outside. A foolish person wants to vent whatever it is that arises from within. Outside is not subject to our whims and distempers. We might feel peevish or out of sorts, but the earth keeps going around the sun. The world remains just as it was. Reality, as it turns out, is not optional. And this is what the fool hates about it.

A fool wants the objective world to behave in exactly the same way that his daydreams do. He can just wish it to be some other way, and the daydream obeys instantly. The world, as in, the real world, is extremely disobedient in this regard.

A wise man delights in understanding because if he learns the way the world is, he can learn how to walk in step with that reality. When he does this, he is blessed. Moreover, if he is really wise, he understands that if the world were a product he bought at the store, the Scriptures are the owners’ manual. If there is something you don’t understand about the world, you can look it up.

The fool detests anything rigid and immoveable outside of his wishes, desires, crochets, and lusts. He wants to express his own heart. This is the creed of the fool, and, as it turns out, it is also the creed of this senseless generation that we are all part of.

Believing Christians can and should reject this approach with loathing, but we should also remember that it is possible to get more of this gunk on our shoes than we thought we did, and then to track it into the assembly of the saints. Indeed, there are some parts of the church that are as bad as the world in this regard.

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

The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: But the Lord trieth the hearts.

Proverbs 17:3

In this proverb we appear to have ascending layers of affliction. The first two are “afflictions” in the physical world, and then the third has to do with the human heart.

Silver contains dross, and the refining pot is used in order to remove that dross. Heat is applied to the silver in such a way as to burn off the impurities. The same thing holds true for gold, and so the furnace is for gold. As gold is more valuable, it is more important to remove the gold’s impurities. After these two examples, we are told that the Lord tries the heart. What the refining pot is for silver, what the furnace is for gold, so the Lord’s testing is of the human heart.

So this trying would have to be in the nature of trouble or affliction. The point of this testing is to remove corruptions. Holding onto this truth is one of the ways it will achieve its purpose. If we give way to murmuring or complaining about it, it will have the opposite effect—it will introduce new corruptions.

The thing to remember is that what seems like a really bad thing is actually a really good thing. Like a woman going through the pains of childbirth, there is joy at the end of it. “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (John 16:21, NKJV). “Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, Like a woman in birth pangs . . .There the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies” (Micah 4:10, NKJV).

We all have troubles. Job says that man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. This means that these are words of true consolation. There is a point to all of it.

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; That I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).

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

He that laboureth laboureth for himself; For his mouth craveth it of him (KJV).
The person who labors, labors for himself, For his hungry mouth drives him on (NKJV).

Proverbs 16:26

A working man’s hunger is the equivalent of a blinking fuel gage. God created us in such a way as to require food, and without it we cease to function.

In the first place, a man works for himself. This is simple creational self-interest, and there need be no selfishness in it. The things that make us want to watch out for ourselves—seeking warmth, or shelter, or food, or drink—might provide an occasion for sin, but there are not sinful in themselves.

If a man wants to come in out of the rain, that is in his self-interest to do so, but it need not be selfish. If a man wants to eat when he is hungry, or drink when he is thirsty, that need not be selfish and sinful. We can say the same about all of our creational desires.

Not only so, but God made these desires in such a way as to motivate us. Here in this proverb, a man’s hunger drives him on. He keeps working because he wants to have dinner that night.

One of the great mistakes that Christians make when it comes to economics is the mistake of confounding self-interest, which God gave to us, and selfishness, which we collaborated with the devil on. Selfishness and self-interest are not the same thing at all. 

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

In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence: And his children shall have a place of refuge (KJV).
In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge (ESV).

Proverbs 14:26

One of the more surprising things about Scripture is how the fear of the Lord is treated, and how much it clashes with what we tend to assume about it. We tend to think of all fear as being the same kind of thing, something that is a craven or crawling thing. And it is true that the fear of God is rightly called fear, in that we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), and we are to worship God rightly in reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28-29), for God is a consuming fire. So being thunderstruck with awe does have something in common with ordinary fear.

But this proverb points to the great difference. The fear of the Lord is our delight, our joy, and to the most immediate point, our strength. One of the things that the fear of the Lord does is to provide the God-fearer with strong confidence. Not only so, but the one fearing God also knows that his children will have a place of refuge. “With salvation’s walls surrounded, thou mayest smile at all thy foes.”

It is as though there is a spiritual toggle switch, which means that if we fear man then we will not fear God. “The fear of man bringeth a snare: But whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25). The two fears exclude one another. The man who fears God does not live in the fear of man. The one who lives in the fear of man does not fear God.  

So that is why this proverb can speak as plainly as it does, using terms that appear to be inconsistent. They are not inconsistent at all. The fear of God is strong confidence. Strong confidence arises from this fear.

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