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

“Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: But a good word maketh it glad” (Proverbs 12:25).

We learn from this proverb that a discouraged heart is burdened and weighed down. Heaviness of heart, the proverb says, makes a man’s heart stoop. He staggers as he is carrying the weight that he is carrying. This is something we have all experienced.

But we also learn here that there is a possibility of relief, and that this relief comes as the result of a “good word.” A good word, we are told, “maketh it glad.”

If there is a particular word here that we should italicize, it would be “good.” A good word maketh it glad.

We learn elsewhere in Proverbs the importance of setting the word right. “A word fitly spoken Is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). A word fitly spoken is an elegant thing. It is beautiful and accomplishes what the jeweler intended for it to accomplish.

But if a friend is weighed down with the troubles of his heart, a good word would not be a brusque version of “What’s the matter with you? Cheer up, man.” You cannot expect raw exhortation to do the trick here. If a person is beset by all kinds of troubles, it does not help matter to saddle him with another one, that being the fact that he does not know how to cheer up.

Nevertheless, there is a way to gladden the heart by means of words. This might happen because you are bringing good news on the matter he was worried about. It might happen because you are in a position to assure him that the risks are much smaller than what he was supposing. It might happen because you are able to tell him that no matter what happens, he still has a friend in you.

It takes wisdom to know how to place a good word. And this is the kind of wisdom that arises from long practice. It would be good to start practicing now.

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

“He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: And the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart” (Proverbs 11:29).

One of the ironies of life in this sinful world of ours is that our homes are the places where we receive most of our blessings, and is also the place where we do most of our complaining. This, as the biblical writer puts it, ought not so to be.

One of the effects that such complaining has is that of troubling your own house. This is to foul your own nest. It is to make the place of your habitation a more difficult place to be. The upshot given by this proverb is that the end result is that of inheriting the wind. This indicates that whatever a person does to trouble his own house has the effect of dissipating whatever inheritance he was going to receive there. At the end of all his complaining, he discovers that the only thing left to complain about is the nature of his inheritance . . . which would be represented by that faint breeze.

The other half of the proverb indicates where such a foolish person will wind up. He is going to end his days as a slave to the one who is wise in heart. The contrast is sharp. The wise in heart is the one who does not vaporize his inheritance by means of troubling his own house. And the one who does finds himself plunged into a condition of servitude.

Of course I don’t mean to indicate that complaining is the only way to trouble your own house. It is one way, certainly, but not the only way. There is sexual immorality, which causes homes to blow up in messy divorces. There is financial irresponsibility that causes creditors to start coming around. There is shiftless laziness which fails to provide income, and which neglects to take care of the upkeep. In short, for those who want to inherit the wind, the paths are plentiful.

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

“He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: But the righteous shall flourish as a branch” (Proverbs 11:28).

Like the rich man in the parable of the bigger barns, a wealthy man who places his trust or his faith in his riches is going to discover the angular side of a proverb about money. It is true that money talks . . . it says good bye.

This proverb is interesting in some surprising ways. The man who trusts in riches will fall. But what happens to the person, the righteous man, who does not do that? Well, it turns out that he will flourish. Not only will he flourish, he will flourish like a branch.

A branch is connected to the tree, and that is the source of its flourishing. The man who trusts in his riches is the man who is disconnected from the source of flourishing, which is why he falls.

So the comparison here is between two men of means, two men who have wealth. One of them trusts in that wealth idolatrously, and the idols lets him down, as all idols do. The other man, a righteous man, has the key to continued flourishing. He flourishes because he places no faith in the fact that he is flourishing.

We all have a tendency, when things are going well, to believe that this pleasant state is somehow our birthright. This is the way it will be forever and ever. A righteous man refuses to do this—he knows that it could all disappear tomorrow, and this is the reason—a most excellent reason—why it doesn’t disappear tomorrow.

Those who depend upon their wealth will find that it collapses beneath them. Those who stand on something else, something more permanent, find that they have a stable footing, which means they can continue to hold their wealth in their hands.

But they hold it with an open palm, which means the Lord can give and take away. If we clutch at our wealth, the Lord can still take it away, just as easily, leaving us with broken fingers.

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

“The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable: But the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness” (Prov. 10:32).

We have here a contrast between the speech of the righteous and the speech of the wicked. The focus of the contrast shows that the righteous considers how and where his words are going to land. The wicked just goes forward with his frowardness. Frowardness is an archaic term meaning perverse or perverted.

The wicked just wants to vent. He is going to say what he is going to say and, as it were, damn the torpedos. The righteous knows what is acceptable. He considers what is appropriate, given the circumstance and situation. He speaks the truth, but he navigates as he goes. In this situation, the wicked is simply a bulldozer.

Communication consists of three elements. There is the speaker, there is the message, and there is the recipient. A godly speaker—a preacher, say—needs to be a student of all three. He is engaged in constructing a bridge, to use the image John Stott used, between two worlds. There is the world of Scripture, and there is the world inhabited by the listeners. Each one has its own language, context, grammar, and syntax. The speaker is a translator, translating from one language to the other.

If he is a righteous preacher, as per our proverb, he knows how to state the unchanging truths of God’s Word in a way that is “acceptable.” He must not trim God’s Word in order to make it acceptable, but there is a way to frame it that does not ruffle feathers unnecessarily.

But the wicked man is a blunderbuss. And because he is advancing perversions, and all of his listeners come from a sinful race, this is one of the reasons why he can get away with it for a time. But only for a time.

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