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

“The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; And it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”

Proverbs 19:11

One of the temptations that comes to upright people is the temptation to notice everything. Because such a person has high standards for himself, he notices when others fall short of the high standards. And from noticing to commenting is but a short step.

This is one of those places where it is necessary to repent of what we thought were our “virtues.” Too often a person with particular standards feels like he is compromising if he just “lets something go.”

But Scripture teaches us that there are many occasions where “letting it go” is the right thing to do. “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). This is not something that can happen once in blue moon—if there is a multitude of sins, then the occasions for overlooking them will be a multitude of occasions. And the person who does this is described by Peter as one who has fervent love. This is not a compromising Christian, just the opposite. 

This proverb tells us that overlooking a slight, or a wrong, or a transgression is not just okay. It is called a glory when a man of discretion does this. This means that when we really want to talk to someone about their faults, we are probably not in any spiritual shape to do so. And even if we manage to get through it without sinning, we are not taking the higher road, the road that Scripture here describes as glorious.

There are of course times when sin must be confronted. We are given instructions about church discipline for a reason. But it appears from the teaching of Scripture generally that the wise man is going to do a lot more covering than confronting. This is a lesson that goes down hard.

And incidentally (or not so incidentally), covering does not mean accumulating resentments. The covering erases the slights. 

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

“He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination.”

Proverbs 28:9

The great Puritan Richard Sibbes once addressed the question of why God at times does not hear our prayers. The answer is straightforward. Why should God listen to us when we refuse to listen to Him?

That is the import of this proverb. If a man turns away from listening to what God has revealed to us in His law, then why on earth would God heed that man’s prayers. The relationship between man and God must be a reciprocal one—a mutual relationship between persons. Otherwise the word “God” simply represents a warehouse where a sinner wants to come and get things when he wants them.

In the first chapter of Proverbs, Wisdom cries out at the gates of the city. She says that if simpletons and fools accept her reproof, then she will pour out her spirit on them. She will make her words known to them (Prov. 1:23).  

“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:” (Proverbs 1:24–25). So why should Wisdom listen to us when we refuse to listen to wisdom?

The men in Malachi wondered why God refused to accept their sacrifices and offerings. They covered the altar of the Lord with tears, wondering why He no longer regarded their offering (Mal. 2:13). Why? Because the Lord was a witness to how they had treated their wives, clean contrary to what the Lord required of them. “If you don’t listen to me,” God in effect says, “why should I listen to you?”

The standard is straightforward, and not that hard to understand. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).

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

“A man’s pride shall bring him low: But honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.”

Proverbs 29:23

Scripture teaches us in numerous places that a proud man’s pride is going to bring him down, and the Word also gives us the other side of the coin, which is that the humble will be exalted. But there is an important truth residing in that phrase in numerous places.

When Jesus taught us that humility was the way, and that the first will be last and the last first, this was not some new-fangled new covenant thing. The ethic of Scripture is consistent throughout all Scripture. It is not as though God blessed the proud in the Old Testament, but by the time of the Sermon on the Mount it was time to introduce humility. 

Pride really does go before destruction. “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Not only does the Old Testament teach us this in such passages, but it also gives us certain prime examples to consider—remember Pharaoh, remember Haman, remember Sennacherib, and a number of others. 

Not only so, but we have numerous examples of the humble being exalted—whether it be childless women like Sarah, or Hannah, or Ruth, or men who were hounded and pursued by wicked men who were the means of their promotion. These would be men like David, and Mordecai, and Daniel. God gives grace to the humble.

Failure to understand God’s willingness and eagerness to promote us in due time is what was behind our first parents’ sin in the Garden. God was going to grow them up to a point of maturity where they could rule in the “knowledge of good and evil,” but they grasped for that honor prematurely. And so it was that they, and the entire human race, were brought low. 

And when we enroll in Christ’s school of humility, we are agreeing to learn wisdom the old-fashioned way, slowly, and thereby we are learning to rule. In fact the Hebrew verb that means “to speak a proverb” can also be translated as “to rule.” But there are no short cuts.

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

“He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”

Proverbs 13:20

In the biblical framework, both wisdom and folly are contagious. This proverb concerns the bystanders, the companions, the associates. 

A true proverb could say that the wise will remain wise, and that fools will be destroyed, and that would be true enough. But this proverb is not directly about the wise themselves, or about the fools themselves. It is about those who hang out with them.

The proverb says that those who associate with wise people will themselves become wise. And it says that companions of fools will at some point share the destination of all fools, which is destruction. The implication is that the companion of fools will become a fool, and then what happens to all fools will obviously happen to him. 

We learn by imitation. This is why we have regional accents, and it is also why some adults have an absolute knack for wise child-rearing, even though they never read a book on it, and certainly couldn’t write a book on it. If they had wise parents, they saw, up close and personal, how they were taught, corrected, and so forth. If they were privileged to have brothers and sisters, they had a front row seat there as well. They walked with the wise and became wise.

Homes that are in a constant state of foolish disarray are homes that instruct the inhabitants how to live in foolish disarray. The end is unhappy disaster.

My father was converted while at the Naval Academy, and at some point he realized that he had no examples to look up to, and yet Scripture taught that we learn important lessons through imitation. This is when he decided that he would start reading missionary biographies. The authority of a good example need not be limited to someone who is still alive. 

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

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, Lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.”

Proverbs 26:4–5

Because we as Christians know that the Bible is a perfect book, we sometimes make the mistake of imposing on the Scriptures our own misguided views of what perfection must look like. It is like imagining that the Garden of Eden was shaped out of colored plastics, so that no leaves would ever rot on the forest floor. Or made out of stainless steel, so that we wouldn’t be distracted with all those different colors. It is like assuming that Adam would not have been able to shuffle a prelapsarian deck of cards, because every hand dealt would contain four aces or a royal flush.

In the same way, we sometimes confuse perfection, which is an attribute of Scripture, with fastidious perfectionism, which is not. For example, we are not to convict anyone of a crime unless there are two or three witnesses. So which is it? Two? Or three? A wise judge, learned in the Scriptures, will sometimes require two witnesses. Other times he will say that three are necessary. He is after independent confirmation, and if two of the witnesses 

These two proverbs, back to back, obviously contradict each other. But they are only a contradiction if we apply them woodenly. Say that a fool has said something. There are certain times when it is necessary to not give him the dignity of a reply. If you reply, you are in danger of starting to play his game, which you should not want. But there are other times . . . say that the fool has got a microphone, and thousands are following him. Say that you have an opportunity to shut him down? You should do so because to let him go on would be to let him marinate in his own conceits. The decision must be made on the basis of the circumstances. 

Take a modern example. I am frequently attacked online by trolls, and one of the first things I do is click on the profile picture. If the person has three followers (mom and two sisters), I don’t answer. Why should I give my microphone to a fool? That would make his day. But suppose he has 100,000 followers, but is every bit as foolish. Now he just gave me the microphone. 

But the main thing to avoid is becoming a fool in fighting folly, and the second main thing to avoid is allowing a fool to rampage on, unimpeded. It all depends.  

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