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

The wicked flee when no man pursueth:
But the righteous are bold as a lion.

Proverbs 28:1

Scripture teaches that courage is an aspect of righteousness, and that cowardice is an aspect of wickedness.

The most terrible thing about death is not that it happens. It is that we deserve to have it happen. “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56). “When a wicked man [same word as in 28:1] dieth, his expectation shall perish: And the hope of unjust men perisheth” (Prov. 11:7). In other words, when wicked men come to the point of death, the thing that is frightful is the fact that they have a load of guilt on their backs. When he comes to the point of death, all his hopes and expectations for good are on the brink of death as well. There is no such thing as good news on the lip of damnation.

And this is why the proverb says that the wicked turn tail and run even when no one is chasing them. No man pursues. This is something God promises the disobedient.

“And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth” (Lev. 26:36).

Sinners of course will be judged. But it will be the very worst for cowards.

 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death”” (Rev. 21:8, NKJV).

The righteous are as bold as a lion. This is easy to say until we come to the realization that only one man has ever been righteous all the way through. Christ was in fact as bold as a lion. But since He took our guilt, this liberates us from our fear of death, which in turn means that we can become, like Him, as bold as a lion.

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them all who through fear of death were their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14–15).

To be liberated from true terrors is the reason why the righteous are also liberated from false terrors. If like Samson and David, we don’t run from a lion, we certainly don’t need to run from a skittering leaf.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

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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 carnal mind thinks of the externals of religion as somehow “better than nothing.” He knows that he is not the real deal, he knows that he is not “all in,” he knows that other people are a different kind of Christian than he is. But surely . . . surely he can contribute something?

Maybe he could give a big gift or something. Maybe he could go to church on Christmas and Easter. The tendency is to think of such gestures as things that somehow reach “part of the way.” In reality, they usually make things far worse.

If a man turns away his ear from hearing the law, the problem is that he is lawless. He has broken whatever law it was, and as a consequence has becomes a lawbreaker in every respect (Jas. 2:10). That is bad enough. But this proverb then says that to layer over the whole thing with a prayer is an abomination, like putting powdered sugar on a pig’s breakfast. This means that such behavior is loathsome to God. What the man has actually accomplished is to have become disobedient and loathsome.

The exception to this is, of course, any prayer of repentance. God commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30), and so He is of course pleased if they do. But what He cannot abide is for someone to walk into His presence as though nothing were amiss, as though God were so in need of someone to pray to Him that He would take whatever He could get.

But this kind of prayer is a detestable thing. It is repulsive, loathsome, and abhorrent. It is not helping anyone out with anything. God is holy, and so He cannot be gamed. “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting” (Isaiah 1:13, NKJV).

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

Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint.

Proverbs 25:19

One of the great lessons to learn about life, and the sooner we learn it the better, is the fact that some people are flakes.

Sometimes they flake in a moment that doesn’t cause too much consternation. Their flakery affects mostly just themselves. They get hired for a new job, and fail to show up the first two days—and are astonished to discover on the third day that they actually don’t have a job anymore.

But this proverb envisions their unfaithfulness as happening at the worst possible moment. Right when everyone was depending on them to show up, they do not show up. When their performance was most needed, their performance went missing. Confidence was placed in them, and it was a “time of trouble,” and their failure to perform discombobulated everything. It is like a broken tooth. It is like a dislocated ankle.

When someone fails in this way, causing the whole enterprise to fail, the thing is public. When an employer is writing a letter of recommendation for this fellow for a prospective employer, and he mentions the disaster that was caused by this man’s failure, this is not gossip. When a businessman consistently over-promises and under-delivers, and the fact gets around, this is not a problem of wagging tongues. Some men are not faithful. Some men are not good for their word. Some men let you down.

The reason this is a proverb is not simply so that we might understand this in the depths of our heart, enabling us to nod when it happens. Rather, proverbial wisdom is supposed to obtain the wisdom in such a way as to equip us to act. In this kind of situation, flakes are never going to discover that they are flakes unless they are fired for flaking. They might not discover it even then, but it is far more likely than when exasperated employers keep them around for some reason.

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

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes:
But the Lord pondereth the hearts.

Proverbs 21:2

The first part of this proverb should be self-evident, but it is surprising how many people miss it. Every man thinks he is right. In fact, this is what it means to think.

I don’t believe that I am always right, but I always believe I am right. Believing that what you believe is right is another way of saying that you believe it. If we take a few steps back to look at ourselves, we know and acknowledge that we have often been wrong, but the reason we were wrong is that we didn’t think so at the time. So we know that we are not always right, but while we are doing it, we always think we are right.

Confusion enters when people assume that this is a problem that “some” people have. No, this is the condition of every man. Everyone, if thinking, thinks he is right. When I have had people come to confront me with the problem of my cock-sureness, they did not undertake that difficult task because they thought they were wrong about it.

And so, confronted with this dilemma, a number of modern milquetoasts have retreated into a dogmatic minimalism. They think they can escape this dilemma by reducing the number of their dogmatic convictions to almost zero. The problem is that this itself is quite the dogmatic conviction. They think this, do they? Someone has somewhere defined a liberal as someone who is incapable of taking up his own side in an argument.

But let us return to the problem of bombastic self-assurance, which was the target of this particular proverb. Every man—conservative, liberal, and moderate—is right in his own eyes. The statement that is made in the second half of the proverb is that the Lord knows the real story. He knows the story we are weaving for ourselves, and He also knows all the various motives and concerns that we have tucked away in the various cupboards of our hearts. He knows, and He ponders it.

And so it would appear that the only real way of escape from self-deception is to be close friends with the one who could tell us the truth at any time.

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

Who can say, I have made my heart clean,
I am pure from my sin?

Proverbs 20:9

This is a rhetorical question, with the expected answer of “no one,” but all of us would still like to be able to answer in the affirmative. But unfortunately, we cannot see the backs of our own heads. The eyes we use to look around for sin in our lives are themselves marred by sin, and how can we use sinful eyes to look for the blemishes in our eyes?

When it comes to the day-to-day matters of conscience, we are supposed to keep a clean conscience, but even a clean conscience is no absolute.

“For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Cor. 4:4, ESV).

“for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20, ESV).

So having a troubled conscience means that it is likely that something is wrong and needs to be put right. But having an untroubled conscience doesn’t mean the same thing. We have to leave that kind of ultimate evaluation up to the Lord. He knows all things. He knows exactly how much we are kidding ourselves. Not only so, but He loves us anyway.

How is this possible? And how is it possible for us to recognize that we cannot identify all of our sins and not have this understanding paralyze us with holy terror? The answer of Scripture is justification, the forensic and final declaration of God that we are in fact righteous. Because the Father has uttered the great “not guilty” over us through the bloody death of Jesus, and because He then uttered the stupefying “well done, good and faithful servant” over us through the resurrection of Jesus, it is possible for us to be liberated into the task hunting down our remaining sins through the process of sanctification. When we find and kill one, we might feel chagrin, but no dread. The entire process of sanctification is taking place under a banner that reads “no condemnation.” And this means that the fact that I do not know the extent of my remaining sin does not matter. And all of it is nothing but a cleansing grace.

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).

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