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

He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears

Proverbs 26:17

One of the things that proverbs require from us is the arduous task of thinking things through. The proverbs come to us in the form of general truths, and we rarely find one that says “always turn right, no exceptions.” We are told, rather to answer a fool according to his folly to keep him from becoming wise in his own conceits (Prov. 26:5), and we are also told not to answer him that way lest we run the risk of becoming like him (Prov. 26:4). Clearly, we are supposed to judge which way we are supposed to go based on the circumstances.

In this proverb we learn that there are troubles and disputes that are none of our business, and they remain none of our business even after we become aware of their existence. It should remind us of the cartoon of the husband who can’t come to bed yet because “someone is wrong on the Internet.” If a husband and wife start quarreling in the checkout line ahead of you, it would seem that this would be a good time to apply this proverb. If you intervene on the lady’s behalf, let us say, you will find that both of them wheel on you. When you take a passing dog by the ears, you are simply creating an entirely new situation. You might know exactly what it would take to make everything better, but that does not mean that your intervention would make anything better.

But clearly this is not a one-size-fits all situation. If the man ahead of you physically attacks the woman, and punches her, then you have a clear responsibility not to stay out of it. If the Good Samaritan had arrived on the scene of the robbery while it was taking place, what would his responsibility have been then?

Let Scripture interpret Scripture, and always remember which are the weightier matters of the law.

 

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

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; But the Lord weigheth the spirits

Proverbs 16:2

One of the great challenges for Christians in this sinful world is the challenge of getting a right perspective on yourself. Having a correct view of oneself is something that we are called to, and it seems clear that having an accurate view of your own limitations would be a desirable thing indeed. The apostle Paul tells us that we should understand ourselves. “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).

And even though he calls us to this right understanding, he makes sure that we also understand that having nothing against yourself is not an automatic guarantee of anything. “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).

We should evaluate ourselves with a sober judgment. We should make sure that we are not in any way flattering ourselves. We should know our duty to have confessed all known sin—we should have a clean conscience. But even with a clean conscience it is possible for us to be self-deceived in some respect.

And self-deception is a true oddity. How is possible for one part of our brain to tell a whopper to another part of our brain, and to have the second part of the brain buy it? And yet it happens. Scripture tells us not to be self-deceived. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).

Our proverb says that every man sees things his own way. The people who have it right do so, and the people who have it wrong do so. Everyone looks out at the world through their own eyeballs. So what can we do about this? The proverb concludes with the stone cold reality that the objective truth about ourselves resides . . . outside ourselves.

Fortunately, God has given us a mirror by which we can see ourselves. And as the example provided by James shows, we must resort to this mirror constantly. This is why fruitful Christians are, by definition, people who are in the Word.

“For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:23–25).

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

In the multitude of people is the king’s honour: But in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.

In a multitude of people is the glory of a king, but without people a prince is ruined (ESV).

Proverbs 14:28

This is one of those proverbs that positively collides with the received wisdom of the secular world, which regards people as consumers and as a drain on resources. The biblical worldview couldn’t be in greater opposition. People—provided they are living under the authority of God and His law—are a resource, not a drain. After all, we were born into this world with two hands, and only one mouth.

So let us take this proverb at face value. The Bible teaches that a large population is a king’s glory (or a president’s), while a population dearth is the ruination of a country. Having children is a political glory, and not just a familial one. This position is, of course, easy to mock—“have babies for Mother Russia,” or “lie back and think of England.”

What then is overpopulation? Is there such a thing? Yes, but we must be careful with our definitions. A region is overpopulated when a population is incapable of feeding itself. This might be temporary (as in a famine), or it might be the result of a thoughtless consumption of resources, such as overgrazing, and then the nomadic tribe has to move on. But in the modern world, such a condition is most usually the result of foolish and counterproductive economic policies. In a word, socialism is a driver of overpopulation.

In a well-ordered nation, where the markets are free, the citizens as a whole will produce far more than they will consume. And the more the merrier.

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

The simple believeth every word: But the prudent man looketh well to his going

Proverbs 14:15

Scripture describes those who believe everything they hear, or everything they read, as simpletons. Following the standard Hebraic method of communicating through parallels and contrasts, we see here the simpleton contrasted with the prudent. The simple man believes every word, but the prudent “looks well to his going.” But what is meant by this oblique expression? Well, he means that he looks well to his going by not believing every word—just as believing every word can be described as not looking well to your going. The ESV renders this as “gives thought to his steps.”

There are numerous voices out there, telling you to take this step, or to take that one. The prudent man does not just listen and do. He takes thought. He ponders it. He considers alternatives.

The digital revolution has done something remarkable in this respect. The prudent have many more resources when it comes to checking out a story, a rumor, a treatment, a financial plan, and so forth. It is easier than it has ever been to give thought to your steps. At the same time, there is a much greater clamor of voices telling us this, and also telling us that.

The simpleton believes every word he reads on the Internet, every word that he hears from a politician, every statistic that he reads in the polls, every claim that is made on every bottle of medicine, and the results are just about what you might expect.

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

The lip of truth shall be established for ever: But a lying tongue is but for a moment

Proverbs 12:19

In this proverb we learn that truth is reckoned among the permanent things, while falsehood is transitory, evanescent, ephemeral, fading more and more as the list goes on. Truthful lips endure. Lying mouths are just around for the moment.

This sentiment being true, we should conclude in the first instance that it applies to our circumstances as much as it did when it was written three thousand years ago. How many lies have come and gone during that time? And consider how God’s people are still able to reflect on this truth, and establish their lives in terms of it.

Christians worship and serve the one who identified Himself as the Truth. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). And Pilate, lost as he was, wondered aloud what the truth even was, and he did this when the incarnation of truth was standing just in front of him (John 18:38). We know that the lake of fire is reserved for “all liars” (Rev. 21:8), and we who have put on the new nature found in Christ must be equally careful to cease lying to one another (Col. 3:9). Lying is the native language of the devil, and we are seeking hard to forget that we ever even knew that language (John 8:44). We are called as Christians to speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). We worship the Word who is the Truth, and so the words we speak should be words of truth.

We might want to distinguish truths that matter (Jesus rose from the dead) from truths that don’t seem to us to matter that much (whether we left home when we told our boss that we did). We wouldn’t lie about the big stuff, we say, but where is the harm in greasing the skids with what are euphemistically called “white lies”? But our proverb is not talking about the abstract truths lasting forever, such that the archives of Heaven will have a file cabinet somewhere that houses the truth that you left for work at 7:45. It is the lips that last forever. It is the mouth that is transitory.

All day long, as we speak, we are in the process of becoming someone. As we speak the truth, and the more diligent we are to speak the truth precisely, we are being established as those who will in fact live forever. We are growing up into Christ. The permanent things, like truth, belong to the permanent ones.

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