Covenant Presbyterian Church

Hold Fast to God’s Truth (vv. 1--4)

The world says to enjoy life while you are young, experience as many pleasures as possible, and avoid the oversight of your parents if you want to have fun. Look around you: this path is not working; it is deadly: broken marriages and chaotic lives, unwanted pregnancies, insurmountable debt, emotional immaturity, disease, greed, hopelessness, and such a plethora of mental disturbances that much of the population must take medication in order to function somewhat normally. It will never work, for it shakes its fist in God’s face, a laughable gesture did not so many make the attempt and find their lives empty, miserable, and wasted. Our merciful Father has something better for us, and here we find perhaps the clearest statement in his whole Bible of the path to lifelong joy and blessing. It is almost as if he gives us a treasure map, tells us before we begin where the treasure is, and then promises to carry us to its hiding place. And where is that? It lies with him. He made us for himself. We shall break our hearts and ruin our lives in the attempt to make anything else our treasure: “Whom have I in heaven but thee: there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee” (Ps. 73:9). Or, as Cowper once wrote: “God is the source and center of all minds – their only point of rest – from him departing they are lost and rove at random, without honor, hope, or place.” Let us listen to him, then, that we may be at peace and enjoy his smile always.

He says, first, that his word must be the treasure of our hearts. Solomon speaks to his son here as “forgetting not his law, but keeping his commandments” (v. 1). This shows some advancement beyond the simple receiving of them (2:1). If you will give yourself to believing God’s word, you will grow and make progress. Your enjoyment of God as your treasure, as well as your responsibilities and opportunities will increase. This is the sure path of joy and fulfillment. Now, we are certainly prone to forget things, even important ones, but there is a malicious forgetfulness where we do all we can to forget God’s word by careless living, not really listening to sermons or thinking about them later, and being consumed with ourselves and worldly pleasures. There is no remedy for this but repentance for ingratitude and earnest crying to God to restore us to himself. There is another kind of forgetting, however, one less blameworthy but one for which we must still seek the help God has promised. This is the forgetting we all struggle with due to our weakness, as when we are so engaged in what we must and should do that we often forget to bring our thoughts back to God’s word. Our Lord Jesus gave us his Spirit for this very infirmity (John 14:26), and we would forget less if would pray more, asking our Savior to send fresh help to us from his Holy Spirit. He will never fail us if we sincerely desire to remember his words and to hold fast to the right path. And for remembering our Father’s word, he promises to give us “length of days, years of life, and peace” (v. 2). It is true that not all righteous men live long or wicked men die young. But however long a wicked man lives, his years are a curse to him, for in adding to sin to sin, he adds stripes to stripes. Even if a godly man dies young, though no one dies any sooner or later than God wills, his years will be blessed. Still, the principle holds generally true, with room being left for God’s specific purposes: “bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days” (Ps. 55:23). Whereas you, because you hold fast to God’s word, he will make your years long and full of peace, now and in eternity, his benediction resting upon you and all that you do. What strong motivation to seek him early and often! What a glorious motivation to turn from the paths of the dead and walk with the Lord in sweet fellowship and sure guidance all our days!

So important is our commitment to hold fast to God’s truth, he here equates the teaching of godly father and mothers with his own “mercy and truth” (v. 3), the sworn, covenant love he has for us and the sound doctrine that flows from his own lips. We are to bind these close to us, like a necklace, which is likely a metaphor for prosperity, victory, and leadership. Instead of allowing our hearts to grow cold to God’s word by neglect, we are to seek from him hearts that are soft and pliable, easy for him to lead, easy for us to be led. Too many think of their “hearts” as their own private domain, thinking that what they want or feel is right must be an oracle from heaven. Our hearts are a safe guide, however, only when our own foolishness is erased from them by the Spirit of God and his blessed truth so deeply impressed upon them that yielding to his revealed will in Scripture becomes our very nature. “The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way” (Ps. 25:9). You are meek and are blessed to have the Lord for your teacher and guide when your heart’s desire is to follow his word. Be led by his word, and you shall have “favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man” (v. 4). Imagine having the confidence that wherever you are, the Lord will give you the favor of men, even of your enemies, and good success. Is this not what he promised to Joshua – that though his road was difficult and his enemies many, if Joshua meditated upon God’s word and determined to walk in obedience to it, the Lord himself would be his guide and bless his efforts to build God’s kingdom (Josh. 1:8-9). There are numerous examples in Scripture of the Lord fulfilling this promise: Joseph in Egypt (Gen. 39:2-4, 21-23; 41:37-43); David before Saul (1 Sam. 18:5, 14-16), Daniel and his three friends in Babylonian captivity (Dan. 1:8-9); the early believers in Jerusalem (Acts 2:44-47); our Lord as a boy (Luke 2:52). The thread weaving each of these examples together is that when God’s people found themselves living in difficult times, even being hounded by their enemies, through godliness, they overcame the reproach of men, testified to the power and grace of the gospel, and were blessed with the favor of those around them. Remember, the Lord, not man, controls every situation, even the worst. He can cause a pagan Cyrus to rebuild the temple, an evil Saul to give the true king, David, his first opportunity, and the very people who shouted for our Lord’s crucifixion to be used as instruments of blessing and salvation to the world.

Forsake Your Own Understanding (vv. 5-8)

These are some of the most well-known lines in the Bible. They set forth the path of wisdom and blessing with such clarity that the smallest child may profit from them, but sadly, untold millions of adults have ruined their lives and even now agonize in hell for rejecting their profound message. They follow from what Solomon has already said about holding fast to God’s word. If we are to do this, we must trust that God knows what is best for us, that he guides us through our parents and teachers as with his own mouth. We must also be assured that the God of wisdom and judgment so upholds the moral order of the universe that he will most surely bless us if we yield ourselves to be led by his word. Whether we are young or old, then, we must understand that all rebellion against God is unbelief: that he has spoken; that he is faithful; that he honors those who honor him; that he has set up those in authority over us to represent himself to us; that the world’s delusions are dangerous, dissatisfying lies. When we trust the Lord like this, then we shall “not lean upon our own understanding” (v. 5). Our thoughts and feelings about God, the world, and ourselves, if they are not guided by the light of God’s word, are like broken crutches, upon which if a man depend, he shall fall down. This is the whole thrust of Proverbs, indeed, of biblical religion: that to understand the truth about ourselves and the world, to have and hold true wisdom, to be blessed, we must wholly turn from our own thoughts and ideas; they are so many dreams and mazes of errors. We must come to our Father through Jesus Christ as humble learners, repenting of our stubbornness and seeking to be led by his hand. Thus, our only wisdom is to “acknowledge the Lord in all our ways” (v. 6). This is an experiential, personal knowledge of God, by which we are persuaded that he is true and right in all his ways, that our lives are hidden with Christ in him to such a degree that we have no other life but only death and foolishness if we walk by the desires and inclinations of our silly hearts (Col. 3:2-3). But we have his certain promise that if, turning from our own ways and thoughts, we rely upon his word alone, then he will be our guide (v. 6). This is a remarkable assurance from our heavenly Father: that he himself will lead us. Think of what this means: wherever you are, whatever you do, if surrounded by hardships and trials galore, even if threatened by deadly enemies of God’s kingdom, he is there, holding your hand, guiding the reins of your life, ensuring that nothing happens to you but what will turn out for your good and his glory (Rom. 8:28).

The main way we pursue such a course is by holding his word to be the chief treasure of our lives. In practice, this means that we labor to think his thoughts after him, esteeming them our most prized possession (Ps. 36:9; 139:17). We also seek to be transformed – in our outlook, preferences, priorities, relationships, attitudes, feelings, and words – by rejecting the world’s many croaking voices of folly and instead to be filled, challenged, and shaped by his word (Rom. 12:1-2). And this is how the word of Christ dwells richly in us, when we are not “wise in our own eyes” (v. 7; Col. 3:16). Did he not say that to inherit his kingdom, we must become like little children (Matt. 18:3; 1 Pet. 2:1)? And what marks infants more than helplessness, a sense of utter dependence, and crying out for protection and sustenance at every turn? Alas, we grow a little, think we are able to mind high things, determine our own course and play the demigod, and traverse the ocean of the world in the little coracle of our own wisdom. We shall hereby find ourselves swamped in storms and crashing against the shore, for our brave willfulness will not preserve us from running up against this reality: “Man’s goings are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way” (Prov. 20:24)? The Lord will humble all the pride of man (1 Pet. 5:5); he wages a continual war against human folly.

If we would know his blessing upon us, we must “fear him” (v. 7). We fear him when we reject all the siren voices of our own hearts, mourn over our waywardness, and adore him for his wisdom, goodness, and grace. The fear of the Lord always leads to the cross of Jesus Christ, for the only remedy for guilt of conscience and fear of judgment is to be covered by the righteousness of the Son of God and cleansed in his blood. Trembling before such mercy, we esteem him as our great and only good, worship and serve him alone, and seek to be led meekly by his hand. If we are to fear the Lord, he must reveal himself to us, for in our folly, we always imagine him as we would like for him to be rather than as he has made himself known in Scripture (Rom. 1:25). As his children, we grow in the fear of him when we behold the glory of his love and grace in Jesus Christ, bring ourselves often to the foot of the cross, and adore our enthroned Savior as the very glory of God’s goodness to us. When we read, hear, and think upon Scripture, we look not for nifty clichés and” easy principles but to see the wonders of his providence, power, and faithfulness therein. “Fearing the Lord” is thus the Spirit’s most common description of true piety. It is no wonder that the Father adds this blessing to us if we fear him: “It shall be health (or medicine) to thy navel, and marrow (or watering, moistening) to our bones” (v. 8). “Navel” is the firm center of our body, and thus a fitting metaphor for “life wholeness.” Dry bones stand for death (Ezek. 37:4); for the Lord to promise to make them moist with refreshing waters is a sign of the life-giving power of his word, to our body as well as to our spirit. It is impossible to estimate adequately how highly the Lord promises to bless us if we fear him. He is only near those who fear him (Ps. 85:9). To fear the Lord places you squarely in line with his purposes for the creation of the universe: the manifestation of his glory. It empties you of yourself that humbled you may be filled with his fullness. In place of folly and judgment, God-fearers possess wisdom and blessing. When God visits our or any age in judgment and mercy, he only delivers those who fear him (Ps. 34:7). Young and old, God promises his riches blessings to those who fear him. Above all, he promises himself (Ps. 25:14; Isa. 8:13-14).

Honor the Lord with All You Have (vv. 9-10)

As Solomon sees his son progressing toward manhood, in addition to clinging to God’s word and distrusting himself so that he might lean upon God’s wisdom alone, he knows that abuse of material possessions is another snare in which most of mankind falls. Some are careless in their work, lazy, spending all for trifles and having little for necessities, while expecting others to foot the bill for their foolishness. Others are greedy and covetous, hoarding and acquiring all they can, fearful to part with the smallest coin. As with the rest of life, Solomon advises his son to trust the Lord to provide for him. This is shown chiefly by “honoring him with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase” (v. 9). We have here a clear indication that tithing is necessary if we are to be blessed financially by the Lord. Tithing is not a magic principle; it is an expression of covenant loyalty, humility, and faith in the Lord. Faithful giving to the Lord humbly recognizes that all we have comes from him and that we rejoice in what he provided yesterday and look to him to supply our future needs. Thus, when we “bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house” (Mal. 3:10), we give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, confess that he, not what we have, is the delight of our lives, and place ourselves and all that we have at his disposal. And, as Malachi adds, there is a sense here in which Solomon calls upon his son to “prove the Lord, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall be no room to receive it.” The Lord honors those who honor him. He promises: “So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine” (v. 10). The new wine is the first squeezing of the grapes and makes the richest wine. The Lord says we shall have no end of the very best if we honor him with our goods. This does not mean that we shall be millionaires if we tithe, and such a spirit, even if tithing is practiced, is evidence of a worldly, grasping spirit. If our hearts are truly humbled that the Lord has provided our daily bread, whether meager or abundant, then we shall be glad to give back to him from what he has given to us, giving ourselves first (2 Cor. 8:5).The godly man thinks not of any “return” from his tithes and offerings, for his delight is in the Lord, and he is overwhelmed by his Father’s munificence. When he is richly blessed, or only has a little extra, the Lord’s generosity gives him yet another opportunity to give thankfully to Christ’s church and kingdom.

There is a serious and legitimate fear that economic life in the West is changing, that our days of unbounded prosperity are drawing to a close. It might be argued, of course, that most of the prosperity of recent memory was debt-financed, prompted by greed, and largely orchestrated to enrich governments, banks, and their cronies. Thus, what we are now seeing is a return to an economic level where we should actually be, albeit with great pain, especially for the middle classes that have grown accustomed to easy credit, high debt, and luxuries unknown to their grandparents. However the present robbery and legalized theft plays out – and the Lord will topple globalism, which is nothing but an economic expression of the Babel spirit of the ever-fearful city of man – the Lord promises to provide for his people. The future may be uncertain; it may be very different. Yet God’s promises never fail (Ps. 119:160; 1 Pet. 1:25). Jesus Christ, our good and faithful Shepherd, is the “same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8), and he who fed the five thousand and four thousand, filled the net with a multitude of fish, and owns the cattle on a thousand hills, is our provider – not the machinations and systems of unbelieving men. And if we would see his hand provide for us abundantly, we must never fail to tithe. There are many arguments raised against the idea that the fundamental tithing law of the old covenant retains its normative force in the New Testament church, but each one is based upon a series of faulty ethical interpretations: that because the “tenth” is nowhere commanded by Christ or the apostles, that New Testament giving is more fully set upon a foundation of overflowing love and generosity rather than upon law, that prosperous believers supplied the bulk of the financial needs of the church in the days of the apostles, therefore, the law of the tithe has been replaced with something higher. But sound biblical ethics does not proceed upon the mistaken notion that something must be repeated in the New before we accept it from the Old Testament, or that because love is more fully revealed through Jesus Christ that it was not the undergirding motive of all Old Testament tithing laws and true piety, or that since we find wealthier believers giving above the level of the tithe, therefore, it was not practiced in the New Testament church. Better to abide by God’s mouth than all the reasons men study to avoid the obvious. The biblical tithe is love; it is faith; it is law. We shall want to give more when God blesses us with more, but even if he does not, we shall give even of our little to express our love and gratitude to him. And as for young men starting out in life, for it is to them that Solomon’s words are primarily addressed, if you would have God “supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19), practice cheerful, thankful, humble, and liberal giving to your heavenly Father, his church, and his people. Our greatest privilege and joy is to give as he gives to us, to wait upon him to provide for us, and to watch him keep his people in Goshen well supplied while men in Egypt are languishing in the darkness and losing all they have due to rebellion against God and ingratitude for his goodness.

Submit to the Lord’s Discipline (vv. 11-12)

Of all the stretches along God’s path to joy, bearing his correction patiently is the most difficult. On our best and humblest day, the flesh bristles against chastening. There is so much pride in us. Each one of us tends to operate, unless taken strongly in hand by God’s Spirit, that our way is best, that if others have a problem with us it is their fault, that others may need the Lord’s chastening, but not us. Yet, let our Father begin to chasten us for our sins, let him keep up that chastening for any length of time, and you will never hear such screams and complaining, or see such sullenness and bitterness. The way Solomon speaks of the Lord’s chastening, he clearly wants us to understand that it is hard to bear. It takes many forms, as does our sin. We have no idea of how deeply rooted unbelief, idolatry, fear, covetousness, and sensuality are rooted in our hearts. The corruption being deep, the remedy must also reach deeply. If we would but bring ourselves more regularly before the searching light of God’s word, allowing him to pierce us, search and know us, our corrections would be gentler (Ps. 26:2; 139:23-24; Heb. 4:12). But being blind and hard, we normally require more direct, painful chastening: lasting sickness or bodily weakness, an idol of the heart smashed, a false confidence exposed, a hard season of family troubles, a sin we cannot defeat, a loss of friend or loved one, the removal of the comfortable sense of God’s presence so that we cry for him not to hide from us any longer (Ps. 27:9). Our wise Father perfectly fits each chastening seasons to our particular need and weakness, pinching us exactly where it hurts most. At the root of our need for correction is an accursed pride that must be tamed, else we shall never feel our weakness as we should, seriously begin to examine our hearts, repent, and seek our good in him.

Whatever forms his chastening takes, we must remember its source: the love of God. A father corrects his sons because he loves him (v. 12). If he loved his son less, he would indulge him more, allow his flesh to shoot forth deeper roots, his sinful responses grow thicker, his habits harden. To remedy this, he takes him in hand and disciplines him: sometimes verbally, sometimes with the rod of correction. Our heavenly Father, the best of all fathers, is no different. When we are languishing under some particular affliction, it is difficult to remember two things: we need chastening, and he chastens us because he loves us. We may know it in theory, but only our comfort lies in truly giving ourselves into his loving hand and submitting to his strokes. When troubles abound, our Father is smiling at us. He intends good for us through “suffering a little while” (1 Pet. 5:19). The dark night and its mourning may last, but if we will trust his wisdom and wait upon him to teach and humble us, joy will dawn with the morning.

That we may bear chastening patiently, we must understand our Father’s goal in chastening. It is not to make us miserable or torment us. It is so that we might be “partakers of his holiness” (Heb. 12:10). This is just another way of saying that he wants us to be truly happy and satisfied in him, for holiness is our only happiness (Ps. 119:1; John 13:17). How else shall we learn that sin is the source of all our misery, that our warfare against the flesh and the world is worth the effort, or that bearing the reproach of our Savior is far better than all the accolades of the world other than by being corrected for our faults? Through chastening, our Father makes us more like his Son (Heb. 5:8-9), weans us from our love for the world, and fills us with the hope of heaven. He makes us pray. He reveals his power in our weakness. He teaches us that our only true joy lies in pleasing him. He moves us further down his path of godliness. He encourages us to aspire for the blessing of sinless perfection in heaven. Thus, “though no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, nevertheless, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). And our Father will exercise our faith by chastening, thereby to show that we are truly his sons and that he loves and watches over us with unceasing vigilance. Faithful sons thus hug their fathers for chastening them, loving them all the more for the care their fathers show to them in correcting their faults and encouraging them to godliness.