Psalm 104:1-23

We are back to the Psalms today, but Fred wants to extend his “vacation”, so it looks like you are still stuck with me. Sorry about that.

Psalm 104 begins with the same refrain we heard in Psalm 103: Bless the LORD, O my soul! It goes on to extol the LORD as the Creator, as the One Who set the earth on its foundations (Ps 104:5), the One Who formed the seas, the mountains, the valleys (Ps 104:6-9). He is the One Who waters the earth, Who gives life to all the plants and animals and mankind (Ps 104:10-18). He is the One Who orders day and night and seasons by the sun and the moon (Ps 104:19-23). He is the One responsible for all we see.

I grew up in Iowa. It’s one of those places with “big sky” because there isn’t much blocking the view from horizon to horizon — unless you happen to be standing in a cornfield with the corn at full height, in which case you can’t see anything! The night sky there is tremendous, with views of stars, planets, the Milky Way, and even the northern lights on occasion. But I spent most of my adult life in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., a place that is most definitely not “big sky”, and the light pollution from the city blots out all but the brightest stars. There it is easy to neglect to look up, because it seems like there isn’t much to see. And the culture of the nation’s capital reinforces that notion with its focus on earthly things, particularly power and wealth.

It is easy to get so focused on the man-made, on modern technology, or human achievements, or entertainment, or whatever, that we forget about the wonders of creation. On the other hand, there are those who do indeed see the natural world, but — unwilling to acknowledge God — become enthralled with nature itself. (See Rom. 1:25.) Let’s not make either mistake. Open your eyes. Go outside. Look around. Marvel at the structure, the order, the beauty, the grandeur of nature. Then worship its — and your — Creator!

Proverbs 31:10-31

An excellent wife who can find?

Proverbs 31:10a

I found one!

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Our reading today brings us to the end of Proverbs, and what a great way to end!

I hope that our walk through this book of wisdom has served to spur us all on in our personal pursuits of true wisdom. I hope it has been useful and thought-provoking. I hope it has shaken us up and torn down false notions we might have held for years. I hope it has convicted us of both sin and folly. I hope it has encouraged and inspired us, and given us insight for living life well. Most of all, I hope it has drawn us closer to the heart of our Father.

Proverbs 31:1-9

You know how moms can have a kind of sixth sense about what their kids are up to? When our younger son was a boy, perhaps 6 or 7 years old, my wife heard some “interesting” sounds emanating from his room. She called up the stairs to him asking, “What are you doing?”

Silence.

After a few uneasy moments came the reply: “Nothing … anymore!”

It was a reply that was technically truthful, but not altogether honest.

The mother of King Lemuel (whoever that might be — I have no idea) perhaps had a similar sixth sense about her son and similarly asked: What are you doing, my son? (Pr. 31:2) Change “son” to “child”, and that’s a question we could all hear from our Father in heaven — a question we should attend to, and answer honestly. When you are getting into mischief, what are you doing, my child? When you are focused on yourself, what are you doing, my child? When you are lured and enticed by your own desires, what are you doing, my child? When you are filled with resentment, what are you doing, my child?

Today, what are you doing, my child?

Proverbs 30:21-33

Under three things the earth trembles;
under four it cannot bear up:
a slave when he becomes king,
and a fool when he is filled with food;
an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.

Proverbs 30:21-23

What?

What is it about these four scenarios that is so earth shattering? Today we often root for the underdog. We like a good rags-to-riches story, so what is wrong with a slave becoming king? And we like a good romance, so what is wrong with an unloved woman finally finding a husband?

The problem isn’t so much that there is anything wrong in the immediate situation, but in the aftermath. That is, what tends to happen within people who suddenly find themselves in positions of privilege or authority? Sad to say, they do not tend to exercise such newfound authority well. They tend to lord it over all around them. A slave who becomes king turns into a tyrant; a maidservant that becomes the mistress looks down on all the other servants. Think of the nouveau riche who flaunt their wealth with newly acquired snobbery.

All of that should serve as a strong caution for us as Christians. None of us deserves the grace we have been given. Each of us represents the ultimate rags-to-riches story. But in our sainthood, we often start looking down on all those sinners “out there”, forgetting that we ourselves are no better. We say that we can’t work our way to heaven, yet we treat the decision to follow Jesus as just such a work. We see our wise exercise of free will as evidence that we are better or smarter than everybody else. Let’s stop patting ourselves on the back and remember the lavish grace of God: “There but for the grace of God, go I…”

Proverbs 30:11-20

There are those who curse their fathers
and do not bless their mothers.
…
The eye that mocks a father
and scorns to obey a mother
will be picked out by the ravens of the valley
and eaten by the vultures.

Proverbs 30:11,17

Honoring one’s parents is a notion that we see often in the Scriptures. Indeed, it is one of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:12; Dt. 5:16), and Paul reiterates it clearly (Eph. 6:1-3; Col. 3:20). It forms an undercurrent that runs throughout Proverbs, which takes a dim view of disrespecting parents, as is made abundantly clear here.

Interestingly, the commandment to “honor your father and mother” makes no attempt to focus that honor only on perfect parents or even on reasonably good parents. The commandment is there for us all, whether our parents are good, neglectful, or outright abusive. And that makes this commandment a serious challenge for some, if not most. It is hard to honor someone that we know to be less than what they should be, yet we are still called to honor our parents.

Needless to say, our culture — at war with God in multiple ways — provides little help for us here and makes honoring parents all the more difficult. Sitcoms and commercials routinely bash parents — particularly fathers — as incompetent fools. Psychology and sociology often blame parents for the sins of the children. Teachers and coaches often undermine the very parents that they should be supporting. And, of course, all those things make good sense to us at some level at least some of the time. That is, we laugh at the sitcoms because they ring (partly) true; sometimes criminal behavior is clearly the result of horrendous parenting; sometimes teachers and coaches really do steer kids onto better paths than their parents would. And so we fall into the trap, and we rationalize away a core truth of Scripture.

So I encourage us all to fight back. Take time to evaluate our relationships with our parents. Take a good, honest look at who they are (or were), their strengths and their weaknesses, their successes and their failings. Forgive them for all the ways they messed up. And honor them, simply because they gave you life.

Proverbs 30:1-10

Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know!

Proverbs 30:4

This verse immediately transports me back to our tour through Job, to where God shows up and starts challenging Job, especially in Job 38:5a: Who determined [the earth’s] measurements—surely you know! So take a look back at what we said then. I’ll wait…

Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the LORD?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:7-9

I have long thought this to be an exceptionally wise prayer: give me neither poverty nor riches. It recognizes the danger of either extreme, of being either rich or poor. And it seeks to avoid the temptations associated with either end of that spectrum. We see these temptations play out around us — the rich who become arrogant in their wealth under the delusion that they are self-sufficient and have no need of God, and the poor losing faith and taking matters into their own hands. The Lord explicitly warns the Israelites against the “rich” temptation in Deuteronomy 8:11-17. Meanwhile, although we may sympathize with the poor, there are no exemptions for the poor in “Thou shalt not steal.” So, it is safest to have neither too much nor too little. Call it “The Goldilocks Prayer”, if you will, but it’s a good one!

Proverbs 29:15-27

Many seek the face of a ruler,
but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.

Proverbs 29:26

Proverbs is an immensely practical book, providing wisdom and insight for everything from child rearing (Pr. 13:24; Pr. 29:15,17) to money management (Pr. 22:7), from honesty and integrity (Pr. 20:10) to the value of work (Pr. 6:6-11; Pr. 20:13; Pr. 28:19-20), from sexual purity (Pr. 6:32) to political leadership (Pr. 20:8; 29:4). It is not a book to simply read and find interesting; it is a book to be applied. We are called to exercise its wisdom in every area of life, including politics. And since we live in a democratic republic, that is all the more true, as we the voters bear the responsibility for choosing our elected officials.

Yet pinning all one’s hopes on any particular candidate or political party is folly. Our faith and hope need to be in the LORD, for He is the One Who is sovereign over all, and He is the One Who will ultimately set all things right. So trust in Him. But faith in the Lord does not absolve us from our responsibility to vote — and to vote wisely. Just recognize that it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.

Proverbs 29:1-14

He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck,
will suddenly be broken beyond healing.

Proverbs 29:1

This proverb brings to mind the Exodus. God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh to release the people of Israel from slavery, but Pharaoh repeatedly refuses, despite devastating plagues. Again and again he hardens his heart — or stiffens his neck — until the firstborn sons of all the Egyptians are killed in the first Passover. Then he finally relents and lets the people go, only to again harden his heart and chase them to the Red Sea, where the Lord parts the waters and lets the Israelites pass through on dry ground. Pharaoh’s army gives chase, but the Lord brings the waters back onto Pharaoh’s army, drowning the whole army in the sea — suddenly broken beyond healing. (See Exodus 1-14.)

But Pharaoh is not the only example from the Exodus; so are the people of Israel. They also repeatedly show themselves to be stiff-necked. They complain against God and quickly turn away from Him, worshipping the golden calf while Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. The Lord responds with repeated reproofs, but they go on to faithlessly refuse to enter the Promised Land, and so God makes them wander in the wilderness for forty years until that entire generation (except faithful Joshua and Caleb) die out — broken beyond healing.

Let’s not be so stiff-necked. Let’s listen to reproof and learn from our (and others’) mistakes. Let’s walk with the Lord and not against Him. Let’s not be broken beyond healing. (See Psalm 95.)

Proverbs 28:15-28

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread,
but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.
A faithful man will abound with blessings,
but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 28:19-20

The truth of these proverbs should be reasonably plain to all. Faithful, diligent hard work over time is a much more reliable producer of wealth than get-rich-quick schemes. And yet foolishness persists, fed in large measure by government policy. The prime example of that is state-sponsored lotteries. Proper government should encourage wise behavior, but instead our government actively entices the populace toward “easy” money. We justify the lottery with promises to use the proceeds of all those ticket sales to fund education, but that is just an accounting gimmick that thoroughly ignores all the additional welfare costs resulting from the poverty induced by the lottery itself. Foolishness.

The welfare system reflects similar folly. Through higher tax rates, we punish those who work hard and build wealth, and we reward those inclined to accept “free” money. Yes, some basic safety net is appropriate to guard against short-term crisis situations, but it is counterproductive to promote ever-increasing entitlement programs that do nothing to encourage people to get off those programs. After decades of such programs in this country, it should be clear that they do not actually work, yet they are continually promoted under the guise of compassion. Compassion for the poor may motivate welfare programs on the surface, but the truth is that it is far from compassionate to entice the poor into dependence and away from productivity.

Scripture repeatedly tells us to care for the poor. The question is how. As we can see in these proverbs, the path out of poverty is ongoing productivity, and productivity is the result of faithful, diligent work. We ourselves need to work diligently, and we should encourage that same diligence in others, both through individual interactions and through government policy.

Handouts are not the path out of poverty. Diligent work is. We would do well to listen to the Proverbs.

Proverbs 28:1-14

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Proverbs 28:13

This proverb presents a core truth of Christianity. The first real step in receiving mercy is to recognize our own sin and to repent. We cannot stand on our own righteousness.

Yet it is a truth that we seem to forget constantly. So we all come to church each week wearing masks, pretending that we’ve got it all together. Sure, we say “The General Confession” along with everyone else in the service, but when asked individually, “How are you?” we say, “Fine” or we mention some physical malady. We practically never respond with a confession of sin. No. We’re in good shape.

And so, our tendency to conceal transgressions grows, and it extends to the congregation as a whole. Soon it encompasses great swaths of the institutional Church. We see whole denominations covering up scandalous behavior, like sexual misconduct on the part of clergy or other leadership. All this from an institution where only sinners are allowed in to begin with! No wonder the world calls us hypocrites!

That’s one thing I love about Freedom Road. The masks come off, and we admit our powerlessness over sin and our utter dependence on the Lord. And in that confession we find not only mercy but freedom — the freedom that the entire Church should enjoy, if only we would take off the masks.