Soul Rejoice

 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;    Fools despise wisdom and instruction” We come to an important concept in the book of Proverbs: the fear of the LORD . The fear of the LORD is an inclusion in the first nine chapters of Proverbs (cf. 9:10 – “ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”) which form a unit. It is also an inclusion for the entire book (cf. 31:30 – “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD , she shall be praised”). So the fear of the LORD begins and ends the first section of Proverbs as well as begins and ends the book. It is also a prominent theme within the book itself. The fear of the LORD... • is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7, 29; 2:5) • is the beginning of wisdom (9:10; 15:33), • instills confidence (14:26) • makes rich (22:4). • prolongs life (10:27), • is a fountain of life (14:27), • leads to life (19:2...

God knows His children. Isn’t that a wonderful sentence? God knows His children. This is the truth expressed in the final verse of Psalm 1. In direct contrast to the destruction of the wicked on the day of judgment in verse 5, verse 6 says that “ the LORD knows the way of the righteous. ”  This is the ultimate reason why the righteous person is blessed: because the LORD knows him. He knows His children. This is more than a knowledge of their existence, for God knows all things. This is a statement of intimacy. God knows personally those who are His. In fact, the psalmist uses the personal name of God (LORD in all capital letters stands in place of the divine name Yahweh/Jehovah) demonstrating His intimacy with those whom He knows. To them He extends His grace and lovingkindness that they would not perish on the day of judgment but dwell in the house of the LORD forever and ever. If we have believed in Jesus Christ, we can know with certainty that we will never face the wrath o...

It has been some time since I last wrote here. We were meditating on Psalm 1 one verse at a time. And we come to the penultimate verse today. “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.” That is not seeker friendly, is it? It is blunt. It is a hard truth. It is something that we shy away from talking about. But it is true. And we must be bold to meditate and proclaim those things that are difficult. We love to preach the glories of heaven (and we should!). But we cannot neglect to speak of the horrors of hell. One day, God will judge the world through Jesus Christ. And all those who have believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ—that He died to take the punishment of sin and that He was raised again on the third day, indicating that God accepted and was pleased with the atonement of Christ—will enter into His rest. But those who have not believed in Jesus will be thrown into the lake of fire. The psalmist puts it this way:...

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I want to take some time from the devotional posts that I usually do, and talk about reading. The most frequent questions that I am asked is: “How do you read so many books?” And, “How do you remember what you read?” In this post, I want to show you my system for reading as much or as little as needed or desired. I am mostly writing about how to read non-fiction books, although this system can work for fiction as well. The Desire Most people want to read. If they do not want to read, they at least want to be able to say that they have read a lot of books. Christians want to be able to say that they have read theological writings far and wide in pursuit of gaining insight into the Christian life and the Scriptures. If you are anything like me, you have a pile of books that you want to read, but it never seems like a book makes it OUT of the pile and back on the shelf with the satisfactory change of status to “read.” Most of us just laugh it off, and say that we will get to it whe...

In the first three verses of Psalm 1, we saw that the blessed person was characterized by delighting in and walking according to the Word of God. As we move into the fourth verse, we see a stark contrast. Emphatically, the psalmist states, “It is not so with the wicked.” The Septuagint (the LXX – the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) translates this as “Not so the ungodly, not so.” Just as the darkness makes us appreciate the light, so does wickedness make us appreciate righteousness. This picture of the wicked vivifies the metaphor in verse three. The wicked are not so, The wicked is the person who does not delight on the word of God. Spurgeon wrote that “we are hereby to understand that whatever good thing is said of the righteous is not true in the case of the ungodly.” All throughout the Old Testament, the wicked are the direct opposite of the righteous. The word ‘wickedness’ denotes evil thoughts, words, and deeds that are contrary to God’s character and hostile tow...

The Book of Proverbs begins with a list of benefits and purposes. While the form of a Proverb may be a bit fuzzy, they serve a very distinct role in life. I think that it is safe to say that without the study of proverbs, we are impoverished today. We learn many facts, but we are never tantalized with the riddles and paradoxes that are presented in proverbs. To Know Wisdom and Instruction The first purpose of learning Proverbs is “to know wisdom” (v. 2). This word ‘know’ in this instance has the connotation of ‘to gain knowledge of’ or ‘to become wise in.’ This sort of knowing comes through experience. The purpose of proverbs is not just for one to come to know wisdom, but to put to practical use the wisdom that is acquired. The term ‘wisdom’ could be defined as a ‘valuable skill.’ That is, it is a skill that produces something of value. It is used of seamen (Ps 107:27), weavers (Exod 35:26), administrators (1 Kings 3:28), or craftsmen (Exod 31:6). It can also be used to refer to...

There is no definitive definition of a Proverb. The root idea of the word is “likeness.” A proverb gives a description of something by way of comparison. There are many ways that this can take place. We are most familiar with the short two-liners: (e.g. “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD, But a just weight is His delight.”) This teaches a practical truth in a pithy and thought provoking way. Yet we are also familiar with extended proverbs like the parables of Jesus. Parables also teach a core truth in a thought provoking way. Proverbs employ poetry to establish their meaning. Hebrew poetry does not rely on meter or rhyme like some English poetry. Instead, two or more lines are stated in a way that the meaning is deepened by the relationship between the lines. The first line may state a truth that is reinforced through synonymous language in the following line(s). This is called synonymous parallelism. For example: “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD Or loa...

The Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. As we approach the book of Proverbs, we need to understand the nature of the book. The first thing that we must know is that this is a book of proverbs that were primarily written by King Solomon. Solomon was the son of David, and succeeded David to the throne (1 Kings 1:39). 1 Kings 4:32 tells us that he wrote and collected more than 3,000 proverbs. The Holy Spirit has not preserved all the proverbs that Solomon ever wrote, for there are only about 800 verses in the book of Proverbs. So these are selected proverbs. Chapters 1-24 are a collection of proverbs that was probably collected during the time of Solomon. Chapters 25-29 were collected and published under King Hezekiah. Chapters 30 and 31 contain proverbs written by Agur and Lemuel respectively, and may have been collected by Solomon. Some have even speculated that “Lemuel” is another name for Solomon. But in any case, Solomon played a prominent role in writing and colle...

Psalm 1:3 – “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” In studying this Psalm, we have seen what the blessed person does not do (v. 1). We have also seen what the righteous person does do (v.2). Instead of being enamored with the wisdom of the world, the blessed person delights in the Word of God. It holds his attention. It is a light to the feet (Psa 119:110). And it is always on his mind. “He meditates on it day and night” (1:2). I can see the effects of meditation on the Word in my own life. When I am regularly reading, meditating, and praying through Scripture, I find that I am more heavenly minded. But when I neglect Scripture, I am more prone to focus on the things on earth (cf. Col 3:1-2). Being a pastor now, with Sunday coming quickly every week, I am in Scripture most of the day. That is one of the benefits of always preparing sermons, blogs, devoti...

In the previous blog post , we saw that the person that is under God’s blessing does not “walk in the way of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers.” Those are characteristics that negatively define the righteous man. The first three lines of Psalm 1 tell us what the blessed person does not do. We can turn them around and make them positive. The blessed man walks in the way of the righteous, stands in the path of the godly, and sits in the seat of believers. This person follows the advice of the saints, and rejects the counsel of the wicked. This person observes the ways of the godly, but is not associated with the wicked. This person learns from believers and not from the scoffers. The blessed person does these things, because he drinks deep of the Word of God. “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night” (Psa 1:2). This blessed man discerns righteousness and unrighteousness, because he holds everything ...

I. The Righteous Live Wisely According to God’s Word (1-3) IA. The Righteous Avoid Living According to the Sinner’s Philosophy How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! People have their opinions. They come to their opinions through many influences in their life. Their parents are a big influence, especially early in life. Teachers have a lot of influence in the lives of young people, and due to the expansion of education, the influence of teachers continues well into adulthood. A person’s friends are an influencing force. The literature read and the media consumed are a major emphasis on a person’s opinions. Advertisements, whether we are conscious of it or not, shape our opinions. When we have no opinion on a matter, or we suspect ours to be wrong, we consult others to ask them for their counsel. We search the internet for blogs and forums that will help us to form an opinion on a matt...

The Bible is the revelation of God that is about God and about how He would have us live life. God is the Creator of all things, and therefore He is infinitely superior to them. There is no one like Him. No one has the infinite knowledge or wisdom that He has. We are limited by our creatureliness. He, as the Creator is unlimited. We are limited by the effects of the Fall, namely sin. He, as the pure and righteous King, is unlimited. Through His Word, God has revealed His eternal plan of redemption through His Son Jesus Christ. He has revealed that one day, Jesus Christ will return and vanquish His enemies in order to rule over a kingdom of righteousness. And He has revealed that the righteous will participate in this Kingdom while the unrighteous are thrown into the Lake of Fire. What does it mean by “righteous?” Who are the righteous ones? If “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), and if “the wages of sin are death” (Rom 6:23); who can stand in the day of...