Proverbs 12:18(v24)There is one who speaks rashly like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise heals.
Proverbs 24:13-14(v24)My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste; so you shall know wisdom to be to your…
Proverbs 4:22(v24)For they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body.
Proverbs 25:11-12(v24)A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. As an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise…
Proverbs 23:16(v24)Yes, my heart will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
Show all 64 cross-references
Psalms 119:103(v24)How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth!
Proverbs 3:8(v24)It will be health to your body, and nourishment to your bones.
Proverbs 27:9(vv21, 24)Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man’s friend.
Psalms 19:10(v24)They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb.
Proverbs 16:23-24(v21)The heart of the wise instructs his mouth, and adds learning to his lips. Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to…
Proverbs 15:26(v24)Yahweh detests the thoughts of the wicked, but the thoughts of the pure are pleasing.
Jeremiah 17:7-8(v20)“Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose confidence is in Yahweh. For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads…
Proverbs 15:28(vv22–23)The heart of the righteous weighs answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes out evil.
Psalms 2:12(v20)Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who…
Jeremiah 15:16(v24)Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, Yahweh, God…
Deuteronomy 32:2(v24)My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
Isaiah 30:18(v20)Therefore Yahweh will wait, that he may be gracious to you; and therefore he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you, for Yahweh is…
Psalms 34:8(v20)Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Proverbs 15:23(v24)Joy comes to a man with the reply of his mouth. How good is a word at the right time!
Isaiah 26:3-4(v20)You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you. Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an…
John 20:19-21(v24)When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled,…
Proverbs 13:14(v22)The teaching of the wise is a spring of life, to turn from the snares of death.
Proverbs 15:7(v21)The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so with the heart of fools.
Isaiah 50:4(v21)The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary. He awakens…
Song of Solomon 4:11(v24)Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
Matthew 15:14(v22)Leave them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
John 5:24(v22)“Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has…
John 6:63(v22)It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life.
Proverbs 10:11(v22)The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Proverbs 18:4(v22)The words of a man’s mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
Proverbs 19:8(v20)He who gets wisdom loves his own soul. He who keeps understanding shall find good.
Matthew 12:34-35(v23)You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man…
James 3:17(v21)But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and…
Psalms 146:5(v20)Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God:
Proverbs 8:35(v20)For whoever finds me, finds life, and will obtain favor from Yahweh.
Proverbs 14:27(v22)The fear of Yahweh is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.
Proverbs 15:2(v22)The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of fools gush out folly.
Proverbs 24:3-5(v20)Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful…
Daniel 1:19-21(v20)The king talked with them; and among them all was found no one like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the…
Daniel 3:28(v20)Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants…
Daniel 6:23(v20)Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den,…
Matthew 10:16(v20)“Behold, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 23:16-26(v22)“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is…
Luke 4:22(v21)All testified about him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, and they said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
John 6:68(v22)Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
John 7:46(v21)The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!”
Genesis 41:38-40(v20)Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God…
1 Kings 3:12(v21)behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart; so that there has been no one like you…
1 Chronicles 5:20(v20)They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the…
Psalms 45:2(v21)You are the most excellent of the sons of men. Grace has anointed your lips, therefore God has blessed you forever.
Psalms 125:1(v20)Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever.
Proverbs 10:8(v21)The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall.
Proverbs 13:15(v20)Good understanding wins favor, but the way of the unfaithful is hard.
Proverbs 22:17-18(v23)Turn your ear, and listen to the words of the wise. Apply your heart to my teaching. For it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within…
Proverbs 23:15(v21)My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine.
Ecclesiastes 12:10(v21)The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, and that which was written blamelessly, words of truth.
Luke 6:39-40(v22)He spoke a parable to them. “Can the blind guide the blind? Won’t they both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but…
Colossians 3:16(v23)Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…
Psalms 37:30-31(v23)The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.
Psalms 45:1(v23)My heart overflows with a noble theme. I recite my verses for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.
Proverbs 17:2(v20)A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.
Proverbs 22:19-20(v20)I teach you today, even you, So that your trust may be in Yahweh. Haven’t I written to you thirty excellent things of counsel and knowledge,
Romans 16:19(v21)For your obedience has become known to all. I rejoice therefore over you. But I desire to have you wise in that which is good, but innocent…
Ephesians 1:12-13(v20)to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. In him you also, having heard the word of the…
64 distinct cross-references across this passage (66 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv21–22The sweet words of consolation, which come forth of…
The sweet words of consolation, which come forth of a godly heart.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv20–24Pro 16:20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall…
Pro 16:20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy [is] he.
Ver. 20. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good.] Doing things with due deliberation and circumspection, things of weight and importance especially - for here Deliberandum est diu, quod statuendum est semel - we may look for God’s blessing, when the best that can come of rashness is repentance. Youth rides in post to be married, but in the end finds the inn of repentance to be lodged in. The best may be sometimes miscarried by their passions to their cost, as good Josiah when he encountered the King of Egypt, and never so much as sent to Jeremiah, Zephaniah, or any other prophet then living, to ask, Shall I go up against Pharaoh or not?
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And whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.] Let a man handle his matter never so wisely, yet if he trust to his own wisdom, he must not look to find good. God will cross even the likeliest projects of such, and crack the strongest sinew in all the arm of flesh. The Babylonians held their city impregnable, and boasted, as Xenophon witnesseth, that they had twenty years’ provision beforehand; but God confuted their carnal confidence. The Jews in Isaiah, when they looked for an invasion, looked in that day to the armour of the house of the forest, and "gathered together the waters of the lower pool, numbered the houses, and cast up the ditches to fortify the wall; but they looked not all this while to God their Maker," &c. Therefore they had "a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity, by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision." {Isa 22:5; Isa 22:8-10} Where the beginning is creature confidence or self-conceitedness, the end is commonly shame and confusion, in any business. Whereas he that, in the use of lawful means, resteth upon God for direction and success, though he fail in his design, yet he knows whom he hath trusted, and God will "know his soul in adversity." {Psa 31:7}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv20–24He that handleth a matter wisely; he who orders…
He that handleth a matter wisely; he who orders his affairs with discretion. Or, as others, both ancient and later interpreters, take it, he that understandeth or attendeth to the word, to wit, the word of God, which is called absolutely the word, Pro 13:13, and elsewhere, making that the rule of his actions.
Shall find good; shall obtain happy success.
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Who so trusteth in the Lord; who doth not trust to his prudence or diligence, but to God’s providence and blessings. Or, who mixeth God’s word with faith, as the phrase is, Heb 4:2.
Happy is he; he shall not only find some good, but shall certainly attain to true happiness.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn vv20–24Note, 1. Prudence gains men respect and success: He…
Note, 1. Prudence gains men respect and success: He that handles a matter wisely (that is master of his trade and makes it to appear he understands what he undertakes, that is considerate in his affairs, and, when he speaks or writes on any subject, does it pertinently) shall find good, shall come into good repute, and perhaps may make a good hand of it. 2. But it is piety only that will secure men's true happiness: Those that handle a matter wisely, if they are proud and lean to their own understanding, though they may find some good, yet they will have no great satisfaction in it; but he that trusts in the Lord, and not in his own wisdom, happy is he, and shall speed better at last. Some read the former part of the verse so as to expound it of piety, which is indeed true wisdom: He that attends to the word (the word of God, Pro 13:13) shall find good in it and good by it. And whoso trusts in the Lord, in his word which he attends to, is happy.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv20–24He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good,....…
He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good,.... That frames and composes his discourse well on any subject he takes in hand; or manages his affairs prudently and discreetly, in which he is concerned; or that wisely attends to the affair of humility, as Aben Ezra: or rather to the word, that is, to the word of God; is not a careless, negligent, unconcerned hearer of the word, but a diligent and attentive one; whose heart is opened by the Spirit of God to attend to what is spoken in it; who lays it up in his heart, and makes it the rule of his conduct in life: such a man finds good things; things which are for his profit, edification, and instruction; good truths, good doctrines, good counsel and advice, good directions and instructions; promises of good things, things for his present comfort and future happiness;
and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he; not to his own wisdom; nor in his own strength; nor in his riches, nor righteousness; nor in the favour of men, no, not of princes; but in the Lord, and in his Word; he shall want no good thing, he is kept in perfect peace; he is in the utmost safety, is like Mount Zion, that can never be removed, Jer 17:7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv20–23Good - He who orders his affairs with discretion.
Good - He who orders his affairs with discretion.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv22–24Verse 22. Understanding is a well-spring of life] מקור…
Verse 22. Understanding is a well-spring of life] מקור חיים mekor chaiyim; another allusion to the artery that carries the blood from the heart to distribute it to all the extremities of the body.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22Pro 16:20-21. He that handleth a matter wisely, &c.…
Pro 16:20-21. He that handleth a matter wisely, &c. — “He that understands his business thoroughly, and manages it prudently and discreetly, is likely to have good success; but no one is so happy, no one is so sure of prospering in his designs, as he that confides more in God than in his own skill and industry.” The wise in heart, &c. — “He whose mind is well furnished with wisdom, cannot but obtain a great reputation, and be highly esteemed for his prudent counsels and resolutions: but if he have the powerful charms of eloquence to convey his mind delightfully unto others, it will add a greater value to his wisdom, and make it more diffusive and instructive unto the world.” — Bishop Patrick.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv20, 21, 22, 24Good as it is to “handle a matter wisely,”…
Good as it is to “handle a matter wisely,” it is far better to “trust in the Lord.” The former is really impossible except through the latter.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges1846 · Public DomainOn vv20–24Two things are needed for the success of a…
Two things are needed for the success of a matter — wisdom and faith. One teaches us what to do for ourselves; the other what to expect from God. "Wisdom is profitable to direct" (Ecc 10:10 ), specially in important matters. Joseph’s wise management in a great emergency found good.†1 The Apostles wisely handled the matter of the ministration of the widows, relieving themselves from the secular work, and for the greater satisfaction choosing the officers (as seems probable from the original of the names)†2 from the complaining party. And great good did they find from the arrangement.†3 Let the young Christian earnestly study this wisdom. His first glowing impulse would cast away every relic of his former course, and stamp his religion with needless singularity. But he may learn, that true self-denial is more an internal exercise than an external badge of difference; that there may be a martyred singularity without the genuine love; that the distinction between enthusiasm and zeal is not the energy, but the direction, of the principle. This wisdom will be profitable for Christian humility and consistency.
After all, however, the most profound human wisdom may be outwitted. (2Sa 17:14 .) Prudence without faith will come to nought.†4 True wisdom handles the matter in self-distrusting dependence. (Pro 3:5-6 .) Eliezer’s discreet handling was in the spirit of faith. In the same spirit did Jacob conduct his prudential defense against his brother. (Gen 32:1-31. Gen 33:1-20.) Esther wisely handled her delicate matter; using ’a fast to call upon God, and a feast to obtain favor with the King.’†5 This is in all cases true wisdom — to make man the excitement to diligence; God the object of trust.
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And where, as in this practical trust, shall we find so Divine, so simple, a recipe of happiness? Never did God intend to create our happiness out of our own resources. To feel that we know nothing, that we can do nothing, contrive nothing; then to look up to him as our supreme Good, and to trust him as our only Friend — when was such reliance and expectation ever disappointed? We feel that we, and all that we have, are in his hands. This is our peaceful security. ’I have had many things’ — said Luther — ’in my hands, and I have lost them all. But whatever I have been able to place in God’s, I still possess.’†6 In this quiet confidence we have nothing more to do with ourselves. A thousand perplexing thoughts are scattered to the winds. God now takes the place once filled by most unquiet agitations. The soul is fixed in God. He reigns over all with an all-seeing eye, and an all-moving hand. The eye of faith pierces through the darkest cloud and reads God’s thoughts of peace and love. All the world cannot rob us of one word of God. Providence may seem to oppose his promises. But there is more reality in the least promise of God, than in the greatest performance of man. ’I will therefore ever trust him on his bare word; with hope, beside hope, above hope, against hope, for small matters of this life. For how shall I hope to trust him in impossibilities, if I may not in likelihoods?’†7 This simple habit of faith enables us fearlessly to look an extremity in the face. Thus holding on, it is his honour to put his own seal to his word — whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he. (Psa 2:12 . Jer 17:7-8 .)
Footnotes:
†1 Gen 41:25-44. Hence the removal of wise men is a national judgment. Isa 3:1-2 . Compare also Pro 13:15 ; Pro 17:2 ; Pro 19:8 .
†2 Scott in loco.
†3 Act 6:1-7. Similar good result was obtained in the wise handling of the difficult matter of circumcision. Act 15:1-41 .
†4 Isa 22:5-11. Compare 2Ki 18:13-17 . Man at his best estate vanity. Pro 16:5-6 .
†5 Est 4:16; Est 5:5 ; Est 7:1-7 . Bishop Reynolds on Hos 14:3 .
†6 D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation, Book xiv. Proverbs vi.
†7 Bishop Hall’s Works, viii. 8.
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv21, 23Shall. Hebrew, "adds learning," both to himself and to…
Shall. Hebrew, "adds learning," both to himself and to others. Those who are wise and eloquent, must be preferred before those who have only the former qualification. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv20–24handleth a matter--wisely considers "the word," that is, of…
handleth a matter--wisely considers "the word," that is, of God (compare Pro 13:13).
trusteth--(Compare Psa 2:12; Psa 118:8-9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv20–2420. Handleth… wisely — Good critics render this, He…
20. Handleth… wisely — Good critics render this, He that gives heed to the word will find good. So Zockler, Conant, Noyes, Muenscher, etc. The term “word” is used in the sense of law. Comp. Psa_2:12; Psa_34:8; Psa_84:12; Psa_125:1; Pro_13:13; Pro_19:8; Isa_30:18; Jer_17:7.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv20, 21, 22, 2420. He that handleth a matter wisely] This rendering…
20. He that handleth a matter wisely] This rendering is relegated to the margin in R.V., and instead of it he that giveth heed unto the word is adopted in the text, with a reference to Pro_13:13 (see note there), in support of it. The word will then mean the word of God. The A.V. however gives a very good sense, if we understand the second clause of the verse as intimating how a matter is to be handled wisely, cp. Pro_3:5-6.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv20–24(20) He that handleth a matter wisely.—Or, perhaps, he…
(20) He that handleth a matter wisely.—Or, perhaps, he that attendeth to the word of God. (Comp. Pro_13:13.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv20–24He that handleth a matter wisely. Dabar, translated "matter,"…
He that handleth a matter wisely. Dabar, translated "matter," is better rendered "word," as in Pro_13:13, with which passage the present is in contrast. Thus Revised Version, he that giveth heed unto the word. Shall find good; Vulgate, eruditus in verbo reperiet bona. The "Word" is the Law of God; he who attends to this shall prosper. The rendering of the Authorized Version is supported by the Septuagint, "The man prudent in affairs is a finder of good things;" he attends to his business, and thinks out the best mode of accomplishing his plans, and therefore succeeds in a worldly sense. (comp. Pro_17:20) Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he; or, hail to him, as in Pro_14:21. To heed the Word and to trust in the Lord are correlative things; handling a matter wisely can hardly belong to the same category. The Septuagint contrasts the worldly success of one who manages business wisely and discreetly with the blessedness of him who, when he has done all, commits his cause to God and trusts wholly to him: "He who hath trusted in the Lord is blessed (makaristov )."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv20, 21, 23He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good:…
Pro_16:20
He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.
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Trust in God--true wisdom
Wisdom is mans true path--that which enables him to accomplish best the end of his being, and which, therefore, gives to him the richest enjoyment and the fullest play for all his powers. Give man wisdom, in the true sense of the term, and he rises to all the dignity that manhood can possibly know. But where shall this wisdom be found? He that trusts in the Lord has found out the way to handle matters wisely, and happy is he. Take this text--
I. With regard to the wise handling of matters of time which concern our bodies and our souls whilst we are here below. Satan says, to handle a matter wisely is to make your own will your law; or he says, Be crafty; or he moderates his tone and says, Be careful. It is often said to the young man, Be self-reliant; be independent. The true way of wisdom is to act in all prudence and in all uprightness, but to rely simply and entirely on God. Faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life. Trust God, and you will not have to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich. Trust God, and you will not be guilty of self-contradiction.
II. In spiritual matters, he that handleth a matter wisely shall find good. Here Satan tempts to be careless or to be credulous; or he bids us work out our own salvation. The true way of dealing wisely here is believing in Christ, trusting him fully. (C. H Spurgeon.)
The conditions of a happy life
I. Skilful management. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good. Skilful management in every department of life is of the utmost importance.
1. It is so in intellectual improvement. The man who desires to get a well-informed and a well-disciplined mind must arrange both the subjects and the seasons of study with skill. Method is of primary moment in the business of intellect.
2. It is so in mercantile engagements.
3. It is so in spiritual culture. A wise selection of the best readings, and the most favourable seasons for devotion cannot be dispensed with if great spiritual good is to be got.
II. A well-stayed heart. Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. God is the stay of the heart.
1. He is happy in his love.
2. He is happy in his policy.
3. He is happy in his speech. And the sweetness of his lips increaseth learning. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The happiness of trusting in God
This proverb builds on the ground that all men desire happiness. Philosophers, in all ages of the world, have been trying to find out and teach what is mans greatest good; and people generally, from the days of David, have been asking, Who will show us any good? The Stoics gave one answer, the Epicureans another, as to mans chief good. Those who now ask, Is life worth living? agree with neither. It is doubtless the case, that the devotee of wealth, of fame, of power, or social eminence finds, whenever he is successful in his efforts, that neither wealth nor fame, neither power nor eminence in social position, gives the happiness which he sought therein. The results of thousands of years of experiments and of experience, before and since Solomons day, are set forth in the words of the proverb which is my text, Whose trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.
I. Trust in God is the ground on which man finds freedom from the bondage of sin, and from the painful sense of the condemnation due to him for his sin. Every one knows, and sometimes feels, that he is a sinful man. This sense of sin is felt in the greatest variety of circumstances. It may arise in a mans breast when his condition is most prosperous--when he is driving forward some business on which his heart has long been set. Sometimes this painful consciousness of guilt springs up after the accomplishment of some undertaking which has taxed ones powers for months, or even years. It is not unfrequently the case that a man is disturbed in this way soon after he has yielded to some evil thought or impulse, or soon after he has neglected to perform some duty. The world is full of instances of this sense of sin in times of danger and calamity. Thus King Saul felt it in his last days. Thus the brothers of Joseph found it pierced their hearts when they were in trouble. Thus it overwhelmed the soul of King David when the prophet Nathan told him the tender story of the poor citizen and his lamb. But this painful sense of sin comes to other persons than these terrible offenders. Is there any person here who did not feel it even in his childhood? It comes, Perhaps, after some act of disobedience or neglect toward father or mother. Perhaps it arose after some feeling of anger, or of envy toward brother or sister. It may have sprung up in the mind after some unkind word or selfish act toward playmate or schoolfellow. This fearful consciousness of sin has been many a time felt when thought has been given to the truth, that God has appointed death for every man, and the judgment after it. The poets of human nature abound in the manifestation of this painful sense of sin. Milton represents a guilty spirit as saying that others little know under what torments inwardly he groans, so that he has to cry in his agony, Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell! This sense of sin, which is felt with all degrees of painfulness, all who trust in the Lord find relieved by the assurance of His forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ. For there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
II. Whoever trusts God is no longer hostile to Him. The enmity of the heart against the Most High and the Most Holy One ceases. Accepted in the Beloved, he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This gives the faithful happiness. It was no shallow source of joy for the brothers of Joseph (when their sin had found them out) to be made sure that there was peace between the ruler of Egypt and themselves; and it is not a small boon for any man, conscious of his sin, to know that there is reconciliation and peace between himself and his Omnipotent Maker and righteous Judge, through the mediation and redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. Another reason why the man who trusts in the lord is happy may be seen in this fact--namely, that he has the indwelling of the Divine spirit to maintain his spiritual and eternal life. If the faithful had to rely upon their own wisdom, strength, and other resources, they might soon despair of perseverance in the Christian life. But whosoever trusteth in the Lord is not abandoned by the Almighty. The Holy Ghost, who is given unto the faithful, sheds abroad the love of God in their hearts; and neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God.
IV. The man whose trust is in God has the feeling of happiness because he has the assurance of safety and salvation. There is, indeed, a sense of security in some persons which springs not from the full trust of the heart in God; but it exists because there is no heed to Him. A man may build his hope of everlasting happiness and heaven on no better foundation than the lie which the fool tells to his heart when he says there is no God. He may build it on his own thoughtlessness in respect to the existence, the character, the law, and the purposes and judgments of God. This kind of assurance of safety is the belief of some prodigals that they will never become spendthrifts. It is the assurance of some drunkards that they will never drink too much, and become intemperate. How different is the safe and serene condition of the man who puts his trust in God!
V. Whosoever trusts in the Lord is happy because he delights in God and desires to do his duty toward Him. Some children love their parents, delight in them, and find a rich gratification in pleasing and obeying them. The manifestation of their filial affection is charming to others. The outflow of it is joy to themselves. Very much of their happiness springs from it. The faithful generally delight in doing their duty toward God. The way of duty is their chosen path. The sources of their joy never fail. They are not surface streams that freeze over in winter and run dry in summer. The touch of death cannot reach them. They are as perpetual in heaven as upon earth.
VI. Whosoever trusts in God is happy because the Divine Providence is unchangeably set to do the faithful good. (E. Whitaker, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn vv20, 22Pro_16:20. Delitzsch and Zöckler translate the first clause “He…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_16:20. Delitzsch and Zöckler translate the first clause “He that giveth heed to the Word findeth good.” Stuart and others, “He that is prudent respecting any matter.” Miller says, “Literally, wise about a word.”
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Pro_16:21. Sweetness, or “grace,” Learning, or “instruction”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_16:20-21
THE FRUITS OF TRUST IN THE LORD
I. There can be no real blessedness in life unless there is trust in the Lord. Men are so constituted that, if they are to have soul-rest, they must confide in the power and wisdom and love of a Being who is stronger and wiser and better than they are. Let a man be ever so great intellectually or morally, there will be times in his life when he will feel the absolute need he has of the guidance of One who is far wiser than he is, of the help of One who far exceeds him in ability and in goodness. If he has not such a helper and guide to whom he can turn, he will be a stranger to that calmness of soul which alone makes a man truly blessed.
1. A trust of this kind must rest upon a knowledge of the Divine character. If a man is following a guide in some difficult and dangerous path, it is necessary to his peace of mind that he should know enough about his guide to be assured that he will lead him aright. If he does not know enough about him to know this, he may be haunted by underlying doubts and fears which will banish all comfort from his mind. When a ship’s crew have so little knowledge of their captain’s character and ability as to be uncertain whether he is able or whether he intends to bring the ship safely to her destined port, they will be possessed by a spirit of uneasiness. But if they know that all his powers will be directed to that end, and that his ability is equal to the task, they will sail through the deep in comparative rest and peace. So no human soul can possess a confidence in God which will keep it calm and restful amid the waves of life’s sea, unless he has made himself acquainted with the character of God—unless he knows so much about Him as to feel assured that His ways and works are perfectly wise and good.
2. God has given men means of acquiring this knowledge. He has no motive for holding back from His creatures a knowledge of what He is and what His purposes are concerning them. Those who endeavour to conceal what they are and what their intentions are in relation to their fellow-men, do so from a consciousness that if they revealed them they would not be trusted. But God has no such motive for concealing His character and intentions, and He has therefore revealed to men what He is and what He desires to do for them as fully as they are able to receive it, and with clearness and certainty enough to be the basis of an unwavering trust. This is indeed the end of all revelation of Himself—to lead men to “know the only true God and Jesus Christ” (Joh_17:2), so that they may have faith in both the Divine Father and the Divine Son,—that a trust may be begotten of the knowledge that will make them truly blessed.
II. An intelligent trust in the Lord is true wisdom. Wisdom has been often defined as the application of knowledge to practice, and a man whose knowledge of God has begotten within him a trust in the Lord, is the only man who is capable of “handling wisely” either matters connected with his own life or with the lives of others. When Adam lost his trust in God he gave evidence of his folly—when his confidence in the Divine character became unsettled, he lost his ability to do the best with his own existence as a whole, or with any particular matter connected with it. It is a mark of the truest wisdom to handle all matters whether they are more immediately connected with our spiritual or material welfare, in a spirit of trust in the perfect wisdom and love of God, and it is a mark of the highest folly to endeavour to do it without dependence upon Him. He who, in all his ways, rests upon a Divine guide, is the only man who deserves the name of a “prudent” man (Pro_16:21). If a child comes into possession of vast estates—of large revenues—he is quite unable by reason of his undeveloped capacities and of his limited experience to use what he possesses to the best advantage. Unless his inheritance is to suffer from misuse, there must be the help of a higher intelligence and a more extended experience than he possesses: and many men possess a great inheritance of intellectual endowments, or of wealth and position, but because they fail to apply to the Highest Wisdom for help to use it rightly, they are neither blessed themselves in the possession, nor do they bless others by the possession.
III. Such a wise and prudent man finds good and does good.
1. He will get good to himself. He will get a godly character, for trust in the Lord is not only the foundation of all true soul-rest, but of godliness of heart and life. “He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer_17:8). Here the prophet teaches that he who possesses within him a constant well of spiritual happiness from confidence in God will manifest it in godly deeds, and thus will become the possessor of the greatest good in God’s universe—a holy character.
2. He will do good to others by his wise and holy conversation. “The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning,” and the speech of a man who trusts in the Lord will be of so attractive and winning a nature as to lead others to know God and to trust in Him.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_16:20. Combined view of the two chief requisites to a really devout life;
(1) Obedience to the Word of God.
(2) Inspiring confidence in God.—Lange’s Commentary.
In doubtful cases to hold fast to God’s word, and believingly hope in His help, ensures always a good issue.—Geier.
Wise about a word. (See Critical Notes.) By usage, “wise about a thing,” hence “shrewd, though it be but in one transaction.” How often in London might mansions be pointed out of men opulent at a stroke! Such a stroke is faith! See the same marvel in chap. Pro_18:21. What a wonder is it that a man can win palaces of light by “one act” of casting himself upon the sacrifice. “Act,” literally, word. But men acted so by the word in that country, that it grew to mean affair. (Gen_20:8.) The very name of Christ (Joh_1:1) seems to be coloured by this Eastern usage. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” (Psa_33:6). “Blessed in every sense whatever. What other “affair” ever produced as much as the affair of faith? (Mar_9:23).—Miller.
The obvious sense is that thorough understanding of business and prudent management of it tend to insure a prosperous issue, And if the business is another’s, the intelligent, cautious, successful conducting of it, will procure benefit by the favour it conciliates, and the character it establishes. One business well conducted brings a man another. This is the way to get forward in the world. And in proportion as the entrusted transaction is difficult and delicate, will the “handling of it wisely” prove advantageous. Still there is no amount of human understanding and discretion that can render success in any transaction certain. The result rests with God. Hence a very natural connection of the latter clause of the verse with the former. Here is the true secret of happiness—the union in all things of prudence and diligence, with trust in God. Trust must be associated with effort.… Let it be further observed that “handling a matter wisely” does not mean handling it cunningly with artifice and what the apostle calls “fleshly wisdom”—the policy of this world; but with a wisdom and prudence in harmony with the most rigid and straightforward integrity. Double dealing may be misnamed wisdom, the arts of a tortuous cunning may be dignified with the designation of prudence; but when such wisdom, such prudence has been employed, even the greatest amount of success can impart little that deserves the name of happiness. And no man who is using the arts of a crooked policy can exercise trust in God. The two things are incompatible. Who can unite obedience and confidence? How could David trust in God for the success of his plan against Uriah the Hittite? There was art in it, but there was not wisdom.—Wardlaw.
This is in all cases true wisdom—to make man the excitement to diligence, God the object of trust.… “I have had many things,” said Luther, “in my hands, and have lost them all. But whatever I have been able to trust in God’s I still possess.” … “I will therefore,” says Bishop Hall, “trust Him on His bare word, with hope, beside hope, above hope, against hope, for small matters of this life. For how shall I hope to trust Him in impossibilities if I may not in likelihoods. This simple habit of faith enables us fearlessly to look an extremity in the face. Thus holding on, it is His honour to put his own seal to His word. (Psa_2:12; Jer_17:7-8).—Bridges.
Many meddle with more matters than they do well quit themselves of; and many a time a good matter is made ill by the ill handling of it. And he that handleth a matter wisely shall find good, although the matter be ill; and well doth he acquit himself, although the matter may not succeed well.… To put our trust in God, and not to use a wise care, is to deceive ourselves; to use a wise care, and not to trust in God, is to dishonour God.—Jermin.
Pro_16:21. Piety is sure to be discovered; but many a pious man has less influence for want of courtesy. The suaviter may be really stronger than the fortiter. The last word is literally a taking, from the verb to take. This noun is often learning. A taking may very legitimately be “a lesson.” The idea is, that sweet lips increase the taking, i.e., make more wisdom to be taken by the men around. The duty, therefore, is evolved, of being kind in speech that our good may not be evil spoken of (Rom_14:16).—Miller.
If the “wise in heart” be understood of the truly, spiritually, divinely wise, then the phrase “shall be called prudent” must be interpreted, according to a common Hebrew idiom, as meaning “is prudent”—deserves to be so called. The sentiment will thus be the oft-repeated one, that true religion is the only genuine prudence. And is it not so? we ask anew. Take as a standard the ordinary maxims of prudence among men. Is it the part of prudence to be considerate? to look forward? to anticipate, as far as possible, the contingencies of the future? to provide against evil? to make sure of lasting good? Then is true religion the very perfection of prudence.—Wardlaw.
That our wisdom may be useful, we should endeavour to produce it to advantage by a graceful and engaging manner of expression. It is not uncommon with bad men to set off their corrupt sentiments by dressing them in all the beauties of language, and by this means multitudes are seduced into error and folly. Is not wisdom far better entitled to this recommendation than folly?—Lawson.
There is no sweetness that entereth into the lips to be compared to the sweetness that cometh from the lips. The fig-tree must leave her sweetness, and all the trees of delight their pleasantness, when the fruit of the lips is mentioned among them. And most fitly is eloquence styled the sweetness of the lips. How daintily doth it sweeten all matters of knowledge! What a delicate relish doth it give unto them! With what pleasure doth it make them to slip into the ears of men! How doth it mollify the hardness and sharpness of reproof! How doth it qualify the bitterness of sorrows! How doth it warm the dull coldness of apprehension and attention! And therefore, though wisdom in the heart is of the chiefest worth, yet eloquence of the lips is an addition to it. St. Augustine, speaking of himself, saith, that when he heard St. Ambrose preaching, “I stood by as one careless of the matter he spake, and a contemner of it, and I was delighted with the sweetness of his words; but together with the words which I respected, the matter came into my heart which I neglected, and while I opened my heart to receive how eloquently he spake, it entered also into my heart how truly he spake.”—Jermin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v22Pro 16:22 - Pro 16:33.
Proverbs
A BUNDLE OF PROVERBS
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Pro 16:22 - Pro 16:33.
A slight thread of connection may be traced in some of the proverbs in this passage. Pro 16:22, with its praise of ‘Wisdom,’ introduces one instance of Wisdom’s excellence in Pro 16:23, and that again, with its reference to speech, leads on to Pro 16:24 and its commendation of ‘pleasant words.’ Similarly, Pro 16:27 - Pro 16:30 give four pictures of vice, three of them beginning with ‘a man.’ We may note, too, that, starting with Pro 16:26, every verse till Pro 16:30 refers to some work of ‘the mouth’ or ‘lips.’
The passage begins with one phase of the contrast between Wisdom and Folly, which this book is never weary of emphasising and underscoring. We shall miss the force of its most characteristic teaching unless we keep well in mind that the two opposites of Wisdom and Folly do not refer only or chiefly to intellectual distinctions. The very basis of ‘Wisdom,’ as this book conceives it, is the ‘fear of the Lord,’ without which the man of biggest, clearest brain, and most richly stored mind, is, in its judgment, ‘a fool.’ Such ‘understanding,’ which apprehends and rightly deals with the deepest fact of life, our relation to God and to His law, is a ‘well-spring of life.’ The figure speaks still more eloquently to Easterns than to us. In those hot lands the cool spring, bursting through the baked rocks or burning sand, makes the difference between barrenness and fertility, the death of all green things and life. So where true Wisdom is deep in a heart, it will come flashing up into sunshine, and will quicken the seeds of all good as it flows through the deeds. ‘Everything liveth whithersoever the river cometh.’ Productiveness, refreshment, the beauty of the sparkling wavelets, the music of their ripples against the stones, and all the other blessings and delights of a perpetual fountain, have better things corresponding to them in the life of the man who is wise with the true Wisdom which begins with the fear of God. Just as it is active in the life, so is Folly. But its activity is not blessing and gladdening, but punitive. For all sin automatically works its own chastisement, and the curse of Folly is that, while it corrects, it prevents the ‘fool’ from profiting by the correction. Since it punishes itself, one might expect that it would cure itself, but experience shows that, while it wields a rod, its subjects ‘receive no correction.’ That insensibility is the paradox and the Nemesis of ‘Folly.’
The Old Testament ethics are remarkable for their solemn sense of the importance of words, and Proverbs shares in that sense to the full. In some aspects, speech is a more perfect self-revelation than act. So the outflow of the fountain in words comes next. Wise heart makes wise speech. That may be looked at in two ways. It may point to the utterance by word as the most precious, and incumbent on its possessor, of all the ways of manifesting Wisdom; or it may point to the only source of real ‘learning,’-namely, a wise heart. In the former view, it teaches us our solemn obligation not to hide our light under a bushel, but to speak boldly and lovingly all the truth which God has taught us. A dumb Christian is a monstrosity. We are bound to give voice to our ‘Wisdom.’ In the other aspect, it reminds us that there is a better way of getting Wisdom than by many books,-namely, by filling our hearts, through communion with God, with His own will. Then, whether we have worldly ‘learning’ or no, we shall be able to instruct many, and lead them to the light which has shone on us.
There are many kinds of pleasant words, some of which are not like ‘honey,’ but like poison hid in jam. Insincere compliments, flatteries when rebukes would be fitting, and all the brood of civil conventionalities, are not the words meant here. Truly pleasant ones are those which come from true Wisdom, and may often have a surface of bitterness like the prophet’s roll, but have a core of sweetness. It is a great thing to be able to speak necessary and unwelcome truths with lips into which grace is poured. A spoonful of honey catches more flies than a hogshead of vinegar.
Pro 16:25 has no connection with its context. It teaches two solemn truths, according to the possible double meaning of ‘right.’ If that word means ethically right, then the saying sets forth the terrible possibility of conscience being wrongly instructed, and sanctioning gross sin. If it means only straight, or level-that is, successful and easy-the saying enforces the not less solemn truth that sin deceives as to its results, and that the path of wrong-doing, which is flowery and smooth at first, grows rapidly thorny, and goes fast downhill, and ends at last in a cul-de-sac, of which death is the only outlet. We are not to trust our own consciences, except as enlightened by God’s Word. We are not to listen to sin’s lies, but to fix it well in our minds that there is only one way which leads to life and peace, the narrow way of faith and obedience.
The Revised Version’s rendering of Pro 16:26 gives the right idea. ‘The appetite,’ or hunger, ‘of the labourer labours for him’ {that is, the need of food is the mainspring of work}, and it lightens the work to which it impels. So hunger is a blessing. That is true in regard to the body. The manifold material industries of men are, at bottom, prompted by the need to earn something to eat. The craving which drives to such results is a thing to be thankful for. It is better to live where toil is needful to sustain life than in lazy lands where an hour’s work will provide food for a week. But the saying reaches to spiritual desires, and anticipates the beatitude on those who ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness.’ Happy they who feel that craving, and are driven by it to the labour for the bread which comes down from heaven! ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’
The next three proverbs {Pro 16:27 - Pro 16:29} give three pictures of different types of bad men. First, we have ‘the worthless man’ {Rev. Ver.}, literally ‘a man of Belial,’ which last word probably means worthlessness. His work is ‘digging evil’; his words are like scorching fire. To dig evil seems to have a wider sense than has digging a pit for others {Psa 7:15}, which is usually taken as a parallel. The man is not merely malicious toward others, but his whole activity goes to further evil. It is the material in which he delights to work. What mistaken spade husbandry it is to spend labour on such a soil! What can it grow but thistles and poisonous plants? His words are as bad as his deeds. No honey drops from his lips, but scorching fire, which burns up not only reputations but tries to consume all that is good. As James says, such a tongue is ‘set on fire of hell.’ The picture is that of a man bad through and through. But there may be indefinitely close approximations to it, and no man can say, ‘Thus far will I go in evil ways, and no further.’
The second picture is of a more specific kind. The ‘froward man’ here seems to be the same as the slanderer in the next clause. He utters perverse things, and so soweth strife and parts friends. There are people whose mouths are as full of malicious whispers as a sower’s basket is of seed, and who have a base delight in flinging them broadcast. Sometimes they do not think of what the harvest will be, but often they chuckle to see it springing in the mistrust and alienation of former friends. A loose tongue often does as much harm as a bitter one, and delight in dwelling on people’s faults is not innocent because the tattler did not think of the mischief he was setting agoing.
In Pro 16:29 another type of evil-doer is outlined-the opposite, in some respects, of the preceding. The slanderer works secretly; this mischief-maker goes the plain way to work. He uses physical force or ‘violence.’ But how does that fit in with ‘enticeth’? It may be that the enticement of his victim into a place suitable for robbing or murder is meant, but more probably there is here the same combination of force and craft as in Pro 1:10 - Pro 1:14. Criminals have a wicked delight in tempting innocent people to join their gangs. A lawless desperado is a hotbed of infection.
Pro 16:30 draws a portrait of a bad man. It is a bit of homely physiognomical observation. A man with a trick of closing his eyes has something working in his head; and, if he is one of these types of men, one may be sure that he is brewing mischief. Compressed lips mean concentrated effort, or fixed resolve, or suppressed feeling, and in any of these cases are as a danger signal, warning that the man is at work on some evil deed.
Two sayings follow, which contrast goodness with the evils just described. The ‘if’ in Pro 16:31 weakens the strong assertion of the proverb. ‘The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness.’ That is but putting into picturesque form the Old Testament promise of long life to the righteous-a promise which is not repeated in the new dispensation, but which is still often realised. ‘Whom the gods love, die young,’ is a heathen proverb; but there is a natural tendency in the manner of life which Christianity produces to prolong a man’s days. A heart at peace, because stayed on God, passions held well in hand, an avoidance of excesses which eat away strength, do tend to length of life, and the opposites of these do tend to shorten it. How many young men go home from our great cities every year, with their ‘bones full of the iniquities of their youth,’ to die!
If we are to tread the way of righteousness, and so come to ‘reverence and the silver hair,’ we must govern ourselves. So the next proverb extols the ruler of his own spirit as ‘more than conquerors,’ whose triumphs are won in such vulgar fields as battles and sieges, Our sorest fights and our noblest victories are within.
‘Unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!’
Pro 16:31 takes the casting of the lot as one instance of the limitation of all human effort, in all which we can but use the appropriate means, while the whole issue must be left in God’s hands. The Jewish law did not enjoin the lot, but its use seems to have been frequent. The proverb presents in the sharpest relief a principle which is true of all our activity. The old proverb-maker knew nothing of chance. To him there were but two real moving forces in the world-man and God. To the one belonged sowing the seed, doing his part, whether casting the lot or toiling at his task. His force was real, but derived and limited. Efforts and attempts are ours; results are God’ s. We sow; He ‘gives it a body as it pleases Him.’ Nothing happens by accident. Man’s little province is bounded on all sides by God’ s, and the two touch. There is no neutral territory between, where godless chance rules.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v20(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trusteth
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn vv20–24v. 20. He that handleth a matter wisely, giving…
v. 20. He that handleth a matter wisely, giving careful heed to the Word of God in every situation in life, shall find good, obtain true prosperity; and whoso trusteth in the Lord, being united with Him in the personal, confidential relation of faith, happy is he, the possessor of true blessedness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv21, 23The one who is wise in heart is called…
The one who is wise in heart is called discerning
This person will have a reputation of being a discerning person. This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will call the one who is wise in heart discerning" or "The one who is wise in heart will have a reputation of being a discerning person" (See: Active or Passive)
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The one who is wise in heart
Here the heart represents the mind and thoughts. AT: "The one who is wise" or "The one who is wise in his thinking" (See: Metonymy)
sweetness of speech
The writer speaks of kind or pleasant speech as if it were something that tastes sweet. AT: "kind speech" or "pleasant speech" (See: Metaphor)
Understanding is a fountain of life
The writer speaks of "Understanding" as if it were a fountain that continuously flows with water and which sustains the life of those who drink from it. AT: "Understanding is like a fountain flowing with life-giving water" (See: Metaphor)
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv21–22 The sweet words of consolation, which come forth of…
The sweet words of consolation, which come forth of a godly heart.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–24 Pro 16:20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall…
Pro 16:20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy [is] he.
Ver. 20. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good.] Doing things with due deliberation and circumspection, things of weight and importance especially - for here Deliberandum est diu, quod statuendum est semel - we may look for God’s blessing, when the best that can come of rashness is repentance. Youth rides in post to be married, but in the end finds the inn of repentance to be lodged in. The best may be sometimes miscarried by their passions to their cost, as good Josiah when he encountered the King of Egypt, and never so much as sent to Jeremiah, Zephaniah, or any other prophet then living, to ask, Shall I go up against Pharaoh or not?
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And whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.] Let a man handle his matter never so wisely, yet if he trust to his own wisdom, he must not look to find good. God will cross even the likeliest projects of such, and crack the strongest sinew in all the arm of flesh. The Babylonians held their city impregnable, and boasted, as Xenophon witnesseth, that they had twenty years’ provision beforehand; but God confuted their carnal confidence. The Jews in Isaiah, when they looked for an invasion, looked in that day to the armour of the house of the forest, and "gathered together the waters of the lower pool, numbered the houses, and cast up the ditches to fortify the wall; but they looked not all this while to God their Maker," &c. Therefore they had "a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity, by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision." {Isa 22:5; Isa 22:8-10} Where the beginning is creature confidence or self-conceitedness, the end is commonly shame and confusion, in any business. Whereas he that, in the use of lawful means, resteth upon God for direction and success, though he fail in his design, yet he knows whom he hath trusted, and God will "know his soul in adversity." {Psa 31:7}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20–24 He that handleth a matter wisely; he who orders…
He that handleth a matter wisely; he who orders his affairs with discretion. Or, as others, both ancient and later interpreters, take it, he that understandeth or attendeth to the word, to wit, the word of God, which is called absolutely the word, Pro 13:13, and elsewhere, making that the rule of his actions.
Shall find good; shall obtain happy success.
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Who so trusteth in the Lord; who doth not trust to his prudence or diligence, but to God’s providence and blessings. Or, who mixeth God’s word with faith, as the phrase is, Heb 4:2.
Happy is he; he shall not only find some good, but shall certainly attain to true happiness.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv20–24 Note, 1. Prudence gains men respect and success: He…
Note, 1. Prudence gains men respect and success: He that handles a matter wisely (that is master of his trade and makes it to appear he understands what he undertakes, that is considerate in his affairs, and, when he speaks or writes on any subject, does it pertinently) shall find good, shall come into good repute, and perhaps may make a good hand of it. 2. But it is piety only that will secure men's true happiness: Those that handle a matter wisely, if they are proud and lean to their own understanding, though they may find some good, yet they will have no great satisfaction in it; but he that trusts in the Lord, and not in his own wisdom, happy is he, and shall speed better at last. Some read the former part of the verse so as to expound it of piety, which is indeed true wisdom: He that attends to the word (the word of God, Pro 13:13) shall find good in it and good by it. And whoso trusts in the Lord, in his word which he attends to, is happy.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–24 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good,....…
He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good,.... That frames and composes his discourse well on any subject he takes in hand; or manages his affairs prudently and discreetly, in which he is concerned; or that wisely attends to the affair of humility, as Aben Ezra: or rather to the word, that is, to the word of God; is not a careless, negligent, unconcerned hearer of the word, but a diligent and attentive one; whose heart is opened by the Spirit of God to attend to what is spoken in it; who lays it up in his heart, and makes it the rule of his conduct in life: such a man finds good things; things which are for his profit, edification, and instruction; good truths, good doctrines, good counsel and advice, good directions and instructions; promises of good things, things for his present comfort and future happiness;
and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he; not to his own wisdom; nor in his own strength; nor in his riches, nor righteousness; nor in the favour of men, no, not of princes; but in the Lord, and in his Word; he shall want no good thing, he is kept in perfect peace; he is in the utmost safety, is like Mount Zion, that can never be removed, Jer 17:7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv20–23 Good - He who orders his affairs with discretion.
Good - He who orders his affairs with discretion.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv22–24 Verse 22. Understanding is a well-spring of life] מקור…
Verse 22. Understanding is a well-spring of life] מקור חיים mekor chaiyim; another allusion to the artery that carries the blood from the heart to distribute it to all the extremities of the body.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 Pro 16:20-21. He that handleth a matter wisely, &c.…
Pro 16:20-21. He that handleth a matter wisely, &c. — “He that understands his business thoroughly, and manages it prudently and discreetly, is likely to have good success; but no one is so happy, no one is so sure of prospering in his designs, as he that confides more in God than in his own skill and industry.” The wise in heart, &c. — “He whose mind is well furnished with wisdom, cannot but obtain a great reputation, and be highly esteemed for his prudent counsels and resolutions: but if he have the powerful charms of eloquence to convey his mind delightfully unto others, it will add a greater value to his wisdom, and make it more diffusive and instructive unto the world.” — Bishop Patrick.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 24 Good as it is to “handle a matter wisely,”…
Good as it is to “handle a matter wisely,” it is far better to “trust in the Lord.” The former is really impossible except through the latter.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain On vv20–24 Two things are needed for the success of a…
Two things are needed for the success of a matter — wisdom and faith. One teaches us what to do for ourselves; the other what to expect from God. "Wisdom is profitable to direct" (Ecc 10:10 ), specially in important matters. Joseph’s wise management in a great emergency found good.†1 The Apostles wisely handled the matter of the ministration of the widows, relieving themselves from the secular work, and for the greater satisfaction choosing the officers (as seems probable from the original of the names)†2 from the complaining party. And great good did they find from the arrangement.†3 Let the young Christian earnestly study this wisdom. His first glowing impulse would cast away every relic of his former course, and stamp his religion with needless singularity. But he may learn, that true self-denial is more an internal exercise than an external badge of difference; that there may be a martyred singularity without the genuine love; that the distinction between enthusiasm and zeal is not the energy, but the direction, of the principle. This wisdom will be profitable for Christian humility and consistency.
After all, however, the most profound human wisdom may be outwitted. (2Sa 17:14 .) Prudence without faith will come to nought.†4 True wisdom handles the matter in self-distrusting dependence. (Pro 3:5-6 .) Eliezer’s discreet handling was in the spirit of faith. In the same spirit did Jacob conduct his prudential defense against his brother. (Gen 32:1-31. Gen 33:1-20.) Esther wisely handled her delicate matter; using ’a fast to call upon God, and a feast to obtain favor with the King.’†5 This is in all cases true wisdom — to make man the excitement to diligence; God the object of trust.
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And where, as in this practical trust, shall we find so Divine, so simple, a recipe of happiness? Never did God intend to create our happiness out of our own resources. To feel that we know nothing, that we can do nothing, contrive nothing; then to look up to him as our supreme Good, and to trust him as our only Friend — when was such reliance and expectation ever disappointed? We feel that we, and all that we have, are in his hands. This is our peaceful security. ’I have had many things’ — said Luther — ’in my hands, and I have lost them all. But whatever I have been able to place in God’s, I still possess.’†6 In this quiet confidence we have nothing more to do with ourselves. A thousand perplexing thoughts are scattered to the winds. God now takes the place once filled by most unquiet agitations. The soul is fixed in God. He reigns over all with an all-seeing eye, and an all-moving hand. The eye of faith pierces through the darkest cloud and reads God’s thoughts of peace and love. All the world cannot rob us of one word of God. Providence may seem to oppose his promises. But there is more reality in the least promise of God, than in the greatest performance of man. ’I will therefore ever trust him on his bare word; with hope, beside hope, above hope, against hope, for small matters of this life. For how shall I hope to trust him in impossibilities, if I may not in likelihoods?’†7 This simple habit of faith enables us fearlessly to look an extremity in the face. Thus holding on, it is his honour to put his own seal to his word — whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he. (Psa 2:12 . Jer 17:7-8 .)
Footnotes:
†1 Gen 41:25-44. Hence the removal of wise men is a national judgment. Isa 3:1-2 . Compare also Pro 13:15 ; Pro 17:2 ; Pro 19:8 .
†2 Scott in loco.
†3 Act 6:1-7. Similar good result was obtained in the wise handling of the difficult matter of circumcision. Act 15:1-41 .
†4 Isa 22:5-11. Compare 2Ki 18:13-17 . Man at his best estate vanity. Pro 16:5-6 .
†5 Est 4:16; Est 5:5 ; Est 7:1-7 . Bishop Reynolds on Hos 14:3 .
†6 D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation, Book xiv. Proverbs vi.
†7 Bishop Hall’s Works, viii. 8.
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv21, 23 Shall. Hebrew, "adds learning," both to himself and to…
Shall. Hebrew, "adds learning," both to himself and to others. Those who are wise and eloquent, must be preferred before those who have only the former qualification. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20–24 handleth a matter--wisely considers "the word," that is, of…
handleth a matter--wisely considers "the word," that is, of God (compare Pro 13:13).
trusteth--(Compare Psa 2:12; Psa 118:8-9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20–24 20. Handleth… wisely — Good critics render this, He…
20. Handleth… wisely — Good critics render this, He that gives heed to the word will find good. So Zockler, Conant, Noyes, Muenscher, etc. The term “word” is used in the sense of law. Comp. Psa_2:12; Psa_34:8; Psa_84:12; Psa_125:1; Pro_13:13; Pro_19:8; Isa_30:18; Jer_17:7.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 24 20. He that handleth a matter wisely] This rendering…
20. He that handleth a matter wisely] This rendering is relegated to the margin in R.V., and instead of it he that giveth heed unto the word is adopted in the text, with a reference to Pro_13:13 (see note there), in support of it. The word will then mean the word of God. The A.V. however gives a very good sense, if we understand the second clause of the verse as intimating how a matter is to be handled wisely, cp. Pro_3:5-6.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–24 (20) He that handleth a matter wisely.—Or, perhaps, he…
(20) He that handleth a matter wisely.—Or, perhaps, he that attendeth to the word of God. (Comp. Pro_13:13.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20–24 He that handleth a matter wisely. Dabar, translated "matter,"…
He that handleth a matter wisely. Dabar, translated "matter," is better rendered "word," as in Pro_13:13, with which passage the present is in contrast. Thus Revised Version, he that giveth heed unto the word. Shall find good; Vulgate, eruditus in verbo reperiet bona. The "Word" is the Law of God; he who attends to this shall prosper. The rendering of the Authorized Version is supported by the Septuagint, "The man prudent in affairs is a finder of good things;" he attends to his business, and thinks out the best mode of accomplishing his plans, and therefore succeeds in a worldly sense. (comp. Pro_17:20) Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he; or, hail to him, as in Pro_14:21. To heed the Word and to trust in the Lord are correlative things; handling a matter wisely can hardly belong to the same category. The Septuagint contrasts the worldly success of one who manages business wisely and discreetly with the blessedness of him who, when he has done all, commits his cause to God and trusts wholly to him: "He who hath trusted in the Lord is blessed (makaristov )."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 23 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good:…
Pro_16:20
He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.
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Trust in God--true wisdom
Wisdom is mans true path--that which enables him to accomplish best the end of his being, and which, therefore, gives to him the richest enjoyment and the fullest play for all his powers. Give man wisdom, in the true sense of the term, and he rises to all the dignity that manhood can possibly know. But where shall this wisdom be found? He that trusts in the Lord has found out the way to handle matters wisely, and happy is he. Take this text--
I. With regard to the wise handling of matters of time which concern our bodies and our souls whilst we are here below. Satan says, to handle a matter wisely is to make your own will your law; or he says, Be crafty; or he moderates his tone and says, Be careful. It is often said to the young man, Be self-reliant; be independent. The true way of wisdom is to act in all prudence and in all uprightness, but to rely simply and entirely on God. Faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life. Trust God, and you will not have to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich. Trust God, and you will not be guilty of self-contradiction.
II. In spiritual matters, he that handleth a matter wisely shall find good. Here Satan tempts to be careless or to be credulous; or he bids us work out our own salvation. The true way of dealing wisely here is believing in Christ, trusting him fully. (C. H Spurgeon.)
The conditions of a happy life
I. Skilful management. He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good. Skilful management in every department of life is of the utmost importance.
1. It is so in intellectual improvement. The man who desires to get a well-informed and a well-disciplined mind must arrange both the subjects and the seasons of study with skill. Method is of primary moment in the business of intellect.
2. It is so in mercantile engagements.
3. It is so in spiritual culture. A wise selection of the best readings, and the most favourable seasons for devotion cannot be dispensed with if great spiritual good is to be got.
II. A well-stayed heart. Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. God is the stay of the heart.
1. He is happy in his love.
2. He is happy in his policy.
3. He is happy in his speech. And the sweetness of his lips increaseth learning. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The happiness of trusting in God
This proverb builds on the ground that all men desire happiness. Philosophers, in all ages of the world, have been trying to find out and teach what is mans greatest good; and people generally, from the days of David, have been asking, Who will show us any good? The Stoics gave one answer, the Epicureans another, as to mans chief good. Those who now ask, Is life worth living? agree with neither. It is doubtless the case, that the devotee of wealth, of fame, of power, or social eminence finds, whenever he is successful in his efforts, that neither wealth nor fame, neither power nor eminence in social position, gives the happiness which he sought therein. The results of thousands of years of experiments and of experience, before and since Solomons day, are set forth in the words of the proverb which is my text, Whose trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.
I. Trust in God is the ground on which man finds freedom from the bondage of sin, and from the painful sense of the condemnation due to him for his sin. Every one knows, and sometimes feels, that he is a sinful man. This sense of sin is felt in the greatest variety of circumstances. It may arise in a mans breast when his condition is most prosperous--when he is driving forward some business on which his heart has long been set. Sometimes this painful consciousness of guilt springs up after the accomplishment of some undertaking which has taxed ones powers for months, or even years. It is not unfrequently the case that a man is disturbed in this way soon after he has yielded to some evil thought or impulse, or soon after he has neglected to perform some duty. The world is full of instances of this sense of sin in times of danger and calamity. Thus King Saul felt it in his last days. Thus the brothers of Joseph found it pierced their hearts when they were in trouble. Thus it overwhelmed the soul of King David when the prophet Nathan told him the tender story of the poor citizen and his lamb. But this painful sense of sin comes to other persons than these terrible offenders. Is there any person here who did not feel it even in his childhood? It comes, Perhaps, after some act of disobedience or neglect toward father or mother. Perhaps it arose after some feeling of anger, or of envy toward brother or sister. It may have sprung up in the mind after some unkind word or selfish act toward playmate or schoolfellow. This fearful consciousness of sin has been many a time felt when thought has been given to the truth, that God has appointed death for every man, and the judgment after it. The poets of human nature abound in the manifestation of this painful sense of sin. Milton represents a guilty spirit as saying that others little know under what torments inwardly he groans, so that he has to cry in his agony, Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell! This sense of sin, which is felt with all degrees of painfulness, all who trust in the Lord find relieved by the assurance of His forgiveness through His Son Jesus Christ. For there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
II. Whoever trusts God is no longer hostile to Him. The enmity of the heart against the Most High and the Most Holy One ceases. Accepted in the Beloved, he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This gives the faithful happiness. It was no shallow source of joy for the brothers of Joseph (when their sin had found them out) to be made sure that there was peace between the ruler of Egypt and themselves; and it is not a small boon for any man, conscious of his sin, to know that there is reconciliation and peace between himself and his Omnipotent Maker and righteous Judge, through the mediation and redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ.
III. Another reason why the man who trusts in the lord is happy may be seen in this fact--namely, that he has the indwelling of the Divine spirit to maintain his spiritual and eternal life. If the faithful had to rely upon their own wisdom, strength, and other resources, they might soon despair of perseverance in the Christian life. But whosoever trusteth in the Lord is not abandoned by the Almighty. The Holy Ghost, who is given unto the faithful, sheds abroad the love of God in their hearts; and neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate them from the love of God.
IV. The man whose trust is in God has the feeling of happiness because he has the assurance of safety and salvation. There is, indeed, a sense of security in some persons which springs not from the full trust of the heart in God; but it exists because there is no heed to Him. A man may build his hope of everlasting happiness and heaven on no better foundation than the lie which the fool tells to his heart when he says there is no God. He may build it on his own thoughtlessness in respect to the existence, the character, the law, and the purposes and judgments of God. This kind of assurance of safety is the belief of some prodigals that they will never become spendthrifts. It is the assurance of some drunkards that they will never drink too much, and become intemperate. How different is the safe and serene condition of the man who puts his trust in God!
V. Whosoever trusts in the Lord is happy because he delights in God and desires to do his duty toward Him. Some children love their parents, delight in them, and find a rich gratification in pleasing and obeying them. The manifestation of their filial affection is charming to others. The outflow of it is joy to themselves. Very much of their happiness springs from it. The faithful generally delight in doing their duty toward God. The way of duty is their chosen path. The sources of their joy never fail. They are not surface streams that freeze over in winter and run dry in summer. The touch of death cannot reach them. They are as perpetual in heaven as upon earth.
VI. Whosoever trusts in God is happy because the Divine Providence is unchangeably set to do the faithful good. (E. Whitaker, D.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv20, 22 Pro_16:20. Delitzsch and Zöckler translate the first clause “He…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_16:20. Delitzsch and Zöckler translate the first clause “He that giveth heed to the Word findeth good.” Stuart and others, “He that is prudent respecting any matter.” Miller says, “Literally, wise about a word.”
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Pro_16:21. Sweetness, or “grace,” Learning, or “instruction”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_16:20-21
THE FRUITS OF TRUST IN THE LORD
I. There can be no real blessedness in life unless there is trust in the Lord. Men are so constituted that, if they are to have soul-rest, they must confide in the power and wisdom and love of a Being who is stronger and wiser and better than they are. Let a man be ever so great intellectually or morally, there will be times in his life when he will feel the absolute need he has of the guidance of One who is far wiser than he is, of the help of One who far exceeds him in ability and in goodness. If he has not such a helper and guide to whom he can turn, he will be a stranger to that calmness of soul which alone makes a man truly blessed.
1. A trust of this kind must rest upon a knowledge of the Divine character. If a man is following a guide in some difficult and dangerous path, it is necessary to his peace of mind that he should know enough about his guide to be assured that he will lead him aright. If he does not know enough about him to know this, he may be haunted by underlying doubts and fears which will banish all comfort from his mind. When a ship’s crew have so little knowledge of their captain’s character and ability as to be uncertain whether he is able or whether he intends to bring the ship safely to her destined port, they will be possessed by a spirit of uneasiness. But if they know that all his powers will be directed to that end, and that his ability is equal to the task, they will sail through the deep in comparative rest and peace. So no human soul can possess a confidence in God which will keep it calm and restful amid the waves of life’s sea, unless he has made himself acquainted with the character of God—unless he knows so much about Him as to feel assured that His ways and works are perfectly wise and good.
2. God has given men means of acquiring this knowledge. He has no motive for holding back from His creatures a knowledge of what He is and what His purposes are concerning them. Those who endeavour to conceal what they are and what their intentions are in relation to their fellow-men, do so from a consciousness that if they revealed them they would not be trusted. But God has no such motive for concealing His character and intentions, and He has therefore revealed to men what He is and what He desires to do for them as fully as they are able to receive it, and with clearness and certainty enough to be the basis of an unwavering trust. This is indeed the end of all revelation of Himself—to lead men to “know the only true God and Jesus Christ” (Joh_17:2), so that they may have faith in both the Divine Father and the Divine Son,—that a trust may be begotten of the knowledge that will make them truly blessed.
II. An intelligent trust in the Lord is true wisdom. Wisdom has been often defined as the application of knowledge to practice, and a man whose knowledge of God has begotten within him a trust in the Lord, is the only man who is capable of “handling wisely” either matters connected with his own life or with the lives of others. When Adam lost his trust in God he gave evidence of his folly—when his confidence in the Divine character became unsettled, he lost his ability to do the best with his own existence as a whole, or with any particular matter connected with it. It is a mark of the truest wisdom to handle all matters whether they are more immediately connected with our spiritual or material welfare, in a spirit of trust in the perfect wisdom and love of God, and it is a mark of the highest folly to endeavour to do it without dependence upon Him. He who, in all his ways, rests upon a Divine guide, is the only man who deserves the name of a “prudent” man (Pro_16:21). If a child comes into possession of vast estates—of large revenues—he is quite unable by reason of his undeveloped capacities and of his limited experience to use what he possesses to the best advantage. Unless his inheritance is to suffer from misuse, there must be the help of a higher intelligence and a more extended experience than he possesses: and many men possess a great inheritance of intellectual endowments, or of wealth and position, but because they fail to apply to the Highest Wisdom for help to use it rightly, they are neither blessed themselves in the possession, nor do they bless others by the possession.
III. Such a wise and prudent man finds good and does good.
1. He will get good to himself. He will get a godly character, for trust in the Lord is not only the foundation of all true soul-rest, but of godliness of heart and life. “He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jer_17:8). Here the prophet teaches that he who possesses within him a constant well of spiritual happiness from confidence in God will manifest it in godly deeds, and thus will become the possessor of the greatest good in God’s universe—a holy character.
2. He will do good to others by his wise and holy conversation. “The sweetness of the lips increaseth learning,” and the speech of a man who trusts in the Lord will be of so attractive and winning a nature as to lead others to know God and to trust in Him.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Pro_16:20. Combined view of the two chief requisites to a really devout life;
(1) Obedience to the Word of God.
(2) Inspiring confidence in God.—Lange’s Commentary.
In doubtful cases to hold fast to God’s word, and believingly hope in His help, ensures always a good issue.—Geier.
Wise about a word. (See Critical Notes.) By usage, “wise about a thing,” hence “shrewd, though it be but in one transaction.” How often in London might mansions be pointed out of men opulent at a stroke! Such a stroke is faith! See the same marvel in chap. Pro_18:21. What a wonder is it that a man can win palaces of light by “one act” of casting himself upon the sacrifice. “Act,” literally, word. But men acted so by the word in that country, that it grew to mean affair. (Gen_20:8.) The very name of Christ (Joh_1:1) seems to be coloured by this Eastern usage. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” (Psa_33:6). “Blessed in every sense whatever. What other “affair” ever produced as much as the affair of faith? (Mar_9:23).—Miller.
The obvious sense is that thorough understanding of business and prudent management of it tend to insure a prosperous issue, And if the business is another’s, the intelligent, cautious, successful conducting of it, will procure benefit by the favour it conciliates, and the character it establishes. One business well conducted brings a man another. This is the way to get forward in the world. And in proportion as the entrusted transaction is difficult and delicate, will the “handling of it wisely” prove advantageous. Still there is no amount of human understanding and discretion that can render success in any transaction certain. The result rests with God. Hence a very natural connection of the latter clause of the verse with the former. Here is the true secret of happiness—the union in all things of prudence and diligence, with trust in God. Trust must be associated with effort.… Let it be further observed that “handling a matter wisely” does not mean handling it cunningly with artifice and what the apostle calls “fleshly wisdom”—the policy of this world; but with a wisdom and prudence in harmony with the most rigid and straightforward integrity. Double dealing may be misnamed wisdom, the arts of a tortuous cunning may be dignified with the designation of prudence; but when such wisdom, such prudence has been employed, even the greatest amount of success can impart little that deserves the name of happiness. And no man who is using the arts of a crooked policy can exercise trust in God. The two things are incompatible. Who can unite obedience and confidence? How could David trust in God for the success of his plan against Uriah the Hittite? There was art in it, but there was not wisdom.—Wardlaw.
This is in all cases true wisdom—to make man the excitement to diligence, God the object of trust.… “I have had many things,” said Luther, “in my hands, and have lost them all. But whatever I have been able to trust in God’s I still possess.” … “I will therefore,” says Bishop Hall, “trust Him on His bare word, with hope, beside hope, above hope, against hope, for small matters of this life. For how shall I hope to trust Him in impossibilities if I may not in likelihoods. This simple habit of faith enables us fearlessly to look an extremity in the face. Thus holding on, it is His honour to put his own seal to His word. (Psa_2:12; Jer_17:7-8).—Bridges.
Many meddle with more matters than they do well quit themselves of; and many a time a good matter is made ill by the ill handling of it. And he that handleth a matter wisely shall find good, although the matter be ill; and well doth he acquit himself, although the matter may not succeed well.… To put our trust in God, and not to use a wise care, is to deceive ourselves; to use a wise care, and not to trust in God, is to dishonour God.—Jermin.
Pro_16:21. Piety is sure to be discovered; but many a pious man has less influence for want of courtesy. The suaviter may be really stronger than the fortiter. The last word is literally a taking, from the verb to take. This noun is often learning. A taking may very legitimately be “a lesson.” The idea is, that sweet lips increase the taking, i.e., make more wisdom to be taken by the men around. The duty, therefore, is evolved, of being kind in speech that our good may not be evil spoken of (Rom_14:16).—Miller.
If the “wise in heart” be understood of the truly, spiritually, divinely wise, then the phrase “shall be called prudent” must be interpreted, according to a common Hebrew idiom, as meaning “is prudent”—deserves to be so called. The sentiment will thus be the oft-repeated one, that true religion is the only genuine prudence. And is it not so? we ask anew. Take as a standard the ordinary maxims of prudence among men. Is it the part of prudence to be considerate? to look forward? to anticipate, as far as possible, the contingencies of the future? to provide against evil? to make sure of lasting good? Then is true religion the very perfection of prudence.—Wardlaw.
That our wisdom may be useful, we should endeavour to produce it to advantage by a graceful and engaging manner of expression. It is not uncommon with bad men to set off their corrupt sentiments by dressing them in all the beauties of language, and by this means multitudes are seduced into error and folly. Is not wisdom far better entitled to this recommendation than folly?—Lawson.
There is no sweetness that entereth into the lips to be compared to the sweetness that cometh from the lips. The fig-tree must leave her sweetness, and all the trees of delight their pleasantness, when the fruit of the lips is mentioned among them. And most fitly is eloquence styled the sweetness of the lips. How daintily doth it sweeten all matters of knowledge! What a delicate relish doth it give unto them! With what pleasure doth it make them to slip into the ears of men! How doth it mollify the hardness and sharpness of reproof! How doth it qualify the bitterness of sorrows! How doth it warm the dull coldness of apprehension and attention! And therefore, though wisdom in the heart is of the chiefest worth, yet eloquence of the lips is an addition to it. St. Augustine, speaking of himself, saith, that when he heard St. Ambrose preaching, “I stood by as one careless of the matter he spake, and a contemner of it, and I was delighted with the sweetness of his words; but together with the words which I respected, the matter came into my heart which I neglected, and while I opened my heart to receive how eloquently he spake, it entered also into my heart how truly he spake.”—Jermin.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v22 Pro 16:22 - Pro 16:33.
Proverbs
A BUNDLE OF PROVERBS
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Pro 16:22 - Pro 16:33.
A slight thread of connection may be traced in some of the proverbs in this passage. Pro 16:22, with its praise of ‘Wisdom,’ introduces one instance of Wisdom’s excellence in Pro 16:23, and that again, with its reference to speech, leads on to Pro 16:24 and its commendation of ‘pleasant words.’ Similarly, Pro 16:27 - Pro 16:30 give four pictures of vice, three of them beginning with ‘a man.’ We may note, too, that, starting with Pro 16:26, every verse till Pro 16:30 refers to some work of ‘the mouth’ or ‘lips.’
The passage begins with one phase of the contrast between Wisdom and Folly, which this book is never weary of emphasising and underscoring. We shall miss the force of its most characteristic teaching unless we keep well in mind that the two opposites of Wisdom and Folly do not refer only or chiefly to intellectual distinctions. The very basis of ‘Wisdom,’ as this book conceives it, is the ‘fear of the Lord,’ without which the man of biggest, clearest brain, and most richly stored mind, is, in its judgment, ‘a fool.’ Such ‘understanding,’ which apprehends and rightly deals with the deepest fact of life, our relation to God and to His law, is a ‘well-spring of life.’ The figure speaks still more eloquently to Easterns than to us. In those hot lands the cool spring, bursting through the baked rocks or burning sand, makes the difference between barrenness and fertility, the death of all green things and life. So where true Wisdom is deep in a heart, it will come flashing up into sunshine, and will quicken the seeds of all good as it flows through the deeds. ‘Everything liveth whithersoever the river cometh.’ Productiveness, refreshment, the beauty of the sparkling wavelets, the music of their ripples against the stones, and all the other blessings and delights of a perpetual fountain, have better things corresponding to them in the life of the man who is wise with the true Wisdom which begins with the fear of God. Just as it is active in the life, so is Folly. But its activity is not blessing and gladdening, but punitive. For all sin automatically works its own chastisement, and the curse of Folly is that, while it corrects, it prevents the ‘fool’ from profiting by the correction. Since it punishes itself, one might expect that it would cure itself, but experience shows that, while it wields a rod, its subjects ‘receive no correction.’ That insensibility is the paradox and the Nemesis of ‘Folly.’
The Old Testament ethics are remarkable for their solemn sense of the importance of words, and Proverbs shares in that sense to the full. In some aspects, speech is a more perfect self-revelation than act. So the outflow of the fountain in words comes next. Wise heart makes wise speech. That may be looked at in two ways. It may point to the utterance by word as the most precious, and incumbent on its possessor, of all the ways of manifesting Wisdom; or it may point to the only source of real ‘learning,’-namely, a wise heart. In the former view, it teaches us our solemn obligation not to hide our light under a bushel, but to speak boldly and lovingly all the truth which God has taught us. A dumb Christian is a monstrosity. We are bound to give voice to our ‘Wisdom.’ In the other aspect, it reminds us that there is a better way of getting Wisdom than by many books,-namely, by filling our hearts, through communion with God, with His own will. Then, whether we have worldly ‘learning’ or no, we shall be able to instruct many, and lead them to the light which has shone on us.
There are many kinds of pleasant words, some of which are not like ‘honey,’ but like poison hid in jam. Insincere compliments, flatteries when rebukes would be fitting, and all the brood of civil conventionalities, are not the words meant here. Truly pleasant ones are those which come from true Wisdom, and may often have a surface of bitterness like the prophet’s roll, but have a core of sweetness. It is a great thing to be able to speak necessary and unwelcome truths with lips into which grace is poured. A spoonful of honey catches more flies than a hogshead of vinegar.
Pro 16:25 has no connection with its context. It teaches two solemn truths, according to the possible double meaning of ‘right.’ If that word means ethically right, then the saying sets forth the terrible possibility of conscience being wrongly instructed, and sanctioning gross sin. If it means only straight, or level-that is, successful and easy-the saying enforces the not less solemn truth that sin deceives as to its results, and that the path of wrong-doing, which is flowery and smooth at first, grows rapidly thorny, and goes fast downhill, and ends at last in a cul-de-sac, of which death is the only outlet. We are not to trust our own consciences, except as enlightened by God’s Word. We are not to listen to sin’s lies, but to fix it well in our minds that there is only one way which leads to life and peace, the narrow way of faith and obedience.
The Revised Version’s rendering of Pro 16:26 gives the right idea. ‘The appetite,’ or hunger, ‘of the labourer labours for him’ {that is, the need of food is the mainspring of work}, and it lightens the work to which it impels. So hunger is a blessing. That is true in regard to the body. The manifold material industries of men are, at bottom, prompted by the need to earn something to eat. The craving which drives to such results is a thing to be thankful for. It is better to live where toil is needful to sustain life than in lazy lands where an hour’s work will provide food for a week. But the saying reaches to spiritual desires, and anticipates the beatitude on those who ‘hunger and thirst after righteousness.’ Happy they who feel that craving, and are driven by it to the labour for the bread which comes down from heaven! ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.’
The next three proverbs {Pro 16:27 - Pro 16:29} give three pictures of different types of bad men. First, we have ‘the worthless man’ {Rev. Ver.}, literally ‘a man of Belial,’ which last word probably means worthlessness. His work is ‘digging evil’; his words are like scorching fire. To dig evil seems to have a wider sense than has digging a pit for others {Psa 7:15}, which is usually taken as a parallel. The man is not merely malicious toward others, but his whole activity goes to further evil. It is the material in which he delights to work. What mistaken spade husbandry it is to spend labour on such a soil! What can it grow but thistles and poisonous plants? His words are as bad as his deeds. No honey drops from his lips, but scorching fire, which burns up not only reputations but tries to consume all that is good. As James says, such a tongue is ‘set on fire of hell.’ The picture is that of a man bad through and through. But there may be indefinitely close approximations to it, and no man can say, ‘Thus far will I go in evil ways, and no further.’
The second picture is of a more specific kind. The ‘froward man’ here seems to be the same as the slanderer in the next clause. He utters perverse things, and so soweth strife and parts friends. There are people whose mouths are as full of malicious whispers as a sower’s basket is of seed, and who have a base delight in flinging them broadcast. Sometimes they do not think of what the harvest will be, but often they chuckle to see it springing in the mistrust and alienation of former friends. A loose tongue often does as much harm as a bitter one, and delight in dwelling on people’s faults is not innocent because the tattler did not think of the mischief he was setting agoing.
In Pro 16:29 another type of evil-doer is outlined-the opposite, in some respects, of the preceding. The slanderer works secretly; this mischief-maker goes the plain way to work. He uses physical force or ‘violence.’ But how does that fit in with ‘enticeth’? It may be that the enticement of his victim into a place suitable for robbing or murder is meant, but more probably there is here the same combination of force and craft as in Pro 1:10 - Pro 1:14. Criminals have a wicked delight in tempting innocent people to join their gangs. A lawless desperado is a hotbed of infection.
Pro 16:30 draws a portrait of a bad man. It is a bit of homely physiognomical observation. A man with a trick of closing his eyes has something working in his head; and, if he is one of these types of men, one may be sure that he is brewing mischief. Compressed lips mean concentrated effort, or fixed resolve, or suppressed feeling, and in any of these cases are as a danger signal, warning that the man is at work on some evil deed.
Two sayings follow, which contrast goodness with the evils just described. The ‘if’ in Pro 16:31 weakens the strong assertion of the proverb. ‘The hoary head is a crown of glory; it is found in the way of righteousness.’ That is but putting into picturesque form the Old Testament promise of long life to the righteous-a promise which is not repeated in the new dispensation, but which is still often realised. ‘Whom the gods love, die young,’ is a heathen proverb; but there is a natural tendency in the manner of life which Christianity produces to prolong a man’s days. A heart at peace, because stayed on God, passions held well in hand, an avoidance of excesses which eat away strength, do tend to length of life, and the opposites of these do tend to shorten it. How many young men go home from our great cities every year, with their ‘bones full of the iniquities of their youth,’ to die!
If we are to tread the way of righteousness, and so come to ‘reverence and the silver hair,’ we must govern ourselves. So the next proverb extols the ruler of his own spirit as ‘more than conquerors,’ whose triumphs are won in such vulgar fields as battles and sieges, Our sorest fights and our noblest victories are within.
‘Unless above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!’
Pro 16:31 takes the casting of the lot as one instance of the limitation of all human effort, in all which we can but use the appropriate means, while the whole issue must be left in God’s hands. The Jewish law did not enjoin the lot, but its use seems to have been frequent. The proverb presents in the sharpest relief a principle which is true of all our activity. The old proverb-maker knew nothing of chance. To him there were but two real moving forces in the world-man and God. To the one belonged sowing the seed, doing his part, whether casting the lot or toiling at his task. His force was real, but derived and limited. Efforts and attempts are ours; results are God’ s. We sow; He ‘gives it a body as it pleases Him.’ Nothing happens by accident. Man’s little province is bounded on all sides by God’ s, and the two touch. There is no neutral territory between, where godless chance rules.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v20 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
trusteth
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv20–24 v. 20. He that handleth a matter wisely, giving…
v. 20. He that handleth a matter wisely, giving careful heed to the Word of God in every situation in life, shall find good, obtain true prosperity; and whoso trusteth in the Lord, being united with Him in the personal, confidential relation of faith, happy is he, the possessor of true blessedness.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv21, 23 The one who is wise in heart is called…
The one who is wise in heart is called discerning
This person will have a reputation of being a discerning person. This can be stated in active form. AT: "People will call the one who is wise in heart discerning" or "The one who is wise in heart will have a reputation of being a discerning person" (See: Active or Passive)
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The one who is wise in heart
Here the heart represents the mind and thoughts. AT: "The one who is wise" or "The one who is wise in his thinking" (See: Metonymy)
sweetness of speech
The writer speaks of kind or pleasant speech as if it were something that tastes sweet. AT: "kind speech" or "pleasant speech" (See: Metaphor)
Understanding is a fountain of life
The writer speaks of "Understanding" as if it were a fountain that continuously flows with water and which sustains the life of those who drink from it. AT: "Understanding is like a fountain flowing with life-giving water" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
wise
heart
discern
fountain
life
fool
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.