A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Parallel Translations
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A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
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A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
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A merry heart is a good medicine; but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Proverbs 17:22 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Proverbs 15:13 A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but an aching heart breaks the spirit.
- Proverbs 12:25 Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a kind word makes it glad.
- Proverbs 18:14 A man’s spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?
- 2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
- Ecclesiastes 9:7-9 Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works. Let your garments be always white, and don’t let your head lack oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.
- Romans 5:2-5 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- 2 Corinthians 2:7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.
- Psalms 102:3-5 For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
- Psalms 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death.
- Psalms 32:3-4 When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 17:22 A merry heart doeth good [like] a…
Pro 17:22 A merry heart doeth good [like] a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Ver. 22. A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine.] Eυεκτειν ποιει: so the Septuagint renders it. And, indeed, it is ευθυμια~ that makes ευεξια. All true mirth is from rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul. When faith hath once healed the conscience, and grace hath hushed the affections, and composed all within, so that there is a Sabbath of spirit, and a blessed tranquillity lodged in the soul; then the body also is vigorous and vigetous, for the most part in very good plight and healthful constitution, which makes man’s life very comfortable. For, si vales, bene est. If you are well it is good. And λωστον υγιαινειν. "Go thy ways," saith Solomon to him that hath a good conscience, "eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, since God accepteth thy works. Let thy garments be always white, and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife of thy youth," {Ecc 9:7-9} &c., be lightsome in thy clothes, merry at thy meats, painful in thy calling, &c., these do notably conduce to and help on health. They that in the use of lawful means "wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." {Isa 40:31}
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But a broken spirit drieth the bones.] By drinking up the marrow and radical moisture. See this in David, {Psa 32:3} whose "bones waxed old," whose "moisture," or chief sap, "was turned into the drought of summer"; his "heart was smitten and withered like grass; his days consumed like smoke"; {Psa 102:3-4} his whole body was "like a bottle in the smoke"; {Psa 119:83} he was a very bag of bones, and those also "burnt as a hearth." {Psa 102:3} Aristotle, in his book of long and short life, assigns grief for a chief cause of death. And the apostle saith as much in 2Co 7:10. {See Trapp on "2Co 7:10"} {See Trapp on "Pro 12:25"} All immoderations, saith Hippocrates, are great enemies to health.
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 A merry heart; cheerfulness of soul, especially that which…
A merry heart; cheerfulness of soul, especially that which is solid, and ariseth from the witness of a good conscience.
Doeth good, even to the body; it contributes very much to the restoration or preservation of bodily health and rigour, as physicians observe, and experience showeth.
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Broken; sad and dejected.
Drieth the bones; wasteth the marrow of the bones, and the moisture and strength of the body.
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 Note, 1. It is healthful to be cheerful. The…
Note, 1. It is healthful to be cheerful. The Lord is for the body, and has provided for it, not only meat, but medicine, and has here told us that the best medicine is a merry heart, not a heart addicted to vain, carnal, sensual mirth; Solomon himself said of that mirth, It is not medicine, but madness; it is not food, but poison; what doth it? But he means a heart rejoicing in God, and serving him with gladness, and then taking the comfort of outward enjoyments and particularly that of pleasant conversation. It is a great mercy that God gives us leave to be cheerful and cause to be cheerful, especially if by his grace he gives us hearts to be cheerful. This does good to a medicine (so some read it); it will make physic more efficient. Or it does good as a medicine to the body, making it easy and fit for business. But, if mirth be a medicine (understand it of diversion and recreation), it must be used sparingly, only when there is occasion, not turned into food, and it must be used medicinally, sub regimine - as a prescribed regimen, and by rule. 2. The sorrows of the mind often contribute very much to the sickliness of the body: A broken spirit, sunk by the burden of afflictions, and especially a conscience wounded with the sense of guilt and fear of wrath, dries the bones, wastes the radical moisture, exhausts the very marrow, and makes the body a mere skeleton. We should therefore watch and pray against all melancholy dispositions, for they lead us into trouble as well as into temptation.
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 A merry heart doth good like a medicine,.... Does…
A merry heart doth good like a medicine,.... Does the body good, makes it healthful and vigorous. Cheerfulness of spirit has a great influence upon the body, and much contributes to the health and welfare of it; see Ecc 9:7; and especially a heart full of spiritual joy, peace of conscience, flowing from the blood of Christ, joy in the Holy Ghost, a rejoicing in Christ Jesus and his righteousness, and in hope of the glory of God, much affect even the outward man. Or, "a merry heart makes a good medicine" (x); it is a good medicine of itself; raises the spirits, invigorates the body, and fits it for service and business: or, "does a medicine good" (y); makes that operate kindly, and to a good purpose: or, as Jarchi, makes the countenance shine well, makes a serene countenance; which Schultens approves, and, from the use of the word in the Arabic language, confirms;
but a broken spirit drieth the bones; a spirit broken with sorrow, whether on spiritual or temporal accounts; as it weakens the nerves, it dries up the marrow in the bones, and emaciates the body, and reduces it to a skeleton: the joy or grief of the mind, those passions of the soul, have a very great influence upon the body, either for its good or hurt.
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(x) "cor hilare bonam facit sanationem", Michaelis. (y) So R. Joseph Kimchi; "bonificat sive meliorem reddit medicinam", some in Valablus; "bene medicinam facit", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
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 Doth good - Even to the body; it contributes…
Doth good - Even to the body; it contributes much to bodily health and vigour. Drieth - Wastes the marrow of the bones, and the moisture and strength of the body.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 22. A merry heart doeth good like a…
Verse 22. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine] Instead of גהה gehah, a medicine, it appears that the Chaldee and Syriac had read in their copies גוה gevah, the body, as they translate in this way. This makes the apposition here more complete: "A merry heart doeth good to the body; but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Nothing has such a direct tendency to ruin health and waste out life as grief, anxiety, fretfulness, bad tempers, &c. All these work death.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Pro 17:22. A merry heart — Cheerfullness of mind,…
Pro 17:22. A merry heart — Cheerfullness of mind, especially that which is solid, and ariseth from the testimony of a good conscience; doeth good like a medicine — Even to the body; it contributes very much to the restoration or preservation of bodily health and vigour, as physicians observe and experience shows; but a broken spirit — A spirit sad and dejected; drieth the bones — Wasteth the marrow of the bones, and the moisture and strength of the body.
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 Doeth good like a medicine - Better, worketh a…
Doeth good like a medicine - Better, worketh a good healing. Omit “like.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Charles Bridges 1846 · Public Domain This is not true of all merriment. The wise…
This is not true of all merriment. The wise man justly describes the loud and noisy mirth of fools to be, no medicine, but "madness;"†1 a transient flash, not an abiding source of enjoyment. Probably this merriment here means nothing more than cheerfulness, which, in its proper measure, on proper subjects, and at a proper time, is a legitimate pleasure, especially belonging to religion. Our Lord thus made a merry heart by his message of divine forgiveness (Mat 9:2-7 ); and this doubtless was a more healing medicine to the paralytic, than the restoration of his limbs. If I be a pardoned sinner, an accepted child of God, what earthly trouble can sink me? "Paul and Silas sang praises to God in the inner prison, with their feet made fast in the stocks." (Act 16:25 .) The martyrs "glorified God in the fire." They were "tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." (Heb 11:35 .) All earthly enjoyments are now doubly blest with heavenly sunshine. (Ecc 9:7-9 .)
There is also the Christian flow of natural spirits. For when consecrated to the Lord, they become a means of enjoyment, not only to ourselves (Pro 15:13 ), but to those around us. Often has the mourning saint been encouraged, often also has the worldling been convicted, by a brother’s cheerful words or looks.†2 To the former it has been a medicine; to the latter a lesson.
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A broken spirit in an evangelical sense is God’s precious gift; stamped with his special honour, and always constituting an acceptable service. But here it describes a brooding spirit of despondency; always looking at the dark side; and, if connected with religion (which is not always the case), flowing from narrow and perverted views, a spurious humility centering in self. The influence drieth up the bones. The bodily system is sensibly affected. ’It contracts and enfeebles the animal spirits; preys on our strength; eats out the vigour of the constitution. The radical moisture is consumed; and the unhappy subject of this passion droops like a flower in the scorching heat of summer.’†3
Not less baneful is its influence upon the spiritual system. Hard thoughts of God are induced, as if he had forsaken, neglected, or forgotten us. From doubting, the soul comes to chilling fear; thence to gloomy despondency. The power of the telescope fails in bringing distant objects nigh. Hence the present hold of the grand object is feeble. The hope of future enjoyment is dark. Distance too often lessens communication. Prayer is less frequently or powerfully sent up. The answers therefore, and the supplies of cheering grace from this source, are more scanty. Thus we are not only weakened in comfort, but cut short in strength. The mind is clothed in sable. The chariot’s wheels are taken off, so that we "drag heavily." Discontent, and a querulous unbelieving sadness, take possession of the soul, and wholly unfit us for the service of God.
Most watchful therefore should we be against this withering influence. Allow not the imagination to dwell needlessly in gloom. Constitutional temperament will have its influence. External things act upon the body, and through the body upon the mind. We are some of us creatures even of weather, not the same on a misty as on a bright day. There is much in our physical economy rather within the province of the physician than the Minister; much perhaps that we may be inclined too hastily to censure in a brother, when a more accurate knowledge would open our sympathy. When outward and inward troubles unite, what wonder, if the vessel, like Paul’s ship, "where two seas met" (Act 27:41 ), give way?†4 Yet, let it be remembered, that every indulgence increases the evil; and that allowed prevalence may end in a fixed melancholy.
Turn and see what materials can be gathered for resistance to this ruinous evil, and inducing a well-regulated cheerfulness. ’Why am not I at this moment utterly overwhelmed with distress? How seldom, if ever, am I in pain all over at the same time! How faithfully do our greatest supports combine with our greatest trials!’ (2Co 1:5 .) Surely in these recollections some excitement of pleasurable feeling might be directed into the channel of gratitude to God! How many rays of collected mercy shine from the great center of joy!
But to come more immediately to the gospel — Unquestionably there is abundant matter for the deepest humiliation. No words can adequately describe the shame, that we ought to feel for our insensibility even on account of one single act of infinite love. Yet the gospel encourages humiliation, not despondency. It deals in the realities, not of woe and despair, but of hope, peace, and joy. Its life and glory is he that "bindeth up the broken-hearted" (Isa 61:1 ), who "will not break the bruised reed" (Isa 42:3 ), or crush under his feet "the prisoners of hope."
If then — Christian — you believe the gospel to be "glad tidings," shew that you believe it, by lighting up your face with a smile; not by "bowing down the head as a bulrush," and as it were "spreading sackcloth and ashes under you." (Isa 58:5 .) Shew that it is the daylight of your soul; that you really find its ways to be "pleasantness and peace" (Pro 3:17 ); that you believe their joys, not because you have read and heard of them, but because you have tasted them. If they are happy, be happy in them. "Lie not against the truth," by suffering your countenance to induce the belief, that religion is a habit of inveterate and incurable gloom. Joy is indeed a forbidden fruit to the ungodly.†5 But let it be the adorning of thy profession.†6 It is a sin against thy God to be without it.†7 The gloom of the servant reflects unjustly upon the Master, as if thou "knewest him, that he was an hard man."†8 Resist then all sorrow, that suggests such dishonourable thoughts of him. Disparage not his heavenly comfort, by laying unduly to heart his counter-balancing afflictions. No cloud can cover you, but the "bow may be seen in the cloud." And in all this world’s afflictions, one beam of his love might scatter all the clouds, and fill the heart with "joy unspeakable and full glory." "Let the LORD then be magnified, which hath pleasure," not in the misery, but in "the prosperity of his servants." (Psa 35:27 .) He giveth liberty to be cheerful, ground to be cheerful, and he will give thee an heart to be cheerful with animated gladness.
After all, however, — let each be careful to cultivate a just and even balance. Liveliness needs a guard, lest it should degenerate into levity. Be much in secret with God. Cherish a solemn, reverential spirit before the throne of grace. Christian joy is a deeply serious thing. The froth and lightness that passes for it deserves not the name. The carnal element must be destroyed, to introduce the heaven-born principle, that comes from God, and maintains communion with him.
Yet on the other a grave temperament must be resisted, lest it should sink into morbid depression. Gloom is not the portion, and ought not to stamp the character, of the children of God. It may often be a conflict with a man’s own self, either in body or mind. But yet a little while, and, instead of the broken spirit which drieth up the bones, our spirits will be so high, that another body must be formed to contain them. Meanwhile Christian discipline on both sides will be the principle of enlarged happiness and steady consistency.
Footnotes:
†1 Ecc 2:2. Compare 1Sa 25:36, 37.
†2 Pro 12:25. Ecc 8:1 .
†3 Bp. Horne’s Sermon on a Merry Heart. Our English proverb is — ’Dry sorrow drinks the blood’ — sorrow that cannot weep!
†4 Pro 12:25; Pro 15:13 . Job 30:30 . Psa 32:3-4 ; Psa 102:3-5 ; Psa 119:83 . Compare Sir 30:22 ; Sir 38:13 . Ovid’s beautiful lines, Lib. i. ex Ponto. This mixture of bodily and mental anguish formed the completeness of our Lord’s sufferings. Psa 22:15 ; Psa 69:3 .
†5 Hos 9:1.
†6 Isa 52:1-2; Isa 60:1 .
†7 Deu 28:47.
†8 Mat 25:24.
Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain (Compare Pro 14:30; Pro 15:13). The effect of the…
(Compare Pro 14:30; Pro 15:13). The effect of the mind on the body is well known.
medicine--or, "body," which better corresponds with "bone."
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drieth--as if the marrow were exhausted.
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 22. A merry heart doeth good… medicine — Makes…
22. A merry heart doeth good… medicine — Makes a good medicine — “a happy cure.” — Gesenius.
Broken spirit — A heart so smitten as to be devoid of gladness drieth the bones. The proverb recognises the well-known fact in psychology, that a happy frame of mind and a joyous temperament contribute greatly to health of body, and that nothing has a more powerful tendency to injure it than grief, anxiety, fretfulness, and bad temper. Compare Pro_15:25; Pro_15:13; Pro_3:8; Hos_5:13.
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 22. doeth good like a medicine] Rather, is a…
22. doeth good like a medicine] Rather, is a good medicine, R.V. “Heb. causeth good healing,” R.V. marg.; giveth a happy healing, Gesen.; εὐεκτεῖν ποιεῖ, LXX.
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 (22) A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.—Or…
(22) A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.—Or rather, Makes good a recovery., (For the duty of religious gladness, in gratitude for the love of God towards us, comp. Php_3:1; Php_4:4.)
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 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. So…
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. So Aben Ezra, understanding the particle of comparison, which is not in the Hebrew. The ward translated "medicine" (gehah) occurs nowhere else, and probably means "healing" "relief." The clause is better rendered, a cheerful heart maketh a good healing. (comp. Pro_15:13 Pro_16:25) Vulgate, aetatem floridam facit; Septuagint, euektein poiei , "makes one to be in good case." A cheerful, contented disposition enables a men to resist the attacks of disease, the mind, ms every one knows, having most powerful influence over the body. Ecc 30:22, "The gladness of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth his days." A broken spirit drieth the bones; destroys all life and vigour. (comp. Pro_3:8 Psa_22:15 Psa_32:4) We all remember the distich"A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a.
So the rabbis enjoin, "Give ears no room in thine heart, for care hath killed many" (Dukes, p. 68). Religious gladness is a positive duty, and "low spirits," as Isaac Williams says, "are a sin." Asks the Greek moralist Ar esti suggenev ti luph kai biov.
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And Lucretius (3:473) affirms dolor ac morbus leti fabricator uterque est." Workers of death are sorrow and disease.
The healing effects of cheerfulness.
I CHEERFULNESS IS COMMENDED IN SCRIPTURE. The Bible does not put a premium on sombreness. It never suggests that there is a merit in gloom. It urges the need of repentance, calls upon men to grieve for their sins, threatens the wrath of God against impenitence, and so brings up occasions for distress of soul; it also rebukes "the laughter of fools," the empty merriment of frivolity and the riot and revelry of dissipation. (Ecc_7:6) But it does not commend sorrow on its own account. On the contrary, it brings joy and encourages gladness. Christ gave his joy to his people. (Joh_15:11) St. Paul emphatically reiterated his advice to his readers to rejoice. (Php_4:4) God loves his children and delights in their happiness. God is blessed, therefore happy; and he desires for his children a share in his blessedness, which must involve a participation in his gladness.
II CHEERFULNESS EXERTS A HEALING INFLUENCE OVER THE INDIVIDUAL SOUL. Too much indulgence in sorrow induces a morbid condition. It is not healthy in itself, for man is not meant to be a perpetual incarnation of pain. The natural merriment of children is not only innocent; it is positively helpful to the sane growth of their minds. Cheerful Christians are strong Christians; for "the joy of the Lord is your strength". (Neh_8:10) It is easier to bear disappointment when the spirit is free and buoyant. Temptation is less powerful against a contented soul than against one that is enfeebled by fretful dissatisfaction. We can do our work best when we do it gladly. In a cheerful mood we take the widest, wisest, healthiest views of truth. Sour feelings lead to false estimates of the world. Even after sin and repentance, when the sinner is pardoned, a sober, humble cheerfulness is healthier than perpetual lamentation. Therefore the fatted calf is killed, etc.
III CHEERFULNESS IS A SOURCE OF HEALTHY INFLUENCE FOR OTHERS. The gloomy saint cultivates his own sombre sanctity at the expense of his neighbours. He should be helping them and attracting them into the way of life. But he is repelling and hindering them. Children are best won by a cheerful presentation of religion. The indifferent are made to see that the cross of Christ does not mean perpetual distress and trouble to the Christian. The lost and fallen have hopes inspired within them when they are approached with hopes of better things. The gospel is goodness; it should be preached with a cheerful spirit; its "glad tidings of great joy" speak healing to the nations.
IV CHEERFULNESS IS TO BE BEST ATTAINED IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. The merry soul may be only superficially glad, or even sinfully delighted, when it should be humbled in repentance. But after repentance and pardon God gives his own deep, sure joy. This joy rests on the love of God and fellowship with him. It is confirmed by service. When one can say, "I delight to do thy will, O my God", (Psa_40:8) he has reached the true fountain of a cheerful spirit. Such a joy can master adversity and rejoice in tribulation. (2Co_6:10) It was when engaged in an apostolic mission that Paul and Silas were able to sing in prison. (Act_16:25)
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 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but…
Pro_17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
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Mental and bodily influence
The connection between the mind and the body, though not to be explained, is so striking as to force itself upon the notice of the least observant. There is such a sympathy between the two that the one cannot suffer and the other be unaffected. But the mind will often claim such independence of the body as the body can never assert over the mind. When the torture is of the mind alone, there will be comparatively little bodily capacity to bear up under the pressure. Solomon says here that a merry heart, a cheerful mind, a spirit contented and well at ease, will administer support and strength for endurance. But Solomon treats also the case of a mind assailed and out of joint, and says that, in this case, the body as well as the mind will be utterly prostrated.
I. The power which the mind can exert in support of the body so long as itself is in good condition. Where there is no aid drawn from the resources of religion, there may be firmness the most unflinching in the endurance of pain. The records of savage life prove the existence of a sustaining principle in man. There is a power in mans spirit to sustain his infirmity. The truth that men have no power of renewing their nature must not be interpreted as implying that men have no power of reforming their lives. The doctrine of human degeneracy, preached in an unguarded and overwrought strain, makes men imagine that they can do nothing unless they feel themselves acted on by a supernatural machinery, and that, until they have experienced inward revelation, it is idle to set about outward reformation. We would always hold that a great deal lies in the unconverted mans power. We can never believe, whilst there is the spectacle on earth of mind wielding a thorough sovereignty over matter, a sovereignty so perfect that the body is set before us as literally the vassal of the spirit, we at all exaggerate his abilities when we urge him, as a candidate for the prizes of eternity, to improve the life, and break away from habits and associations of unrighteousness.
II. A mans total incapacity to bear a wounded spirit. We are not accustomed to admit up to the full a matter of fact--the physical destructiveness, so to speak, of an overwrought mind. The greatest wear and tear is from mental labour. Mental disquietude tells on the health with corroding and devastating power. It is the gracious appointment of God that a wound in the spirit begins to close so soon as made; so that where there is the wish there is not the power of keeping it long open. If it be true that the endurance of grief cannot be referred to indwelling energy, but rather to that soothing action of time which comes into play on the first moment of affliction, then there is no witness from the experience of mankind against the truth of the text. It cannot be assumed that a spirit is broken until stricken by that Word of God which is quick and powerful. Conviction of sin is the unbearable thing, and an awakened conscience an irresistible tormentor. A truly broken spirit is that which is bruised by a sense of sin. It is impossible that man should long sustain the anguish of conviction of sin. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
A cheerful spirit
I. The value of a cheerful spirit.
1. It helps bodily health.
2. It is a clarifier and invigorator of the mind.
3. It lubricates the wearing machinery of business and daily care.
II. How attain this spirit?
1. Look at your mercies with both eyes; your troubles with only one eye.
2. Learn Pauls secret: In whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
3. Be useful. Light somebodys torch, and your own will burn brighter.
4. Make God your trustee. Believe in His care of your welfare. (Homiletic Review.)
Bodily health depending on mental moods
So closely connected is the soul with the body, that physical health is ever, to a great extent, dependent on mental states. A dark thought has power to work disease and death into the corporeal frame. This is a fact--
1. Recognised by medical science. A wise physician avails himself of this fact, and is ever anxious not only to dispel all sad thought from the mind of the patient, but to awaken the most pleasurable thoughts and emotions. It is a fact--
2. Attested by general experience.
I. The responsibility of man for his physical health. Man is responsible for his mental disposition, whether cheerful or gloomy, and his disposition greatly determines his health.
II. The duty of the guardians of childhood and youth.
III. The sanitary influence of Christianity. The design of Christianity is to fill the human heart with joy. These things have I spoken unto you that your joy may be full. Christianity is the best physician to the body. He who promotes Christinity is the wise philanthropist. Some people are always trying to keep the body well, and neglect entirely the condition of the soul. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The effects of cheerfulness and of despondency
I. The meaning of the verbs.
1. By a merry heart is meant a heart which has been taught by the Spirit of God to seek its happiness in Divine and heavenly objects, which is disposed to look at the bright side of things under the influence of contentment and hope. Such a heart has the best reason for cheerfulness. Faith keeps it from suspicion and distrust, hope from despair, and charity from that envy which is a rottenness of the bones. The love of God shed abroad in the heart makes it form the most favourable idea of every dispensation, and Christ dwelling there brightens all around by His presence.
2. By the broken spirit is meant a heart crushed by affliction, and which refuses to be comforted. Such is his spirit who, seeing his affairs ruined by his own folly, or the knavery of others, or by misfortunes which he could neither foresee nor prevent, sinks into utter despondence, and becomes incapable of the least effort to better his circumstances. Such is his spirit who, seeing the desire of his eyes taken away with a stroke, imagines he has nought now to live for. Such also is the spirit of the man wounded by remorse, or shattered by the influence of indulged melancholy, jealousies, suspicions, and fears.
II. Illustrate this view here given of the result of cheerfulness and depression.
1. Let us consider their influence on the body. The influence of a suitable medicine on the body is wonderful. Disease is checked or alleviated by it when first received; the continued use of it removes it entirely, and strengthens the constitution to resist its further attacks. Such is the power of holy joy over the health. On the other hand a broken spirit dries up the bones, and the finest constitution sinks under its influence.
2. Consider their influence on prosperity and adversity. All the comforts of prosperity are heightened by a cheerful spirit. So amiable does prosperity appear when thus enjoyed, that every heart wishes its continuance; but the broken spirit is a stranger to all the satisfactions as well as the homage of gratitude. On such a heart all its delights are lavished in vain. The cheerful heart can triumph in adversity. But how different is the case with the broken spirit! Every temporal disaster is the supposed prelude to their ruin, etc.
3. Consider the influence of cheerfulness and of depression on the soul. Cheerfulness quickens all the powers of the soul in their exercise; the imagination forms the most pleasing ideas of scenes and objects; memory calls up the most joyous recollections; hope paints the future blissful as the present; and the understanding, rejoicing in the truth, pursues its inquiries with unwearied ardour. On the other hand, when the spirit is broken, the imagination calls up only scenes of woe; memory brings nought to remembrance but what tends to disquiet and torment us; despair clothes the heavens with blackness; and the understanding doth nought but write bitter things, and form the most dreadful conclusions against itself.
4. Consider the influence of cheerfulness and depression on the duties and the pursuits of life. When the heart is cheerful the duties of a mans calling are a pleasure to him. How ingenious is the cheerful heart in finding the means of enjoyment and in extending these! On the other hand, when the spirit is broken the duties of a mans profession are a burden him.
5. Consider their influence on the connections of life. The man of a merry heart is the happiness of his family and friends. How different is the case with the broken spirit! The indications of joy in his presence such a man is apt to regard as an insult to his wretchedness.
Conclusion:
1. How strongly does the broken spirit claim our pity and our prayers! It is impossible to conceive on this side the grave a condition more dreary.
2. Let us carefully guard against the first symptoms of despondence in ourselves and in others. Let us seek out those remedies which the gospel contains for raising the bowed down.
3. Let me address those who are blessing themselves in a false mirth. I know not whether the despairing mourner or the jovial sinner is the greatest object of pity. The jovial sinners mirth is like the laughter of the maniac, or like the singing of a patient whose brain a fever hath disordered. The broken spirit may lead to that godly sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation, but the audacious mirth of the sinner is most likely to end in weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. (H. Belfrage, 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 Pro_17:22. A broken spirit. Miller renders “an upraiding spirit,”…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Pro_17:22. A broken spirit. Miller renders “an upraiding spirit,” i.e., spirit which cavils at God’s providential dealings.
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_17:22
THE MERRY HEART
I. The mind acts upon the body. It is a fact which no observant man would deny, that there is an intimate connection between sorrow of soul and sickness of body, and that cheerfulness of spirit tends to physical health. A physician always tries to keep his patient in good spirits, and when he discerns that he is weighed down by some mental burden, he wisely seeks to lighten that as well as to administer remedies to the body. And when a man is in health cheerfulness of disposition tends to keep him so; while a depressed condition of mind makes him a more easy prey to disease. That “a merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones,” is a convincing proof of the mysterious sympathy that exists between the man and his earthly dwelling-place.
II. What will conduce to cheerfulness of spirit—to what Solomon here calls “a merry heart?”
1. A heart at peace with God. Some poisons taken into the system produce for a time a calming and quieting influence upon the body, but it is a quiet and a calm which comes from deadening the capabilities of feeling. Opium may send a man to sleep, but it is a sleep which gives neither refreshment nor strength. A quiet conscience is the first and indispensable element of heart-cheerfulness, and there are other methods of getting free for a time from pain of conscience beside “that peace with God which comes from being justified by faith” (Rom_5:1). But all other quiet of soul comes from opiates whose power is but for a time, while this peace comes from the consciousness of reconciliation with God—from a sense of standing in a right relation to all that is right and true in the universe.
2. A vivid realization of unseen realities. Though a state of reconciliation with God will give freedom from the sense of guilt, it does not always give that active state of cheerfulness which can be called “a merry heart.” A river sometimes glides along between its banks in a state of undisturbed calmness; but there are times when the volume of water is so great that it overflows its channels. Peace is like a calm river, but joy is like one whose waters cannot contain themselves within its boundaries, but must pour forth on the right hand and on the left. Peace has been defined as “love resting,” and joy as “love exulting.” The one is a passive state of mind, while the other is active. But it is the latter, rather than the former, which makes that cheerful spirit which “doeth good like a medicine,” and it is the fruit only of a vivid sense of “things not seen” (Heb_11:1). Those who live on high lands and breathe the pure mountain air, are conscious of an exuberance of animal life, of which even perfectly healthy people who live in the valleys know nothing. So, men who live in the higher regions of spiritual life know a “joy in God”—are sensible of an uplifting of spirit—to which ordinary and every-day Christians are strangers. They are not only believers, but they are filled with “all joy and peace in believing;” they not only have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” but they “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom_5:1-2).
3. A life of active love. A selfish man can never be a cheerful man—he who lives for himself alone can never know the healing power of “a merry heart.” There can be no abiding cheerfulness of heart without joy in God, and there can be no abiding joy in God without love to man. “There is nothing,” says Dr. Maclaren, “more evanescent in its nature than the emotion of religious joy, faith, or the like, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God. Such emotions, like photographs, vanish from the heart unless they be fixed. Work for God is the way to fix them. Joy in God is the strength of work for God, but work for God is the perpetuation of joy in God.”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind.… Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health. Repinings and secret murmurs of heart give imperceptible strokes to those delicate fibres of which the vital parts are composed, and wear out the machine insensibly; not to mention those violent ferments which they stir up in the blood, and those irregular disturbed motions which they raise in the animal spirits. I scarce remember, in my own observation, to have met with many old men, or with such who (to use our English phrase) wear well, that had not at least a certain indolence in their humour, if not a more than ordinary gaiety and cheerfulness of heart. The truth is, health and cheerfulness mutually beget each other.—Addison.
The verb means, to cure, and, as far as we can fix it, the noun means, not a medicine, but a final “cure.” In the world at large cheerfulness is an immense gift; but in religion the wise man wishes to say that hopefulness is strength (Neh_8:10); that it is better to look cheerfully upon God, than with complaints; that if we are to be cured at all, a glad heart will help it.—Miller.
All true mirth is from rectitude of the mind, from a right frame of soul. When faith hath once healed the conscience, and grace hath hushed the affections, and composed all within, so that there is a sabbath of the spirit, and a blessed tranquillity lodged in the soul, then the body also is vigorous and vigetous, for most part in very good plight and healthful constitution, which makes man’s life very comfortable.… They that in the use of lawful means wait on the Lord, shall renew their strength (Isa_40:31).—Trapp.
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.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 22. A merry heart doeth good like a…
v. 22. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, cheerfulness is conducive to health and well-being; but a broken spirit, one afflicted with grief and distress, drieth the bones, taking the very marrow and strength out of the body.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.