This chapter is full of a variety of wise sayings. There doesn't seem to be a central theme, other than sound advice for life. I guess a lot of the statements do contrast good and evil, so to speak. As usual, I'll pick out the ones that "speak" to me and go from there.
Verse 3 - "The Lord will not let the godly go hungry, but he refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked". I'm gonna go with the spiritual rather than the literal with this one. I believe we are all created with a hunger for God and the godly have that hunger satisfied. The wicked will never be satisfied, unless they repent and "join" the godly. I really think it's His love that allows the wicked to have this craving in hope that they will turn to him. He is not willing that any perish. (2Peter 3:9)
The next bit of wisdom is concerning our words. Verse 19 states, "Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut". And verse 21 states, "The words of the godly encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense". It sounds like we need to choose our words carefully to keep from sinning. Let our words be encouraging. Think twice before we speak.
This made me think about James 3:3-6 and the power in the tongue. Here are those verses. "We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself". Later in this chapter it goes on to say no man can tame the tongue. We can only depend on our Father and His strength to tame our tongue.
The last piece of wisdom I want to cover is in verse 25. It states, "When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation". Our lasting foundation is God's word. It reminds me of what I said in a previous post. We need to memorize scriptures and then meditate on them and make them a part of us. That is our firm foundation, along with our faith in Him. Jesus thought it was pretty important, as he states in Matthew 7:24 - 27. "Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash".
I hope you have received blessing in some small way from this posting. Thank you for stopping by.
Grace to you.
Jeanne
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