Proverbs 21

Verse 1 is one of the clearest evidences in Scripture of the sovereignty of God. We see this in the lives of the most powerful rulers we meet in Scripture, as with Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:1-37), Belshazzar (Dan 5:1-30), Ahasuerus (Est 6:1-14) and Cyrus (Ezra 6:22; Isa 45:1-7). God has complete control over them. The same is true of today’s world leaders and also of the two great dictators in the end time, the beast out of the sea and the beast out of the earth (Rev 13:1-18). No human ruler is the supreme ruler in the universe, but the LORD. He is truly the King of kings (Ezra 7:21,27; Isa 10:6-7; 41:2-4; Dan 2:21; Jn 19:11; Rev 17:17).

Decisions a king makes in his heart are directed and controlled by God. He turns the king “wherever”, nothing excepted, “He wishes”. He does so in any direction He desires. A king’s heart is in His hand, indicating that He has complete power over it. It is like “channels of water”, with which He does as a farmer does who digs canals to regulate the course of water to and across his land so that it goes exactly where he wants it to go. This is how God acts with the heart of a king.

Verse 2 connects seamlessly with verse 1. As God knows the heart of a king, so He knows the heart of every human being. A man may believe that his “way is right”, but only in “his own eyes” (Pro 16:2). We are masters at declaring our way “right” while we are going a crooked way. The true judge of what is in the heart is God. He not only sees the way a person is going, but also “weighs” the “hearts”. He fathoms the motives.

The Pharisee who has a very good opinion of himself turns out in reality to have a heart full of pride in himself and full of contempt for others. This judgment He pronounces Who knows what is in man (Lk 18:9-14; Jn 2:24). He fully “searches the heart” of man (Jer 17:10) and knows that it is “more deceitful than all else” (Jer 17:9).

Our view of our path is limited both in time and direction. God is eternal and oversees everything and knows the purpose. Therefore it is good that we pray with David: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way” (Psa 139:23-24).

One of the things that can be right in our own eyes (verse 2), is to make a sacrifice and then think that our life is right (verse 3). We then see a sacrifice as compensation for the unrighteousness we do and the injustice we commit with which we can then continue. We give God something and assume that in return He does not look so closely at our life.

It does not say here that sacrifices are to be avoided, but that religious acts without a righteous life are worthless. God prefers doing “righteousness and justice” to religiosity. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1Sam 15:22; Pro 15:8; 21:27; Psa 40:6-8; Isa 1:11-17; Mk 12:33). Those who do righteousness and justice keep what God says in His Word, His ordinances of justice.

God rejected Cain’s sacrifice because he did not do righteousness and justice, but on the contrary unrighteousness and injustice, which was demonstrated when he murdered his brother (1Jn 3:12). Outward acts such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper are important because God speaks about them in His Word. But if baptism and the Lord’s Supper are nothing but outward acts and our hearts are not involved in them, they are reprehensible acts to God.

“Haughty eyes” reflect “a proud heart”. The former proves the presence of the latter. Both are “sin”. Outwardly (haughty eyes) and inwardly (a proud heart) there is nothing but sin. They belong to the existence of the wicked; this is what they produce.

The second line of verse reads in my Dutch translation: “The newly cultivated land of wicked people is sin.” A wicked person cultivates his life like a field. Even when he begins a new project, when he cultivates new land, that “newly cultivated land” produces nothing but pride. His life produces only pride. Everything serves his own glory, while he despises others.

This verse urges diligence while warning against haste. Diligence is good when work is done in a planned, consultative manner. Diligence and making plans go hand in hand. One who is diligent, but also has the patience to make plans, will not lack but have "advantage". The surplus can be used to invest in other or new projects or to help others who are living in poverty.

He who is overly diligent, “who is hasty”, does not allow himself time to make plans. He is impulsive and wants as much benefit or profit as quickly as possible. But he “surely” comes “to poverty” because he operates rashly, rashly. Speed is good, but to be hasty is seldom good. The text contrasts calculated, quick, profitable action with unproductive or even loss-making haste.

Being hasty is about all those cases where we feel we must hurry because otherwise, we believe, we miss an opportunity for gain. People are urged to subscribe to something or buy something or click on something now, because in an hour or a day or next week it will no longer be possible. Then the opportunity will be gone.

But let us remember that time to think about something, or to plan something carefully, is not wasted time. It is time that pays for itself with great profit and at least saves it from great losses due to foolish investments. Therefore, we should first submit our plans to the Lord and seek His approval. If He gives it, we can set to work diligently with the assurance of an optimal result.

“By a lying tongue” (verse 6) means in a fraudulent way, by telling lies or, by what is called a ‘babbling trick’. For example, it is someone who comes to an elderly person’s door, tells a nice story, and steals the elderly person’s money or debit card and PIN number. He will find that the treasures he has acquired in this way offer him no hold for this life. It is a fleeting vapor, it will be as if it disappears into thin air and dissolves. Added to this, to him it will be “the pursuit of death”. He is not consciously pursue death, but by what he does, he automatically does.

Gehazi is an example of such a person (2Kgs 5:20-27). Through his deception he became rich, but also leprous, a disease that leads to death. As a result, he was unable to enjoy his fraudulently acquired treasures, contrary to what he had thought. Ananias and Sapphira paid for their deceit directly with death and were not able to enjoy a minute of their money, which was in reality stolen from God ( Acts 5:1-11).

Wicked people not only speak with a lying tongue (verse 6), but their actions are violent (verse 7). They are swept along like will-less animals by their wickedness. They go from devastation to devastation; they cannot help but work destruction everywhere. This will finally lead to their own destruction, “for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword” (Mt 26:52).

They are not the passive victims of their crimes or circumstances, people who cannot help it all either. They act this way “because they refuse to act with justice”. They will only have to blame themselves for their own destruction because they chose not to act with justice and to persevere in evil.

In verse 8, the father speaks of the two kinds of people there are. In the first line of verse he speaks of “the way of a guilty man”, whom he introduced in verses 6-7, the man who lives without God. In the second line of verse, he speaks of the work of one who is connected to God.

“The way of a guilty man” – that is, of a man who refuses to go the straight way of God – “is crooked”. The way of the natural man is full of curves, his whole conduct and walk is full of twists and turns. A crooked way goes against the truth, against the instructions of God’s Word about the right way. It is also a strange way, a way foreign to Scripture, for which there is no indication in Scripture. This way is walked by those who are alien to life from and with God, who have no part in it. Their whole life shows that they belong to “a crooked and perverse generation” (Phil 2:15).

The second line of verse contrasts “way” with “conduct”, “the pure” with “a guilty man” and “upright” with “crooked”. A pure person is one who has been cleansed by faith and is thereby connected to God. He is a pure in heart, as evidenced by his conduct (cf. Tit 1:15a). It is an upright conduct because it is upright before God and men.

This is another “better ... than” proverb about living with a contentious woman (Pro 21:19; cf. Pro 19:13). Anyone can imagine the situation Solomon presents here and agree with what is better. Just imagine being married to a contentious woman. If you are married, you are obligated to live together. You can have everything arranged to perfection. The house is spacious and fully equipped. You move in, only to experience nothing but contention in that spacious and fully equipped house. The atmosphere in the house is spoiled.

Would Solomon be speaking from experience here? After all, he had a thousand wives. It is conceivable that among those many wives there were some who were constantly quarreling. Solomon was surrounded with all the splendor a man could wish for, but he realizes that simplicity and solitude with peace are better than all that luxury immersed in an atmosphere of contention.

Then it is better not to be married and live in simplicity and solitude in a small room somewhere on a corner of a roof (cf. 2Kgs 4:10). You live small, but you have peace. It may be tight and lonely, you may even be exposed to wind and weather on the corner of that roof, but there is peace, you do not have to deal with constant conflicts that spoil your life.

Those who are not married (yet) will find in this verse a counter to the idea that being married gives the highest pleasure. Being married to the woman God has given is indeed a great gift and a constant source of joy. But if you marry the wrong woman, the woman you have set your sights on, the marriage you dreamed of can turn into a nightmare. The verse again shows the importance of marrying only the woman God gives.

“The soul of the wicked desires evil” and not favor. He not only does evil, but his soul “desires” to do it. He is a sadist, a representative of satan, who finds his pleasure in hurting others. The soul is the seat of lusts. The wicked desires evil with all his soul, because only that satisfies his deepest feelings.

The thought of showing favor to his neighbor is completely absent from him. In such a person, not only is there not a shred of favor toward his enemy, but also toward his neighbor. If his neighbor begged him for favor, he would gladly do to him the evil of which his neighbor begs him not to do.

Here again there is talk of the three persons “the scoffer”, “the naive” and “the wise”. “The scoffer” is the hard-hearted person. He must pay for his scoffing. The punishment may be given by God or a judge or someone else above him, but it does not change the scoffer’s behavior. He continues to scoff. The question is whether it makes sense to punish him if it doesn’t help anyway.

Then it turns out that his punishment has a beneficial effect after all, not for himself, but for “the naive” who sees it. The example he sees has the effect of making him wise. He sees the consequences of scoffing and he wants to avoid them. That is wisdom. A punishment given reaches not only the person undergoing the punishment, but also others. It corrects one and prevents others from also committing that error, thus also preventing punishment (Pro 19:25; cf. Deu 19:20; 1Tim 5:20; Acts 5:11).

While the naive learns by example, “the wise” learns by being “instructed” through which he receives “knowledge”. The teaching he receives not only causes him to ‘know’ something, but it gives him understanding of life’s problems. The wise person never stops learning.

“The righteous” is not deceived by what he sees of the house of the wicked. Often he sees the prosperity and wealth of it. However, he does not look at it superficially, but “considers the house”; he looks at it with the eyes of God. Then he sees that the prosperity of his house is temporary. When he looks with the eye of faith, he sees the end of the present moment’s prosperity.

For there comes a time when God plunges the “wicked to ruin”. Everything on which they boasted and in which they found their rest is then changed into disaster and misery, which are not temporary, but eternal. That a moment is coming when the Judge of all the earth will do justice is an encouragement to the righteous to endure poverty and suffering.

God’s judgment comes not only on those who do evil (verse 12), but also on those who refuse to do good. “The one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin” (Jam 4:17). “He who shuts his ear” deliberately wants to hear nothing (cf. Acts 7:57). It is an expression of cruelty and insensitivity. Here someone does so in order not to hear “the cry of the poor”. He closes himself to a cry for help. He hears it, but pretends not to hear it.

This is about an explicit request for help. It can also be applied to an unspoken request for help, to perceiving someone who is poor, but avoiding him. He who does so has no feeling; he closes his inner self, his bowels (1Jn 3:17). He can even camouflage his deafness with very pious words (Jam 2:16).

Those who show no mercy will not obtain mercy if they themselves call for it (cf. Jam 2:13a). Poor Lazarus lay at the rich man’s front gate and longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table, but the rich man didn’t look after him. He closed his ears and eyes to Lazarus and did not care for him. When the rich man lifts up his eyes in torment and asks for coolness for his tongue, he finds no answer (Lk 16:19-31).

“A gift in secret” is a gift that is not made aloud. It is a gift from one person to another without others hearing about it. Such a gift has a calming effect on someone who is angry for whatever reason. It makes him more lenient. In other words, the second line of verse says the same thing.

This verse does not seem to be about a bribe or kickbacks or hush money, but about a means by which someone can be soothed. It often does a person who is inflamed by something in wrath good if someone comes along who is kind to him. The gift or gratuity need not be given by the one at whom he has become wrathful, but can also be someone who has heard of it. Examples are the gift Jacob sends to Esau (Gen 32:1-20) and the gift Abigail takes with her when she goes to David (1Sam 25:18-20,35).

The character of people is shown by their reaction to “the exercise of justice”. If doing justice is “a joy” to someone, we are dealing with “the righteous”. If doing justice is “terror” to people, we are dealing with “the workers of iniquity”. The righteous does not just do justice because he should, but he does it with joy. He does not do justice because he fears the consequences if he does not, but he does justice because he loves justice. The Lord Jesus is the true Righteous. God testifies of Him, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Heb 1:9a).

“The workers of iniquity” are those whose life consists in doing iniquity. Doing justice is doing God’s will. They abhor the thought of that. The very thought is a terror to them. They cannot do justice and they do not want to do it at all. They will be completely terrorized when they have to answer to Him. Then they will be forced to do justice in the sense of bowing before Him before Whom they have never wanted to bow. Hell will be full of people who have always hated justice. They will be under eternal terror because justice has been done to their iniquity.

“A man who wanders from the way of understanding” is one who has known the right way, but abandons it. The way of understanding is the way of God. He who abandons it turns his back on God and His Word and His people. First he walked in the way that God presents to man in His Word as the right way, which is the way of blessing. Whoever wanders from it becomes someone who continually wanders and always walks a wandering way (2Pet 2:15).

The tragedy is that such a person believes that on that wandering way he is going the way of understanding. He is, but the way of his own darkened understanding. It is impossible for someone living in utter spiritual darkness to find the right way and go that way. Only the grace of God can make someone come to the discovery that he wanders.

He who wanders is on the way of the “assembly of the dead” to “rest” there, that is, to dwell or reside there. This refers to the wandering way he is going. That way is full of the spiritually dead, those who live as dead without God. It also refers to the place where he eventually ends up when he dies physically.

The love for “joy” and “wine and oil” is a love for these things in itself, without a connection to God. It is about someone who belongs to the group of people about whom Paul says they are “more lovers of their own pleasure than of God” (2Tim 3:4). We may certainly enjoy all kinds of earthly blessings that God has given us. But if we forget that we owe everything to Him and our lives revolve only around earthly things, there comes lack of spiritual life and lack of spiritual riches. Joy in the sense of flat entertainment, having a lot of fun every day, is a hollow form of life. This life is seen as the highest good by the world around us.

‘Enjoyment’ is the key word. You come across it in numerous advertisements. Delicious food and drink, music, sports and entertainment in all variations are supposed to give a feeling of joy. However, it is the crackling of thorns from which warmth comes very briefly when set on fire, but whose fire is extinguished in no time. Then it is over and out with the warmth.

Wine and oil here symbolize luxurious living and as stand-alone causes of joy (Amos 6:6). If these things are pursued, they lead to a life of self-indulgent enjoyment, which in turn leads to spiritual poverty. He who focuses on living in luxury will seek less and less fellowship with God in reading the Bible and praying. He will become spiritually impoverished. He who pursues luxury will also begin to neglect other responsibilities, such as attention and care for wife and children.

It also has something to say to us Christians. We can be so focused on the joy of faith that we forget its Source. It becomes being joyful for and in joy. However, joy is never a mere phenomenon, but flows from the Source from Whom can be drawn. You do encounter this in certain churches where joy and the ‘Spirit’, of Whom the oil is a picture, occupy an excessive place. The result, then, is always the poverty spoken of here.

When God brings His judgment on the wicked, it is to be seen as a ransom for the righteous (cf. Isa 43:3-4). The righteous is thereby set free from oppression by the wicked. Ransom is the price paid to free a captive. God brings upon the wicked the evil that he has done to the righteous (cf. Pro 11:8). The treacherous also perishes under the judgment of God. He deserves and receives that judgment because he himself first oppressed the upright.

There comes a time when God turns the tables. That is at the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth to judge and reign. He will judge the oppressors of His people, and bring His people who were oppressed into rest (2Thes 1:6-7). He kills the wicked and thereby delivers the righteous.

Like verse 9, this proverb is a “better ... than” proverb about living with a contentious woman. From a corner on a roof where in verse 9 the husband had a better place than in the common home, the man has moved to “a desert land”. There it is better for him to dwell “than with a contentious and vexing woman”. There he is far out of earshot of this woman.

On a corner of a roof he could still hear her, but there he was also able to socialize. In a desert land, he lives all alone and virtually without social contacts. It is sparsely populated and very quiet, but also dangerous because of the wild animals. Nevertheless, that living area and environment are preferable to being constantly confronted with “domestic strife”. The woman is not only contentious, always out to quarrel, but also “vexing”, a woman who annoys the man and gives him grief. Marriage with such a woman is a constant source of misery rather than joy.

Both verses dealing with living with a contentious wife are a warning to the unmarried man. They do not imply advice for the married man to live elsewhere if his wife displays characteristics of contentiousness and vexation. They underscore the importance of being careful when choosing a marriage partner. It is also a warning to the married man to make every effort to ensure that not strife and vexation but serving love characterize the marriage. That is primarily his responsibility.

“The wise” (verse 20) lives with an eye to the future, while also living in the present. There is in his home “a precious treasure and oil” of which he uses every day, while knowing that what he has will also be enough in future times of want. This is because he looks beyond and especially higher than these resources. He sees that he receives them from God’s hand.

The wise may be a poor person living in a hut. The precious treasure is not so much a heap of gold or silver, but may be a bit of bread, trusting God to give him each day the amount of bread he needs that day (Mt 6:11). The oil does not refer to a large supply of oil that he can sell later, but a small amount that he trusts is enough for what he needs that day and will need later. In short, the wise trusts in God.

The widow in Zarephath was such a wise person (1Kgs 17:11-15). She had a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil in her house, but also the man of God. He made sure the flour and oil did not run out because the woman believed him. Thus, we have a precious treasure and oil in our home when we give everything in our home to the Lord Jesus. Then He will see to it that we lack nothing.

The fool does not think about the future. He also has a precious treasure and oil, but no faith in God. Therefore, he swallows up everything he has. The wise one lives here and now, but with his eye on the future; the fool lives only for here and now. The fool lets money slip between his fingers like sand. He does not contemplate his possession in the light of the future and therefore he squanders it. His motto is ‘he who lives then, cares then’, but he does not consider that ‘then’ he will meet God and have to answer Him for what he has done with his possessions.

He who “pursues” something (verse 21) is convinced of its value and that it is worthwhile to dedicate oneself entirely to it. The wise person is convinced of the value of “righteousness and loyalty”. Righteousness is giving to God what He is entitled to and to people what they are entitled to. It is acting in accordance with justice. “Loyalty” indicates a mind of goodness. They go together in God in a perfectly balanced wise. They should also go together in the righteous.

Whoever pursues these two characteristics will find and experience true “life” both now and in eternity. True life is living in fellowship with God, as Christ knew when He was on earth. In addition, he also finds “righteousness”. He knows that he has been fully accepted by God. This is not about obtaining a position before God, for that cannot be earned. It is about the awareness of the blessing of being able to be in God’s presence. The basis of this is the work of Christ. Finally, he also finds “honor”. God honors him for his efforts (cf. Jn 12:26).

This “pursuit” no one can do in his own strength. It can only happen through the Holy Spirit Who in the new life works this pursuit. Timothy is also told to pursue righteousness and a number of other characteristics. If he does so, he will grasp the true, eternal life (1Tim 6:11-12). Timothy was a believer, but the point is that the new life is also lived by him. That is also what Solomon means here.

“The city of the mighty” thinks she is invincible (verse 22). She relies on the strength of her mighty. But “wisdom is better than strength” (Ecc 9:16). It is more effective to use wisdom than to rely on strength (Ecc 7:19). A wise man, because of his wisdom, is able to scale that city in spite of the mighty in it and bring down the stronghold that it was believed could not be brought down (Ecc 9:14-15).

The stronghold is brought down because people trust in it. That makes the difference with wisdom. Wisdom is stronger than self-confidence and reliance on human resources because wisdom relies on God. Indeed, fearing God is the beginning of wisdom. Only through the power of God that accompanies wisdom is the wise able to scale a city of the mighty.

Prudent tactics and wise application of courage win out over mere muscular strength and skillful use of weapons. Thus Joshua took Ai (Jos 8:3-22) and Gideon defeated the great army of the Midianites with a small army (Jdg 7:7). The power of the enemy is broken by those who trust in God. The same is true in the spiritual struggle. Every stronghold of human, God-hostile thinking is overthrown and cast down by those who are guided by the Spirit of God and the Word of God (2Cor 10:3-5).

Another victory is that over the mouth and the tongue (verse 23). He who guards his mouth and his tongue, has control over them, avoids getting into trouble. The wise one knows the time to be silent (Ecc 3:7). The loose tongued one quickly gets into troubles. He has run his mouth and said something no one should know or he has been too quick in passing judgment on someone. This causes him opposition and sometimes even enmity. He is blamed for saying it.

People who have control over their mouth and tongue think before they say anything. They are not likely to get into social or legal trouble because of a wrong remark (cf. Pro 13:3). Therefore, it is good to think of things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely and of good repute (Phil 4:8) and say those things, while avoiding anything false, hurtful and harmful to others.

“Proud” and “Haughty” are names which represent the traits by which the “Scoffer" is recognized. A person who is haughty and proud and a scoffer bears these names. This person goes through life arrogantly, with contempt for any form of authority. In his pride, he refuses to bow down before God. In his haughtiness, he exalts himself above others. There is with him no desire for wisdom, for that implies that he must have reverence for God.

With the scoffer there is a total lack of modesty. In his conceit he “acts with insolent pride”. He believes that he can get everything done and that he can order anyone to help him. He does not tolerate contradiction. The antichrist is the scoffer par excellence. Pharaoh and Sennacherib sneered at God and both perished by God’s judgment (Exo 5:2; 14:23-30; Isa 36:16-20; 37:6-10,36-38). So too will the antichrist perish and all who follow him and are marked by his spirit of scoffing.

“The sluggard” has a powerful working “desire”, but “hands” that “refuse to work” (verse 25). That combination puts him to death. A sluggard lies daydreaming about food and drink, about all that others have and all that he wants too. But he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. That costs him too much energy. It is not a matter of not being able to, but of not wanting to. He chooses not to work.

In doing so, the sluggard is also naive or gullible, because he does not realize that his laziness is leading him to death. He is so preoccupied with his desires, he lives so much in the make-believe world of “wishful thinking”, that this way of life becomes fatal to him and that he dies of want.

Verse 26 connects directly to verse 25 and continues the theme of the sluggard and what he desires. A sluggard is completely wrapped up in his own lifestyle. He is filled with cravings looking for satisfaction all day long. It may be about good food and drink, or acquiring things that make life fun or exciting. To him, these are covetable things. In his imagination he has surrounded himself with these, but he throws off the thought of purchasing these things with money earned by himself.

“The righteous man” is not a sluggard, but a diligent worker. That he is a righteous person is also evidenced by his generosity. The Bible teaches that a righteous person is a giving person. The righteous person is not only diligent and not only has enough for himself, but has so much that he also gives to the poor. He who is lazy constantly covets; the righteous one gives constantly and does not hold back (cf. Acts 20:34-35). The sluggard always wants to receive without working for it. The righteous works hard and gives generously to those who are poor.

God abhors “the sacrifice” or worship “of the wicked” because they come to God without acknowledgment of their sins and are therefore without righteousness before God (verse 27; Jer 6:20; Amos 5:21-24). The sacrifice or worship that such a person brings is not only unacceptable to God, but it is also an abomination to Him. God first requires of the worshiper true repentance and the purpose to live righteously. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psa 51:17).

Hypocritical worship is bad enough; worship “with evil intent” is totally reprehensible. God does not want acts of worship without repentance, and He abhors them altogether from one who thinks he can bribe God with his sacrifice to give him his desires. ‘Quid pro quo; I make a sacrifice to God – for example, I give money to the church or occasionally visit a sick person – then He must give me what I want or at least make sure that nothing happens to me.’ Shameful intentions are a great abomination to God.

The hypocrite in verse 27 stands opposite God. The hypocrite in verse 28 stands opposite people. “A false witness” is one who knowingly gives false testimony against someone. He will perish. God will judge him. If it turns out before people that he gave a false testimony, he will already be judged by the judge on earth.

Opposite the lying witness in the second line of verse is “the man who listens”. Such a person is a true, trustworthy witness. The man who constantly listens first to what is said about a case in which he is to testify, who says nothing but what he has heard or seen, can testify forever. He is trustworthy; he may testify every time in appropriate cases. Because he knows and understands what the truth is, he need never be silent. No one will be able to contradict or refute him.

Stephen was such a witness. He listened to God’s voice through His Word. The wisdom and spirit with which he spoke could not be resisted (Acts 6:10). Even after he died, he still spoke (cf. Heb 11:4). Above all, the Lord Jesus is the faithful and true Witness. He has always listened to God and therefore may always speak. He is the truth and speaks the truth.

“A wicked man” gives the impression of being a convinced man (verse 29). His face is bold. He is not ashamed of anything and does not know how to blush (Jer 6:15; 8:12). The hardened face reflects a hardened, unrepentant heart (Isa 48:4; Jer 5:3; Eze 3:7). With an expressionless face, he tells the crudest lies and commits the most heinous deeds. The second line of verse shows that a wicked man is going down a way that has no hold whatsoever, no matter how powerful he pretends to be. He will sink into unfathomably deep misery when he is judged by God.

“The upright ... makes his way sure” because he looks upward, to God, and asks Him for guidance. He positions himself as dependent and weak. As a result, he is strong because God gives him strength. God’s pleasure rests on him. The Lord Jesus is also the perfect example here. In His imitation, we also see an example in Paul. He was upright (2Cor 1:17) and acknowledged his dependence on grace: “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:10).

The chapter ends what it began with: the absolute sovereignty and exaltedness of God. Everything He purposes to do will come to pass. There is nothing that and no one who can prevent Him from carrying out His plans (verse 30). He laughs at everything man undertakes to thwart His plans (Psa 2:1-4).

Human “wisdom”, “understanding” and “counsel” are nothing but foolishness in the light of the wisdom, understanding and counsel of God. It speaks of total blindness and impotence. The use of the word “no” three times emphasizes that there really is nothing that can be done against the LORD. All His purposes and actions are perfect and untouchable to any power whatsoever.

We see this in everything that was planned against the Lord Jesus in order to kill Him. Yet everything went the way God had determined (Acts 2:23). For example, if the religious leaders assigned His grave with the wicked, yet He is with the rich in His death because God has determined it that way (Isa 53:9; Mt 27:57-60). God proclaims the end from the beginning and man cannot change that. On the contrary, God even uses him for the fulfillment of His plans.

A man can be wise in certain respects and have understanding and therefore can give wise counsel. He may have studied and gained experience. But if he has no fear of the LORD, he lacks true wisdom and understanding, and his counsel proves to be foolishness. We offend God if we would compare human wisdom, understanding and counsel with His wisdom, understanding and counsel.

Man is of “yesterday and knows nothing” (Job 8:9). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8). He, Who is God, oversees the past, the present and the future. Man cannot see into the future. He can make predictions based on experience and assumptions, but he cannot offer guarantees. God determines what happens. Man would be wise to agree with that and not turn against Him. The so-called wise do not possess foresight and they have no control over the future. They do moderate that by presenting goals for the future with lofty words, but all their claims fail because of the LORD, for He alone has wisdom, understanding and counsel.

The ultimate success of a venture or victory in a battle comes from God and not through human effort (verse 31). The contrast here is between the plans and efforts for battle on the one hand, “the horse is prepared for the day of battle”, and on the other hand the recognition of the true source of victory, “the LORD” (Psa 20:8; 33:17). Means may be used to accomplish something, but we must never forget that we owe it to God when we succeed. We may use means, but never turn them into an idol (cf. Hab 1:16).