Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Proverbs 16:20

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Laying plans and making decisions (16:1-33)

A person may make plans, but God is the one who determines their outcome. He knows the person’s unseen motives and controls events according to his purposes. It is important, therefore, always to bring God into one’s planning (16:1-4). God punishes the arrogant but has mercy on those who fear him (5-6). He protects them from harm and guides them on the right pathway (7-9).
When a king’s wisdom comes from God, his decisions will be right. He will show no partiality but will punish evil, commend good, and insist that all trading practices be fair and honest (10-15). The person who is truly rich is not the one who has money, but the one who is wise, upright, humble, obedient and faithful (16-20).
Pleasant speech is not hypocritical if it springs from a pure heart. It benefits the speakers for it gives their words persuasiveness, and it benefits the hearers for it improves their minds (21-24). People can readily deceive themselves, but they cannot escape the plain fact that if they do not work they will go hungry (25-26). In contrast to the pleasant speech just mentioned, abusive speech, whispering and sly scheming create only trouble (27-30). Living uprightly guarantees honour in old age; controlling one’s passions guarantees strength; referring matters to God guarantees right decisions (31-33).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“He that giveth heed unto the word shall find good; And whoso trusteh in Jehovah, happy is he.”

These clauses are parallel. The man that heeds the Word of God is exactly the same man that trusts in Jehovah. A man can do neither without doing both. “There can be no real blessedness in life without one’s trusting in the Lord. Men are so constituted that if their souls are to find rest, they must trust the loving power and wisdom of that Being who is stronger and wiser than themselves.”Harris in the Preacher’s Homiletic Commentary, op. cit., p. 485.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

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.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn now to Proverbs 16:1-33 , the sixteenth chapter and begin our study this evening.

The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD ( Proverbs 16:1 ).

God works in our lives even when we're not aware of it. If we're a child of God, God is continually working in our lives. It's amazing how many times we say things that we don't realize that at the time we are saying it, but actually it's a word from the Lord. It just comes up. God prepares your heart. The preparations of the heart, they're from God. In Philippians we read, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God that is working in you both to will and to do" ( Philippians 2:12-13 ). You see, God is planting now His law in the fleshly tablets of our heart, even as He promised to Jeremiah. "The day will come when I will no longer write my law on the tables of stone but in the fleshly tables of their heart." So God plants His Word, God plants His desires right in your heart, so the preparations of the heart are from the Lord. How great it is to be a child of God and to have your life submitted to the Lord so that the Lord is directing from that just inner kind of desires and all that He plants within your own heart.

Second proverb:

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weighs the spirits ( Proverbs 16:2 ).

Now no matter what a guy does, it's right. "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes." You can justify everything you've done. We're so full of excuses. "I did it because... " Even if it's wrong, we got a good reason or at least a good excuse. Of course, Benjamin Franklin said the man who is good with excuses is seldom good for anything else. "The ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but God weighs the spirits." Now God knows the motives. God knows why I did it, the motive behind it, and that's what's important.

Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established ( Proverbs 16:3 ).

So many times we're worried that we haven't done enough. And probably correct. However, when we look at our service to God, we so often say, "Oh, but, you know, I should have done such a better job. You know, I... " Could you have done a better job? "No. I did the best I could." Well, that's all God expects. God doesn't expect more from you than what you can actually produce. So you've got to commit your works unto the Lord. Do your best and then just commit the rest. And your thoughts will be established.

"Well, you know, Lord, that's the best I can do. Sorry You have to use this kind of instrument to do Your work, Lord, but that's the way it is and that's all I can do." And I don't go home and worry, "Oh, could I have done this? Could I have done that? Oh, I should have done this. I should have done that." You just do your best and then you just place the rest in His hands. Your thoughts are then established. You rest. "Well, Lord, here it is, such as it is the best I can do." And you just commit your work to the Lord and your thoughts then are established. Just resting. Best I could do. "God, you know, use it if you can. It's my best."

This is an interesting and yet a difficult proverb to understand.

The LORD has made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil ( Proverbs 16:4 ).

Now the word evil, of course, is a reference to the judgment that is coming. There is a scripture in Isaiah that has brought a lot of problems to people, where God has declared that He has created evil. And they say, "Oh, how could God create evil?" The word actually is judgments. God has created the judgments that come upon the evil. So, "The Lord has made all things for Himself." "Thou has created all things, and for thy good pleasure they are and were created" ( Revelation 4:11 ). And God has even created the evil or the wicked. Now God didn't create them wicked, but He created wicked people. Can you catch the difference?

God created people; some of them are wicked. They don't have to be, but they are. God created them. You can't deny the fact that God created them. So in a sense, you can say God created the wicked. He didn't create them wicked, but He created the wicked. They became wicked. God created them. And He has actually created also the judgments that shall come upon those wicked persons.

Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD ( Proverbs 16:5 ):

One of those, another one of those which God has a lot of things that are an abomination to Him. Again, you need to take your concordance and go through the book of Proverbs and go through this word abomination and find out how many things are an abomination unto God. Now, I don't know exactly what an abomination is, but it sounds bad. And I know I don't want to be one.

Now, "The proud in heart are an abomination to the Lord." Oh, that pride. What a destroyer it is. We'll get to that in a minute.

and though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished ( Proverbs 16:5 ).

This "hand in hand" again, the striking of the hand, making a deal, it's usually a... in this case, joining hand in hand for strength, yet you can't escape the punishment.

By mercy and truth iniquity is cleansed ( Proverbs 16:6 ):

God's mercy and God's truth. You remember John in the opening remarks concerning Jesus Christ said, "For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ" ( John 1:17 ). Of course, grace and mercy are sister kind of words. Mercy and truth. Grace and truth. "By mercy and truth iniquity is cleansed."

and by the fear [or the reverence] of the LORD men depart from evil ( Proverbs 16:6 ).

Now the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And so here, "By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." There is a tremendous inconsistency; John points it out in his first epistle. He said, "He that saith he hath fellowship with God and walketh in darkness is lying" ( 1 John 1:6 ). He isn't telling the truth. You cannot walk in fellowship with God and have a desire and a love for evil. "By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil."

When a man's ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him ( Proverbs 16:7 ).

Thus, really the goal of each of our lives is and should be to be pleasing to God. Not what pleases you. Now usually we use as our standard, is it right or is it wrong? And trying to measure... and this was, of course, the mistake that the religious leaders in Judaism made concerning the law. Now what constitutes bearing a burden on the Sabbath day? What if you had false teeth? If you put your false teeth on on the Sabbath day, that means you're bearing a burden, doesn't it? You're carrying something that isn't natural to you. What about if you have a wooden leg? Sure, that's a burden so you can't put it on on the Sabbath day. And all of these little fine points, you know, they're trying to tune the fine points of right and wrong.

You can throw all of that out the window. The real question is: is it pleasing to God? Is God pleased with it? Because you may sit down and rationalize that a particular action, a particular thing that you want to do, you may rationalize and say, "Well, sure, look, it's all right," and give all of your rationale for why it's right. But it may not be pleasing to God. So really the rightness or the wrongness of a particular action isn't what really matters. What really matters is, does it really please the Lord? My life, I desire that my life be pleasing. Jesus said, "I do always those things that please the Father" ( John 8:29 ). Now, if you use that as your standard, you won't have to worry about right or wrong. You won't have to sit and examine the thing to see if it's really right or really wrong. Hey, does it please God? That's where it's at. "When a man's ways please the Lord, then the Lord makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."

Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right ( Proverbs 16:8 ).

"A little that a righteous man hath is greater riches than many wicked" ( Psalms 37:16 ). Same concept.

A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps ( Proverbs 16:9 ).

How many times our plans have been changed by the Lord. We've decided we're going to do something, and God throws the monkey wrench in and stops us. I'm always sensitive to interruptions. Maybe God is trying to stop me. You know, the man who is expecting to be disturbed is the man who is never disturbed when disturbances come. If you are open to God and you think, "Well, Lord, any time I'm heading down a path You don't want, You just stop me." Therefore, I am expecting to be disturbed. Therefore, when the disturbance comes, it doesn't disturb me, because my life and my steps are committed to the Lord.

So we devise something in our heart, but God directs our steps. And I want it that way. I don't want to do my own will. I don't want to fulfill my own purposes. I want God to stop me whenever I am getting out of line and doing something that isn't from Him and directed by Him. I want the Lord to interrupt me. I want God to disturb me. I want God to direct my steps.

A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment ( Proverbs 16:10 ).

Now herein, of course, is a beautiful situation. When the king is a godly king, then God will direct his mouth, his lips and place, actually, God's sentences within his lips. And his mouth will not transgress. Will be faithful in judgment.

A just weight and balance are the LORD'S: all the weights of the bag are his work ( Proverbs 16:11 ).

Now, again, we'll get another proverb that deals with this pretty soon. All of their merchandising was done with the balanced scales. And so they would have little bags of weights. And the crooked merchant would have two bags of weights, divers weights: one that they would sell with, and one that they would buy with. So butchers have had their thumbs on the scales for years. Goes back to the time of Proverbs. Where in the balancing, they would use one set of weights to buy, and they would use another bag of weights to sell. It's an abomination unto the Lord. False balances, an abomination unto God. But the true, honest in business. "A just weight and balance are the Lord's, and all the weights of the bag are His work."

It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: for the throne is established by righteousness ( Proverbs 16:12 ).

So those who are in leadership actually have a greater responsibility before God.

Righteous lips are the delight of kings; and they love him that speaks right. The wrath of the king is as messengers of death: but a wise man will pacify it. In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain ( Proverbs 16:13-15 ).

So here we have four proverbs that are related to each other because they all deal with kings. And inasmuch as none of you are kings, I don't know, maybe you are. You're the King's kids.

Now Solomon declares:

How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver! ( Proverbs 16:16 )

You remember when he started out, God said to Solomon, "Ask of Me whatever you desire," and Solomon prayed for wisdom. And God said, "In that you have asked for wisdom, you've asked for a good thing. And I will grant unto you wisdom. But I will also grant unto you that which you did not ask: riches and so forth." And so wisdom, understanding, these are more valuable than gold, treasure, silver.

The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: and he that keeps his way preserveth his soul ( Proverbs 16:17 ).

Then one that is very familiar, but so often misquoted. How many times you've heard people say, "Pride goeth before a fall." That's not a scripture. This is the scripture from which that quotation is taken, but it is misquoted.

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall ( Proverbs 16:18 ).

So pride goes before destruction. That haughty spirit, going to be brought down. "Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord, He shall lift thee up" ( James 4:10 ). "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted; he that exalteth himself shall be abased" ( Matthew 23:12 ).

Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud ( Proverbs 16:19 ).

So a couple of them that deal with pride and humility.

He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he ( Proverbs 16:20 ).

How neat it is to just have your trust in the Lord. Happy man. You're not really disturbed by the circumstances of life. My trust is in God. Happy is he.

The wise in heart shall be called prudent: and the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning. Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly ( Proverbs 16:21-22 ).

So understanding. "With all of thy getting, get understanding" ( Proverbs 4:7 ), David said to Solomon. It's a wellspring of life to him who has it. Oh God, grant to us a better understanding. I think to have understanding is so important, because I think it is the key to compassion. There are many people in many circumstances in which we find it difficult to be compassionate.

In operating summer camps, which I did for years and years, you get those kids that are just behavioral problems. I've had the counselors come in and say, "You better get that kid out of my group or I'm going to kill him. He's horrible. You know, he's just screaming at night and always creating problems. I can't stand that kid. Get him out of there before you have to carry him out. Going to do something rash." And so I'll bring the little kid in and I'll sit him down and, of course, you know, he has to go to Chuck. And he comes in all trembling, and you know here he is. Like I'm going to be a monster. And I'll go over and buy him an ice cream bar and sit him down and start talking, asking him, you know, about his home, about his background. Little kid will start unfolding the story how his dad, he never sees him. Doesn't know where he is. Comes home, his mom's usually drunk. Different men in the house who yell at him and tell him to get out of there, and all this kind of stuff. Man, you get the background stories of some of these little guys and you can't believe it! It's horrible. And then I'll call the counselor back in and I said, "Do you realize that this is what happens when this little kid goes home and this is what the situation is?" "Oh, wow." We have a whole changed attitude towards him. Now you understand why he's fighting everybody. Man, this little kid has to fight for survival. And as you understand now the background, now you can have compassion, and now you can deal with him, and now you can minister to him.

Understanding is such an important thing. Ezekiel said, "I sat where they sat" ( Ezekiel 3:15 ). And you really need to sit in another man's place for a while to really understand that other person. I think one of the keys to relationship is to put yourself in the other person's position. We have so many labor problems. Well, if you could reverse roles, if management could sit where labor is, and if labor could sit where management is, you could remove so many of these labor problems. The management would understand that this guy has to have a decent wage to live. But also this guy would understand that management has to have a profit to survive.

If a wife could sit where her husband sits, and if a husband could sit where his wife sits, how many problems this would solve. When he comes home at night, just all frazzled from the pressures and the hassles that he's had all day, and sits down and just wants to turn on TV, and just tune out for a while, and he's uncommunicative to his wife, well, if she could just understand the pressures, the hassles he's had. On the same token, if he could just be with those kids all day long and be communicating to them, he'd understand the wife's need to communicate on a different level when he gets home. "And I sat where they sat." Understanding, understanding the other person's position is so important, really, to compassion, to love. "It's a wellspring of life to him who has it." Oh God, grant that we might have better understanding.

The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips ( Proverbs 16:23 ).

So the heart is the issue of life.

Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, health to the bones ( Proverbs 16:24 ).

Now, I don't know if the scientists have ever made any relationship between honey and the bones, but it's sweet to the soul, honey, and health to the bones. What are they? Pleasant words. Oh, just cheerful words, pleasant words. How good they are.

There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death ( Proverbs 16:25 ).

I think of so many people today who are deceived by false prophets, who are deceived by false religious systems. They're convinced that they are right. "There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end of it" ( Proverbs 14:12 ). There's another scripture, "Every man's way is right in his own eyes" ( Proverbs 21:2 ). But here, "There is a way that seems right." The way of life, you know. The philosophy of life that a man has chosen. It seems to be right. Eat, drink and merry. Tomorrow we die, you know. And you talk to that guy and he's convinced that his philosophy is correct. "But the end thereof, the way of death."

He that laboreth, laboreth for himself; for the mouth craves it of him ( Proverbs 16:26 ).

It's a thing that your labor goes to feed yourself.

An ungodly man digs up evil: and in his lips there is a burning fire ( Proverbs 16:27 ).

Actually, James says, "Behold, what a great fire such a little matter kindleth! And the tongue is like a fire" ( James 3:5-6 ). The things that it can enflame.

A perverse man sows strife: and a whisperer can separate the best of friends. A violent man entices his neighbor, and leads him into the way that is not good. He shuts his eyes to devise perverse things: moving his lips he brings evil to pass. Now the hoary head [which is the gray, the hoary frost, the white hair] is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness ( Proverbs 16:28-31 ).

I think that one of the worst things in the world is a dirty old man. You know when people get old and gray-headed, they're supposed to all be sweet and kind and loving. After all, they're getting towards the end, and so you ought to be mellow. And to see a little old gray-hair lady using four-letter words and all that kind of... it just, it's just wrong. It's out of place.

My daughter used to work for a medical supply firm and she had to deliver some things to this little old lady in the hospital. And she walked in and saw her and thought, "Oh, what a sweet-looking little old lady." And then this lady you know says, "Who the hell are you? And what are you doing here?" And just started all this filthy language. And it's just somehow incongruent; it's just out of place. "The gray hair is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." But man, if it's not.

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that takes a city ( Proverbs 16:32 ).

How important it is. Slow to anger, ruling our own spirits. Important.

The lot is cast into the lap ( Proverbs 16:33 );

Now it's a... the lot is a thing whereby they would oftentimes determine. You know, it's like drawing a straw. They would cast lots into their lap.

but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD ( Proverbs 16:33 ).

Trying to get guidance or direction or to determine, they cast lots. But the real direction, the disposing of the thing comes from God. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. Trusting God ch. 16

In this chapter, there is also a slight change in the form of the proverbs. Solomon expressed the earlier proverbs (chs. 10-15) mainly in antithetical parallelisms, but the proverbs in this section are mainly synonymous and synthetic parallelisms. Instead of the key word being "but" it now becomes "and."

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

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,

Jeremiah 17:7.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is 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, Proverbs 13:13; Proverbs 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.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

Trust in God True Wisdom

A sermon (No. 392) delivered on Sunday Morning, May 12th, 1861, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, by C. H. Spurgeon

“He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” Proverbs 16:20 .

Wisdom is man’s 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. Wisdom is the compass by which man is to steer across the trackless waste of life. Without wisdom man is as the wild asses’ colt; he runs hither and thither, wasting strength which might be profitably employed. Without wisdom, man may be compared to a soil untilled, which may yield some fair flowers but can never field a harvest which shall repay the labor of the reaper, or even the toil of the gleaner. Give man wisdom, wisdom in the true sense of the term, and he rises to all the dignity that manhood can possibly know; he becomes a fit companion for the angels, and between him and God there is no creature; he standeth next to the Eternal One because Christ has espoused his nature, and so has linked humanity with divinity. But where shall this wisdom be found? Many have dreamed that they discovered it, but they have not possessed it. Where shall we find it? ‘Twere worth while to pierce the bowels of the earth, to scale the heights of heaven, to traverse the deserts, to plough the sea, to fly through the illimitable fields of ether all were too little if we might but find this precious thing at last. But “the depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighted for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.

Let us listen then to the voice of the Lord, for he hath declared the secret; he hath revealed to the sons of men wherein true wisdom lieth, and we have it in the text, “whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he;” and that sentence is put in conjunction with another which teaches us this truth, that to handle a matter wisely is to find good, and the true way to handle a matter wisely is to trust God. This is the short and brief method of escaping the greatest difficulties: this is the clue to the most intricate labyrinths; this is the lever which shall lift the most tremendous weights. He that trusts in the Lord has found out the way to handle matters wisely, and happy is he.

I shall take the text this morning by God’s assistance in two ways. First, we shall apply it to the wise handling of matters with regard to time and this present state; and then secondly with regard to the handling of the eternal matters relating to our destiny beyond the grave, and endeavor to show how trusting in the Lord is handling this matter wisely .

I. First then my dear friends, with regard to the wise handling of matters of time which concern our bodies and our souls, whilst we are here below .

A man must be prudent in such a world as this. He will soon cut his feet if he does not pick his steps. He will soon tear his garments with thorns and briars if he does not choose his way. This is a land full of enemies; we must be wise or the arrow will suddenly find out a vulnerable place in our armor. We must be cautious, for we are not travelling in noon-day on the king’s highway, but rather at night-fall, and we may therefore be attacked by robbers and may lose our precious treasures. He who is in a wilderness, and in a wilderness infested with robber bands, must handle matters wisely if he would find good.

How shall we handle these matters wisely? Three or four come forward to instruct us, and the first lesson is one which Satan often teaches the young and foolish spirit. He says, “To handle a matter wisely is to make your own will your law , and to do that which seemeth to be the best for you, be it right or be it wrong.” This was the lesson which he taught to Eve when in the serpent’s form he spoke the serpent’s wisdom, “Ye be shall be as gods,” said he. “Mistrust the goodness of your Maker; believe that he is afraid lest you should attain to equal power and dignity with himself. Pluck the fruit. ‘Tis true he forbids, but who is Jehovah that you should obey his voice? ‘Tis true he threatens to punish, but do not believe the threatening, or if you believe it, dare it. He who cannot risk anything will never win. He that will not venture something shall never make great gains. Do and dare, and you will be handling the matter wisely.” She plucked the fruit and the next instant she must have perceived somewhat of her folly; but ere many hours had passed over man’s head, his discovered nakedness, pains of body, weariness, toil, expulsion from Paradise, and tilling a thankless, thorny land, taught man that he had not handled the matter wisely, for he had not found good. And you too, ye sons and daughters of Eve, when the old serpent whispers in your ear, “Sin, and you shall escape from difficulty; be just when you can afford to be so, but if you cannot live except by dishonesty, be dishonest; if you cannot prosper except by lies, then lie” oh! men, listen not to his voice I pray you. Hearken to a better wisdom than this. This is a deception which shall destroy you; you shall find no good, but you shall find much evil; you shall sow the wind and you shall reap the whirlwind. You think that you dive into these depths for pearls, but the jagged rocks shall break you, and from the deep waters you shall never rise, except your lifeless corpse swim on the surface of the pestilential waves. Be wise, and learn of God, and close your ears to him who would have you destroy yourself that he may gloat his malicious spirit over your eternal misery. It is never wise to sin, brethren, never. However it may seem to be the best thing you can do, it must always be the worst. There never was a man in such a position that it would be really profitable to him to sin. “But,” say you, “some men have become rich by it!” Sirs, they have had sorrow with their riches; they have inherited the blasting curse of God, and so they have been really poorer than poverty could have made them. “But,” say you, “men have mounted to the throne by breaking their oaths.” I know they have; but temporary success is no sure sign of constant happiness; the Emperor’s career is not ended yet; wait ye in patience; but should he escape in this life, the perjurer shall meet his Judge, and then . He that measures what man gains by what he seems to gain hath taken a wrong standard. There was never yet I will repeat it there was never yet any man who broke his word, who forfeited his oath, who turned aside from God’s Word or God’s law, who in the end found it be profitable to him. He heaped up deceptions, he gathered together delusions, and when God awoke, and when that man awoke, as a dream when one awaketh, so did he, or so shall he, despise the image on which his soul had doted.

But now the serpent moderates his hiss. “Do not sin,” saith he; “there is no necessity for downright dishonesty or theft; do not absolutely plunge yourself into vice, but be wise,” saith he, by which he means, “ Be crafty; trim your sails when the wind changes, how can you reach your haven unless you learn to tack about? The straight road is thorny; take the bye-path; there will be another path which will bring you back after the thorns and flints are passed. Why” says he, “will you dash your head against a stone? If there be a mountain in your way, why not wind about the base; why climb the summit? Doth not wisdom teach you that that which is easiest must be best, and that which is most in consistence with the dictates of your own nature must after all be best for you?” Ah! slimy serpent! Ah! base deceiver, how many multitudes have been thus deceived! Why, brethren, the reason why we have not more men in this age whom one could trust, why we have not in our high places more men in whom we could place confidence, is because policy has been the law of individuals, and the law of nations too, instead of that course of honesty which is like the flight of the arrow, certain and sure to reach its mark, not by tortuous windings, but by one onward straight line. Why do persons so frequently inquire what they ought to do in such a case, not meaning what God’s law would have them do, but what will bring the best result? The rules of modern craft and time-serving morality are difficult because they are inconsistent, but honesty is simple and clear as the sunlight. It takes years to make a clever lawyer, grace however can make an honest man in one hour. Brethren believe me, policy is not wisdom , and craft is not understanding. Let me give you the case of another woman Rebecca. Rebecca heard that God had decreed that her favourite son Jacob should be ruler of the twain. “The elder shall serve the younger.” She could not wait for God’s providence to fulfill God’s purpose, but must needs deceive her blind husband. She dresses up her son with skins of goats and wool, provides the savoury meat, and sends Jacob who was, though a good man, the very picture of a politic and prudent professor, to meet his father and to deceive him. Ah! if Rebecca had been wise she had not done this. Little did she foresee that the effect of this stratagem would be to drive her favourite son away from his affectionate mother, give him years of toil under Laban, cause him to make the great mistake of his life, the commission of the error of polygamy, and make him a far more afflicted man than he might have been had he been like Abraham or Isaac who leaned not to their own understandings, but trusted in God with all their hearts. Brethren, you shall never find in any case that any turning aside from a staightforward course will be for your profit. After all, you may depend on it that the way to be most renowned among men is to have the strange singularity of being a downright honest man. Say what you mean; mean what you say. Do what you believe to be right, and ever hold it for a maxim that if the skies fall through your doing right, honest men will survive the ruin. How can the godly sin? If the earth should reel, would he fail? No, blessed be God, he should find himself in the honorable position of David of old when he said, “The earth is removed; I bear up the pillars thereof.”

But now the serpent changes his note and he says, “Well, if you be not sinful or crafty, at any rate, to succeed in life you must be very careful . You must fret, and worry, and think much about it; that is the way to handle a matter wisely. Why” saith he, “see how many are ruined from want of thought and want of care. Be you careful over it. Rise up early, sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness. Stint yourself; deny yourself. Do not give to the poor; be a miser, and you shall succeed. Take care; watch; be thoughtful.” And this is the path of wisdom according to him. My brethren, it is a path which very many have tried, very many have persevered in it all their lives, but I must say to you this is not handling a matter wisely after all. God forbid we should say a single word against prudence, and care, and necessary forethought, industry and providence. These are virtues; they are not only commendable, but a Christian’s character would be sadly at fault if he had them not. But when these are looked upon as the foundations, the staple materials of success, men are desperately in error. It is vain for you in that sense to rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness, for “so he giveth his beloved sleep.” Oh! there be many who have realized that picture of old Care, which old Spenser gives in his Faery Queene.

“Rude was his garment, and to rags all rent;

So better had he, nor for better cared;

With blistered hands, among the cinders burnt,

And fingers filthy, with long nails unpared,

Right fit to rend the food ere which he fared:

His name was Care: a blacksmith by his trade,

That neither day nor night from working spared,

But to small purpose iron wedges made:

Those be unquiet thoughts that careful minds invade.”

Who wishes to have that picture come true of himself? I would infinitely rather that we could be photographed as being like Luther’s bird, which ate upon the tree and sang,

“Mortal cease from care and sorrow, God provideth

for the morrow.”

Care is good, mark, if it be good care; but care is ill when it cometh to be ill care, and it is ill care if I dare not cast it upon him who careth for me. Cotton has well said of covetous earthworms, “After hypocrites, the greatest dupes the devil has are those who exhaust an anxious existence in the disappointments and vexations of business, and live miserably and meanly, only to die magnificently and rich. For like the hypocrites, the only disinterested action these men can accuse themselves of is that of serving the devil without receiving his wages: he that stands every day of his life behind a counter until he drops from it into the grave may negotiate many very profitable bargains; but he has made a single bad one, so bad indeed that it counter balances all the rest; for the empty foolery of dying rich, he has paid down his health, his happiness, and his integrity.”

Once again, there is another way of handling a matter wisely which is often suggested to young men, and suggested too, I am sorry to say, by Christian men who little know that they are giving Satanic advice. “Well,” say they, “young man, if you will not be exceeding careful and watch night and day, at least be self-reliant . Go out and tell the world that you are a match for it, and that you know it; that you mean to carve your way to glory, to build yet for yourself an edifice at which men shall gaze. Say to the little men round about you, ‘I mean to tower above you all and bestride this narrow world like a Colossus. Be independent young men. Rest on yourselves. There is something wonderful in you; quit yourselves like men; be strong.” Well brethren, there be many who have tried this self-reliance, and their deception in this case has been fearful too, for when the day of fiery trial has come they have discovered that “Cursed is he that trusteth in man,” even though that man be himself, “and maketh flesh his arm,” though it be his own flesh. Broken in pieces they have been left as wrecks upon the sand, though they sailed out of harbour gaily with all their sails filled with the wind. They have come back like knights unhorsed and dishonored, though they went out with their lance in hand and their proudly flaunting pennon, intending to push like the horns of unicorns and drive the whole earth before them. No man was ever so much deceived by others as by himself. Be warned, Christian man, that this is not handling a matter wisely.

But what then is the way of wisdom? The text answers the question “He that trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.” So then, if I understand the text aright, if we learn to trust in God in temporal things we shall be happy. We are not to be idle, that would show we did not trust in God who worketh hitherto, but in the devil who is the father of idleness. We are not to be impudent and rash; that were to trust chance, but not to trust God, for God is a God of economy and order. We are to trust God; acting in all prudence and in all uprightness, we are to rely simply and entirely upon him. Now I have no doubt there are many here who say, “Well, that is not the way to get on in the world; that can never be the path of success, simply trusting in God.” Ay, but it is so, only one must have grace in the heart to do it. One must first be made a child of God and then he can trust his affairs in his Father’s hands; one must come to depend upon the Eternal One, because the Eternal One has enabled him to use this Christian grace which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. I am persuaded that faith is as much the rule of temporal as of spiritual life, and that we ought to have faith in God for our shops as well as for our souls. Wordly men may sneer at this, but it is none the less true; at any rate I pray that it may be my course as long as I live.

My dear friends, let me commend to you a life of trust in God in temporal things by these few advantages among a great many others. First, trusting in God you will not have to mourn because you have used sinful means to grow rich. Should you become poor through it, better to be poor with a clear conscience than to be rich and guilty. You will have always this comfort should you come to the lowest position of nature, that you have come there through no fault of your own. You have served God with integrity, and what if some should say you have missed your mark, not achieved to success, at least there is no sin upon your conscience.

And then again, trusting God you will not be guilty of self-contradiction. He who trusts in craft sails this way to-day and that way the next, like a vessel propelled by the fickle wind; but he that trusteth in the Lord is like a vessel propelled by steam, she cuts through the waves, defies the wind, and makes one bright silvery track to her desired haven. Be you such a man as that; never bow to the varying customs of worldly wisdom. Let men see that the world has changed, not you, that man’s opinions and man’s maxims have veered round to another quarter, but that you are still invincibly strong in the strength which trusting in God alone can confer. And then dear brethren, let me say you will be delivered from carking care, you will not be troubled with evil tidings, your heart will be fixed, trusting in the Lord. I have read a story of an old Doctor of the Church who, going out one morning, met a beggar and said to him, “I wish you a good day.” “Sir,” said he, “I never had an ill day in my life.” “But,” said the Doctor, “your clothes are torn to rags and your wallet seems to be exceedingly empty.” Said he, “My clothes are as good as God wants them to be, and my wallet is as full as the Lord has been pleased to make it, and what pleases him pleases me.” “But,” said the Doctor, “suppose God should cast you into hell?” “Indeed, sir,” said he, “but that would never be; but if it were I would be contented, for I have two long and strong arms faith and love and I would throw these about the neck of my Savior, and I would never let him go, so that if I went there he would be with me, and it would be a heaven to me.” Oh, those two strong arms of faith and love! if you can but hang about the Savior’s neck, indeed, you may fear no ill weather. No fatal shipwreck shall I fear, for Christ is in my vessel, he holds the helm, and holds the winds too.

“Though winds and waves assault my keel,

He doth preserve it, he doth steer,

Even when the bark seems most to reel.

Storms are the triumphs of his art,

Sure he may close his eyes, but not his heart.”

The practical lesson from all this is “trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding.” Whatever thy trouble be, take it to God this morning; do not bear it till the night. Whatever your difficulty and peculiar exercise of mind, tell it unto the Lord your God. He is as able as he is willing, and as willing as he is able; having sent the trial he will surely make a way of escape for you.

II. But now I turn to the second part of our discourse. In spiritual matters, he that handleth a matter wisely shall find good .

But what is the right way of handling this dread matter which stands between our soul and God? We have immortal spirits, and spirits that are responsible. The day of judgment draweth nigh, and with it heaven’s happiness or hell’s torment. What, my brethren, shall we do to handle this matter wisely? And here comes up the old serpent again and he says, “Young man, the easiest way to handle this matter is to let it alone altogether, you are young as yet, there is plenty of time why put old heads on young shoulders? You will have need enough to think of religion by-and-bye, but at present, you see, it will be much in your way. Better leave it alone; it is only these ministers that try and make you thoughtful, but they only bother you and trouble you, so drop it. You can think of it if there be anything in it by-and-bye; but for the present, rejoice in your youth and let your joy be in the morning of your days, for the evil days come, and then let your thoughtfulness come with them.”

Well now young man, does this strike you after all as being the wisest course? I will tell you one thing, whatever you may think it, such a course as that is the direct road to hell. Do you know the road to heaven? Well, it might take us some little time to tell you about that, but if you want to go to hell we will tell you that in one moment. You need not go and swear, you need not be drunk, you need not become a monster in iniquity or a fiend in cruelty. No, no, it is easier than that, it is just a little matter of neglect, that is all, and your soul is lost to a certainty. Remember how the apostle puts it, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation”! Now, can that which is the surest road to hell be a wise way? I think I may leave it with your reason, certainly I may leave it with your conscience. You know it is not the right way, ay, and I have noticed this, that men who laugh most at religion when they are well and are most careless, are the most frightened when they meet with a little accident. If they have a little illness, oh how bad they feel! It is an awful thing for them to be ill, they know it is, they are dreadfully shaken, and the strangest thing is that the minister they hated most when they were well becomes the very man they have the most faith in, and most long to see when they become sick. I know when the cholera was here last, there was a certain man for whom no word in the English language could be found that was bad enough to describe me, and in the cholera when he lay sick, who should be sent for? The clergyman of the parish? No, certainly not. Who should be sent for? Some minister of good repute? No, send for the man whom he had cursed before; and until that man should come and speak to him and offer prayer, he could not even indulge a hope though, alas! poor soul, I fear he had no hope even then. Yet so is it, God will honor his ministers, he will prove the utter futility of man’s brag and boast. You may be careless sir while you are well, you may neglect this great salvation, but a little sickness shall make you tremble and thy knees shall shake, and thou shalt be convulsed with agony and find that this is not handing the matter wisely. You are something like a bankrupt who knows that his accounts are going wrong and fears that he is insolvent, he does not look at his books, he does not like to look at them for there is no very pleasant reading there; there may be a few assets, but the entries are mostly on the other side and so at last he does not keep any book, it would be troublesome to him to know where he was. So is it with you. It is because things are not right, you do not like to sift them and try them lest you should find out the black reality. Be wise I pray you, and look a little beyond you. Why shut your eyes and perish? Man, I charge thee by the living God, awake, or hell shall wake thee; look man, or eternity shall soon amaze thee.

But Satan comes to some and he says, “If you won’t be careless the next easiest thing is to be credulous. There,” says he, “is a man over there with a shaven crown who says he’d manage the thing for you. Now, he ought to know. Does not he belong to a Church that has an infallible head? Give yourself up to him,” saith he, “and it will be all right. Or,” saith he, “I hate popery; but there is a clergyman, let him give you the sacrament; rely upon him and it will be all safe. Or,” says he, “if you could but join the Church and be baptized; there, that will do take it for granted that it is all right. Why should you trouble yourself with theological squabbles? let these things alone; be credulous, don’t search into the root of the matter; be content so long as you swim on the surface and do not care whether there be rocks down deep at the bottom of the sea.” And is this the way is this the way to handle this matter wisely? Assuredly not, sir. Better trust a lawyer with your property than a priest with your soul. Better hand your purse to a highwayman upon the heath than commit your soul to a Romish priest. What will he do for you but make his penny of you, and your soul may be penniless for him. So shall it be with the best of men, if you make saviours of them. Go, lean upon a reed; go, build a throne of bubbles; go, sleep in a powder magazine with your candle burning in a bag of gunpowder; but do not trust even a good man with your soul. See to it that you handle this matter wisely, and you cannot do it thus.

“Ah, well!” says Satan, “if this will not do, then try the way of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Do good,” saith he, “say a great many prayers, perform a great many good works, and this is handling the matter wisely.” Now, I will take you to Switzerland for a minute to give you a picture. There was a poor women who lived in one of those sweet villages under the Alps, where the fountains are always pouring out their streams of water into the great stone tanks, and the huge overhanging roofs cover the peasant homes. She had been accustomed to climb the mountain to gather fodder for her cows, and she had driven her goats to the wild crags and the sheer solitudes where no sound is heard except the tinkling of the bell. She, good soul, had read nothing but the Bible, and her dreams and thoughts were all of heavenly things, and she dreamed thus, that she was walking along a smooth meadow where there were many fair flowers, and much soft grass. The pathway was smooth, and there were thousands winding their way along it, but they took no notice of her; she seemed alone. Suddenly the thought crossed her that this was the path to destruction; and these were selfish sinners; she sought another way for she feared to meet their doom. She saw a path up the mountain-side exceedingly steep and rugged, as mountain paths are, but up this she saw men and women carrying tremendous burdens, as some of us have seen them carry them, till they stoop right down under the tremendous weight as they climb the stony staircase. Here there was a tree across the road, and there a bramble, and there a brook was gushing down the mountain-side, and the path was lined with stones, and she slipped. So she turned aside again, but those that went up the hill looked at her with such sorrow that she turned back again, and began to climb once more, but only to find the way rough and impossible. She turned aside again into the green meadow, but the climbers seemed to be very sad, yet though they pitied her, she did not pity them, for their toil made them wet with perspiration and faint with fatigue. She dreamed she went along the green meadow till she came to a fair house, out of which looked a bright spirit. The side of the house where she was was all windows without a door, and the spirit said to her, “You have come the wrong road, you cannot come in this way, there is no entrance here,” and she woke. She told a Christian woman who visited her of this dream, and she said, “I am sore troubled for I cannot go up that mountain path, I know. I understand that to be the way of holiness, I cannot climb it, and I fear that I shall choose the green meadow, and when I come at last to the gates of heaven, they will tell me that is not the way and I cannot enter there.” So her kind instructress said to her, “I have not dreamed, but I have read in my Bible this morning that one day when the corn was ripening and the sun was shining brightly, there went three men out of a city called Jerusalem, one of them was the Savior of the world and the other two were thieves. One of them, as he hung upon the cross, found his way to the bright city of heaven; and it was said ‘To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ Did he go up that hilly path do you think?” “No,” said the poor woman, “he believed and was saved.” “Ah,” said her friend, “and this is your way to heaven. That hilly path you cannot climb; those who were ascending it with so much labor perished ere they reached the summit, tottering from some dizzy height, they were dashed to pieces upon some jagged rock. Believe, and this shall be the path of salvation for you.” And so I come to the poor soul and I say, if thou wouldst handle matters rightly, happy is he that trusteth in the Lord. You have done the right thing for eternity, with all its solemnities, when you have cast your soul just as it is on him who is “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.”

And let me now tell you what are the excellencies of so doing. That man who believes in Christ and can say, “Salvation is finished; all is of Christ and all is free; my faith is in Jesus Christ and in him alone,” that man is freed from fears; he is not afraid to die, Christ has finished the work for him: he is not afraid to live, he shall not perish, for his soul is in Jesus Christ: and he is not afraid of trial, or of trouble, for he that bought him with his blood shall keep him with his arm. He is free from present fears, and he is free from present cares too. He has no need to toil and labor, to fret and strive, to do this or to do that. He feels no more the whip of the slave-driver on his back; his life is happy and his service light, the yoke he wears he scarce knows to be a yoke, the road is pleasant, and the path is peace no climbing upwards except as angel hands assist him to climb the road which else no mortal feet could traverse. He is free too from all fatal delusion. He is not a deceived man, he shall never open his eyes to find himself mistaken, he has something which shall last him long as life shall last, which shall be with him when he wakes from his bed of clay to conduct him joyously to realms of light and endless day. This man is such a man that if I compared him with the very angels I should not do amiss. He is on earth but his heart is in heaven; he is here below, but yet he sits together with Christ in heavenly places, he has his troubles but they work his lasting good; he has his trials but they are only the precursors of victory, he has weakness, but he glories in infirmity because the power of Christ doth rest upon him, he is sometimes cast down, but he is not destroyed, he is perplexed, he is not in despair, he does not grovel, but he walks upright; his foot may be in the mire, but his eye is above the stars; his body may be covered with rags, but his soul his robed in light, he may go to a miserable pallet to find an unresting rest, but his soul sleeps in the bosom of his beloved, and he has a perfect peace, “a peace which passeth all understanding, which keeps his heart and mind through Jesus Christ.” Christians, I would that you and I could believe God better and get rid of these wicked fears of ours. Gracious Father, I do to-day cast all I have on thee, and all I have not, too, I would cast on thee. My cares, my sorrows, my labors, my joys, my present, my past, my future take thou and manage all. I will be nothing, be thou all.

“O God, I cast my care on thee,

I triumph and adore,

Henceforth my chief concern shall be

To love and serve thee more.”

Brethren, believers in Jesus, do the same, and you shall find that happy is the man who trusteth in the Lord. As for you who fear not the Lord Jesus may his Holy Spirit visit you this morning, may he quicken you, for you are dead in sin; may he give you power, for you are strengthless of yourselves. Remember, the way of salvation is simple and plain before you “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Trust my Master’s blood, depend upon his finished righteousness and you must, you shall be saved; you cannot, you will not be lost.

“Oh believe the promise true

God to you his Son has given.”

Depend on his Son, and you shall thus escape from hell, and find your path to heaven. The Lord add now his own best blessing for Jesus’ sake. Amen.