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17. Bow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.
18. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee; they shall withal be fitted in thy lips. {within...: Heb. in thy belly}
19. That thy trust may be in the LORD, I have made known to thee this day, even to thee. {even...: or, trust thou also}
20. Have not I written to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge,
21. That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee? {to them...: or, to those that send thee?}
Solomon here changes his mode of address. From the tenth chapter he had chiefly given detached, sententious aphorisms in an antithetical form; contrasting right and wrong principles with their respective results. His observations are now more connected and personal, and, like a wise minister, he preaches to his people, not before them; preaching to them, not only in the mass, but in contact with their individual consciences.
The wise man here ‘shews the power and use of the word of God.’† He begins with an earnest call to attention. He was speaking no ordinary matters, but the words of the wise. Bow the ear — apply the heart unto my knowledge† as to a message from God. LORD! “waken mine ear to hear as the learned.” (Isaiah 50:4.)
Observe the attractiveness of wisdom. It is a pleasant, no less than a profitable, thing. And who is not alive to the call of pleasure? Yet incomprehensible is it to the world to connect religion with pleasure. It spoils all their pleasure. And what amends can it make? It includes in their view much to be done, but nothing to be enjoyed; something very serious, perhaps important in its place; but grave and gloomy; a duty, not a privilege. Yet how little has our profession wrought for us, if it has not realized it as a pleasant thing; if it has not adorned it with somewhat of an angel's face! Often indeed by our own fault it fails to comfort and invigorate us; a body indeed of truth, but “a body without the spirit” — cold and lifeless. It is a pleasant thing only, if we keep it within us.† Heart-religion conveys vital happiness. The fruit is of “the tree of life;”† its taste “sweeter than honey or the honey-comb.”† “Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me as the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16.)
Mark also the connection between the religion of the heart and of the lips. Keep it within thee. “Let this word dwell in your heart;” and how graceful will be the furniture of the lips, fitting them to speak with natural simplicity, and suitable application!† When “the heart is inditing a good matter, the tongue” is as “the pen of a ready writer.” (Psalm 45:1.) It becomes “as choice silver.” The words are fitted ‘like a string of rich and precious pearls.’† “The lips of the righteous feed many.”† Yet the words will be but little fitted in the lips,† “where there is no treasure in the heart.” Never let the mouth attempt to “speak of wisdom,” until “the meditation of the heart has been of understanding.” (Psalm 49:3.)
But how powerless are even the words of wisdom without personal application! Let each for a while isolate himself from his fellow-men, and be alone with God, under the clear, searching light of his word. If prayer be cold; graces be languid, privileges be clouded, and profession unfruitful, is it not because religion has been taken up in the gross, without immediate personal contact with the truth of God? O my soul, the message of God is to thee, even to thee† — this day. “To-day, while it is called to-day,”† welcome his voice with reverential joy. “Take fast hold of his instruction, for it is thy life.” (Chapter 4:13.) That thy trust may be in the LORD; that thou mayest claim thine interest in him; that thou mightest seal his truth upon thine heart — he hath made it known to thee, even to thee. Believe, love, obey; be happy here, and for eternity. And who can doubt the excellency of the things that are written, so rich in counsel and knowledge — ‘words fit for a prince to speak, and the best man in the world to hear?’† Such free, such pleading, invitations!† Such deep manifestations of the divine counsels!† Such wise, earnest, parental warning against sin!† Such encouraging exhibitions of the service of God!† Such a minute and practical standard for relative life and social obligation!†
But let us not forget the great end of this Revelation — that we may know the certainty of the things; that we may give an answer concerning our confidence. The Gospel itself was written with a special reference to this important end.† Yet this confidence is a Divine attainment. “The word must come with power, and with the Holy Ghost,” in order to come “with much assurance.” (1 Thessalonians 1:5.) That cannot be a sound faith, which does not extend to the whole of the testimony. And even a general admission of the authority of the whole, without an individual application, would, if carefully analyzed, prove to be a want of cordial reception of any part of the revelation. A lodgment in the heart can alone bring that full conviction — “Now we believe, not because of thy saying; for we have heard him ourselves.” (John 4:42.)
Doubts may arise as to the integrity of the foundation. But a candid and intelligent survey of the external evidence would satisfy all reasonable minds.† And a fair trial for ourselves would confirm the mass of proof with all the weight of internal evidences. Far better to make the trial at once, than to paralyze the modicum of remaining strength by unreasonable doubtings. The Bible exhibits a divinely-appointed remedy commensurate with man's infinite distress, and accepted of God in its power and prevalence. Let this at least encourage the effort to fit our case to the remedy, and to apply the remedy to our case. There may be shaking in the exercise, but not in the foundation, of our confidence.
No further proof can be expected. None, in fact, could be given, save a voice from heaven; which the busy enemy, working upon the imagination, would readily convert into a vehicle of doubt. Actual demonstration would leave no room for faith, which is clearly man's discipline in the present dispensation; humbling him in the consciousness of his ignorance and his dependence upon God. We have only therefore thankfully to receive, and diligently to improve, the sufficient evidence vouchsafed to us. Paley has given us a golden maxim of Christian philosophy; when he defines true fortitude of understanding to consist ‘in not suffering what we do know to be disturbed and shaken by what we do not know.’† To delay, therefore, “the obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26), until we shall have solved all the ten thousand objections of a proud infidelity, is to waste the urgent responsibilities of the present moment in an unwarranted expectation of light, which was never intended to be given. Perhaps time was, when these questions were welcome, nurtured by pride or sensuality; rather insinuated, than formally presented. Simplicity was revolting. Imagination was in the stead of faith, not auxiliary to it. But the tossings of the mind in speculative uncertainty have been ordained to enhance the value of a soundly-assured confidence.
Indeed the importance of such a confidence cannot be over-estimated. It constitutes the weight and effectiveness of the sacred office. “The priest's lips keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth, as the messenger of the LORD of Hosts.” (Malachi 2:7.) But except he know himself the certainty of the words of truth, how can he answer the words of truth to them that send unto him? Scarcely less necessary is it for the Christian, that he may “be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh him a reason of the hope that is in him.” (1 Peter 3:15.) Temporary skepticism may be a chastisement of a disputatious spirit; but prayer, and humility, with all its attendant graces, will ultimately lead to Christian establishment. Thus shall we be preserved from the fearful, but alas! too prevalent, danger, of receiving the traditions of men in the stead, and with the authority, of the testimony of God. Ours will not be a blind Romish faith in the priests or in the Church, but alone “in the law and the testimony;”† “standing not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God;”† stamped by the impress of the Spirit, as “the witness in ourselves.”† No power of Satan or his emissaries will drive us permanently from this stronghold. We “know whom” and what “we have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12), and “testify,” for the support of our weaker brethren, “that this is the true grace of God wherein we stand.” (1 Peter 5:12.)
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