NEXT follow maxims public and private of great weight.
“In the multitude of people [is] the King's glory; but in the lack of people [is] the ruler's downfall.
One slow to anger [is] of great understanding; but the hasty of spirit holdeth up folly.
A sound (or, tranquil) heart [is] the life of the flesh, but envy the rottenness of the bones.
He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker; but he that honoureth Him is merciful to the needy.
The wicked is thrust down by his evil doings; but in his death the righteous trusteth.
Wisdom resteth in the heart of the intelligent; but [what is] in the inwards of fools is made known.
Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin [is] a reproach to peoples.
The King's favor [is] toward a wise servant, but His wrath to him that causeth shame” (vers. 28-35).
To have a numerous population is the king's glory; but David made it his pride, and persisted in a tainted public measure, notwithstanding the earnest protest of his chief servant, a mere worldling, to his own sin, shame, and chastening in the very point of his glorying. Yes, David who owed everything to God's favor, not to an arm of flesh! But a dwindling people prepares for a ruler's destruction.
Again, it is a sure sign of a great understanding morally to cultivate slowness of anger, though never to be angry before the Lord evinces total want of right feeling in presence of evil. How slow was He Himself, yet could and did He kindle to God's glory. The hasty of spirit only exposes his own folly.
Then again a sound or placid heart is a general healing power, just as envy rots even the bones, a corroding evil without doubt.
And what is it to oppress the poor, but to reproach Him that made him and his lot? Whereas he honors the faithful Creator that shows compassion to the needy.
It is his own evil that expels or thrusts down the wicked, while even in his death the righteous retains his confidence. Even if a feeble believer be before us, there is no moment in his life so happy as his departure to be with Christ. Gloom on the other hand is unbelief.
The intelligence here commended began with the fear of Jehovah, and grew by hearing and gaining wise counsels which fools despise. Wisdom accordingly rests not on the tongue merely but in the heart which prizes it.
In the foolish, even when deeply sounded, is nothing to make known but lack of sense. Jehovah, God, is nowhere within such a spirit.
On the other hand it is not only a man but a nation which righteousness exalts; and righteousness is a just sense of relationship to God and man, the very reverse of absorption in our own interest which ere long ruins those blindly devoted to it. Sin is a real reproach to peoples as well as to men.
It is also no small contribution to national wellbeing that the king should not forget but heed and honor a wise servant, no less than frown on him that causes shame.