IT is very certain that dependence on God alone secures a clean or righteous walk. So it was of old; so it is now. Man needs direction from above, and grace too, that in this world of pitfalls and confusion his ways may please the Lord. This is most impressively pointed out in the next words.
“The steps of a man [are] from Jehovah; and how can a man understand his own way?
[It is] a snare to a man rashly to say, [It is] holy, and after vows to make inquiry.
A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.
Man's spirit [is] Jehovah's lamp, searching all the chambers of the belly.
Mercy and truth preserve the king, and his throne is upholden by mercy.
The glory of young men [is] their strength; and the beauty of old men the hoary head.
Wounding stripes purge away evil, and strokes [purge] the chambers of the belly” (vers. 24-30).
It is not a weak one's goings but a strong man's, which are here said to be from Jehovah: how blessed, as well as necessary, to know Him who knows the end from the beginning, to whom the night shines as the day, and the darkness is as the light! Him faith can count on to direct the steps.
Jephthah was rash in the vow he made, but he stood to it and bore the consequence. Not so Ananias and Sapphira; but their deception did not shield them from death. We are bound to weigh seriously what we say before God, and not to retract for selfish reasons.
A wise ruler is not one who is too amiable to punish the wicked. The very aim and reason of his office is to be God's minister in externals, and a terror, not to a good work, but to an evil one. It is the more imperative, if men conspire, to scatter them and crush their power fearlessly.
Man's spirit is Jehovah's lamp, and so, far beyond that of a beast that goes downward. But it is going beyond scripture to boast of the great soul of man, and against scripture to say that it is the light which lighteth every man. For this is Christ alone; and the real meaning of John 1:99That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9) is, that the True Light is that which, coming into the world, lightens, or sheds light on, every man. It had been another state before He came thus. The Incarnate Word so deals with every man, high or low, Jew or Gentile. Conscience is a solemn inward monitor for God against sin. Christ when He came did incomparably more—made every one and thing manifest in due character. Divines for ages are apt to talk like the Friends or the heathen: how little they have learned Christ!
Here again we learn that the king is preserved, not by inflexible firmness against the wicked, but by “mercy and truth.” Negative qualities fail to sustain. “His throne is, upholden by mercy” a godlike prerogative. He needs love as well as fear, not only for the people's happiness but for the stability of his rule.
It is folly and blindness to set young against old, instead of helping them to profit by an experience of great value which they lack. Let the old admire the energy of the young, and the young fail not to own the beauty of the gray head.
Stripes that wound we all need from time to time; for nothing less probes and cleanses the hidden evil that is at work. The deeper the mischief, the more painful the corrective that must pierce to its core. Such a chastening is not pleasant, but causes grief. Afterward it yields peaceful fruit of righteousness to those exercised thereby.