In Jehovah's hand is here shown to be the heart, whether of the highest or of the least; then what pleases and displeases Him, with the issues, for the evil or for the good.
“The king's heart in Jehovah's hand [is] brooks of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
Every way of a man [is] straight in his own eyes; but Jehovah weigheth the hearts.
To exercise justice and judgment [is] more acceptable to Jehovah than sacrifice.
A high look and a proud heart, the lamp (or, tillage) of the wicked [is] sin.
The thoughts (or, plans) of the diligent [tend] only to plenteousness; but every hasty one only to want.
The getting of treasures by a lying tongue [is] a fleeting breath of them that seek death.
The robbery of the wicked sweepeth them away, because they refuse to do judgment.
Very crooked [is] a guilty man's way; but [as for] the pure, his work [is] right” (vers. 1-9).
Of all men a king's heart from his position and duty might instinctively seem reserved and inflexible; but who resisteth Him that secretly rules as He will, even in the worst of circumstances? He will reign righteously and for the largest blessing, when the world-kingdom is taken. But even now the king's heart is in His hand Whom he may not know or disdain. Little as he thinks it, he subserves Him, as brooks of water the man who controls every rill for his gardens, his vineyards, or his fields. It is turned as He pleases.
It is natural to man as he is to count right every way of his; but the solemn truth for every one is that Jehovah weighs, not the acts only, but the heart. All things are naked and laid bare to His eyes with whom we have to do: let us never forget it.
Unless men be reprobate, they are apt to be religious after a sort and a measure; and their sacrifices are a resource too often for indulgence in sin. The sacrifice to God who gave Christ to suffer for our sins is a wholly different matter, the resting-place of faith, and the start of holiness. To do judgment and justice flows from it, and is indeed acceptable to God if with faith; as sacrifice without faith is nauseous and presumptuous.
Haughty eyes, and a proud heart, how abhorrent to God and unbecoming in man! It is sin unequivocally; the tillage of the wicked, their business, or their glory; their lamp or sinful field. The meek shall inherit the earth; Christ's time is their time. The present is the evil age. Diligence, directed by thought or plan, tends to plenteousness; as haste destines every one that so acts only to want; for haste leads to mistake, and mistake to loss, and loss to ruin. On the other hand the getting of treasure by a tongue of falsehood, even if it succeed for a while as it may, ends in worse ruin, like the fleeting breath of those that seek death, happy neither here nor hereafter. Truly they seek death without knowing it. Others who are bolder than to deceive resort to robbery in their wickedness; because they refuse to do judgment, their end is destruction. It will drag or sweep them away whence is no return. Christ is the only true and safe way; and we can now say He, the Son, is the way to the Father. The guilty man's way is not evil only but perverse or strange; for he does not stick at anything. The pure man on the contrary is upright in his work, carrying conscience with it, and pleasing God. Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.