Saturday after the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 22, 2022 by under
Scripture: Proverbs 14:21-31 (NKJV)
14:21 He who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.
22 Do they not go astray who devise evil? But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good.
23 In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.
24 The crown of the wise is their riches, but the foolishness of fools is folly.
25 A true witness delivers souls, but a deceitful witness speaks lies.
26 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.
27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.
28 In a multitude of people is a king’s honor, but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince.
29 He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.
30 A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones.
31 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.
Devotion
In 1 Kings 3:9, Solomon prays for, in Hebrew, literally “a hearing heart.” Solomon asks that what he receives through his senses would be filtered through a heart relating all things to God’s will. He observes nature and mankind, relates them to God’s Word, and delivers summaries best understood by the same process: first consider his surface observation, then apply it to our relationship to God in Christ.
In Proverbs 14:21–22 we find that one having mercy on the poor is “happy”—the Hebrew word means “blessed” in the sense of “has fortunes.” The way it is stated, one cannot say grammatically whether that blessedness is brought about by mercy, or that mercy is the evidence of existing blessedness. Devising evil, then, leads us ever farther astray, and despising our neighbor is part of a larger package of sin. But one who is rich and blessed through God’s grace will show the same mercy that he has received from God. This results in his continued walking in that mercy and, therefore, in that blessedness. If mercy and truth are ours, we devise good and remain in mercy and truth.
Verses 26–27: proper fear of the Lord has us run to Him in repentance when we sin, lest our relationship be forever broken, so we remain in His protection, thus fearing neither death nor anything else.
Continue this by seeing Solomon’s surface observation and then relating, for example: v. 25 to John 6; v. 29 to Psalm 14:1 and Hebrews 12:3–11; v. 30 to Luke 9:23–24, 12:16–21.
Prayer: O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee: Mercifully grant, that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
