Proverb A Day, Proverb 4 [Prayer and Meditation]

Bible NKJV | 900 B.C. | Solomon

[OneVike]

Today's commentary is brought to you by the Berean Wife.

Proverb 4:20-27

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Proverbs 4:20-27

20 My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
22 For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
24 Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
25 Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.

Proverbs 4:20-22 is the father again calling for his son to pay attention to his words. Incline your ears to my words, keep them within your heart; they are life and healing. The Father is saying it is vitally important that his son listen to these words of life.

Proverbs 4:23 is the verse that gets lots of attention today. “Keep your heart” or “guard your heart” really doesn’t tell us much if you come to the verse without preconceived ideas. So in order to understand what the verse means we must take the preceding verses and those verses that follow to arrive at the meaning in context. It is particularly the verses that follow that give a broader explanation of Proverbs 4:23.

Proverbs 4:24 Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

Here we see that we are to put away crooked speech.

Proverbs 6:12-15
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

A worthless, wicked person uses crooked speech to sow discord and devise evil.

Proverbs 19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

Crooked speech and foolishness go together.

Proverbs 4:25 Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.

Don’t be casting our eyes around looking to see what everyone else is doing. Don’t let the actions of others pull you from the path.

What are our eyes to be looking to?

Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

When we let others or our desires pull our eyes away from Jesus we will stray from the path. I remember ancient years ago when taking ballet that when you did a pirouette you were always to get a fixed focal point in order to keep yourself balanced and on track for each turn. We as believers must always have Jesus as our focal point otherwise we will wobble and fall off track.

Proverbs 4:26 Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

The wicked, forbidden woman does not ponder her path and she wanders off but doesn’t even know it.

Proverbs 5:3
3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6 she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

It is much easier to wander off the right path than you might think. Sometimes you don’t realize you’ve wandered until you are so far away it is hard to get back on the right path.

Proverbs 4:27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

More instructions to not swerve off the path. There is evil off both sides of the path and we are to turn away from evil.

Are you keeping your eyes on Jesus and keeping straight to the path?

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Proverb 4 (NKJV)

Security in Wisdom

01 Hear, my children, the instruction of a father,
00 And give attention to know understanding;
02 For I give you good doctrine:
00 Do not forsake my law.
03 When I was my father's son,
00 Tender and the only one in the sight of my mother,
04 He also taught me, and said to me:
00 "Let your heart retain my words;
00 Keep my commands, and live.
05 Get wisdom! Get understanding!
00 Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
06 Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you;
00 Love her, and she will keep you.
07 Wisdom is the principal thing;
00 Therefore get wisdom.
00 And in all your getting, get understanding.
08 Exalt her, and she will promote you;
00 She will bring you honor, when you embrace her.
09 She will place on your head an ornament of grace;
00 A crown of glory she will deliver to you."

10 Hear, my son, and receive my sayings,
00 And the years of your life will be many.
11 I have taught you in the way of wisdom;
00 I have led you in right paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hindered,
00 And when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go;
00 Keep her, for she is your life.

14 Do not enter the path of the wicked,
00 And do not walk in the way of evil.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
00 Turn away from it and pass on.
16 For they do not sleep unless they have done evil;
00 And their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.
17 For they eat the bread of wickedness,
00 And drink the wine of violence.

18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,
00 That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;
00 They do not know what makes them stumble.

20 My son, give attention to my words;
00 Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes;
00 Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them,
00 And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
00 For out of it spring the issues of life.
24 Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
00 And put perverse lips far from you.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
00 And your eyelids look right before you.
26 Ponder the path of your feet,
00 And let all your ways be established.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
00 Remove your foot from evil.

[OneVike]

[OneVike]

Today's commentary is on Proverb 4:20-27,
and it comes from the Berean Wife.

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[NEWwoman]

Sunrise/sunset

18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun,
00 That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
19 The way of the wicked is like darkness;
00 They do not know what makes them stumble.

Amen

Blessings for your daily posts.

[metmom]

Thank you for posting.

Psalm 1 fits in very well with this about not following the path of the evildoer.

[OneVike]

Wow, interesting you point that out. I was actually going to write a commentary on these verses where I would incorporate Psalm 1.

Unfortunately my time lately has been limited and unless I write the commentary the night before, or at least have it mostly ready, I end up posting my Proverb like around noon.

So that’s when I either just post the Proverb with an image, or find a good commentary someone else wrote to share. Even at that it takes a bit to get it posted in a way that is pleasing .

Well pleasing to me anyway. I like making the Proverb A Day posts something worthy of our Lord. So I keep trying different HTML formulas, and then I keep them as templates to use.

[metmom]

I’ve noticed how it has developed since you started.

Good work.

Thanks.