“My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken. Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee. Devise not evil against thy neighbour, seeing he dwelleth securely by thee. Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm. Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways. For the froward is abomination to the Lord: but his secret is with the righteous. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but he blesseth the habitation of the just. Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
-Proverbs 3 (KJV)
“Forget not my law.” Solomon’s advice as a father to his son in this section begins with a warning to never forget God’s Word; “my law.” Solomon didn’t mean “my law” in the sense of his own personal decrees, but as God’s word that he had internalized and made personal.
“Let thine heart keep my commandments.” Deciding to not forget God’s word is more than a mental exercise of memory. It is also connected to a life of obedience, one that does keep the commandments of God. If one mentally remembers God’s Word yet fails to obey it, we could rightly say he or she has forgotten God’s commandments.
We note also that this obedience is one of the heart. Our goal in obedience is not mere outward conformity to God’s will, but a heart that loves and obeys Him.
“The heart is the first thing that wanders away from God, and it is also the first thing that returns to God.”
-T. Bridges
“For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.” There is a real benefit from this life and heart that obeys God. In principle, life and heart obedience brings “long life and peace.” This is a blessed combination; “length of days” could be a curse and not a blessing without peace.
We say in principle because this is largely how Proverbs was written and should be regarded. The principle of Proverbs 3 is not an absolute promise; there are some people who truly are given to obedience in both conduct and heart and die relatively young. Some godly persons have trouble living in peace. We regard these as true principles, not absolute promises.
“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.” Solomon wisely told his son to keep God’s loyal love; “mercy and truth close.” They should be so close that it would be as if they were a necklace on him at all times; “bind them about thy neck,” and written “upon the table of thine heart.”
Matthew Poole observed that “mercy and truth” could be understood both as God’s mercy and truth to us and as the mercy and truth that is man’s duty to show to others. Both are important and should never be forsaken.
Mercy and truth are frequently joined together, as we see in the following scripture:
“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.”
-Psalms 25:10 (KJV)
“He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.”
-Psalms 57:3 (KJV)
“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.”
-Proverbs 16:6 (KJV)
“Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.”
-Proverbs 20:28 (KJV)
“Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.”
-Hosea 4:1 (KJV)
“Bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.”
“Striking expressions for glorying in, meditating on and acting by these principles.”
-A Kidner
“By ‘binding’ and ‘writing’ the teacher is stressing that the teachings become a part of the disciple’s nature.”
-D. Ross
“So shalt thou find favour.” The blessed, obedient life is magnetic. It enjoys the favor of the God it honors, and attracts the favor of man.
“This means that others will recognize the competence and intelligence of the wise individual.”
-M. Garrett
“As did Joseph, Moses, David. He was a man after God’s own heart, and whatsoever he did pleased the people. It is God that gives credit; he fashioneth men’s opinions, and inclineth their hearts, as Ezra oft acknowledges with much thankfulness.”
-V. Trapp
“Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem: And hath extended mercy unto me before the king, and his counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.”
- Ezra 7:27-28 (KJV)
“Trust in the Lord.” Solomon advised his son to live a life of trust in Yahweh. Solomon had found that God was worthy to be trusted. It is our nature to put our trust in something or someone, even if it is our self. Solomon told us to consciously put our “trust in the Lord,” the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
“To trust in God is to be unbottomed of thyself, and of every creature, and so to lean upon God, that if he fail thee thou sinkest.”
-V. Trapp
“With all thine heart.” If trust in God is to be true, it must be complete. To put half trust in God and half trust in self or something else is really failure to trust the Lord at all. We should endeavor to give God all our conscious trust.
“They trust not God at all that do it not alone. He that stands with one foot on a rock, and another foot upon a quicksand, will sink and perish as certainly as he that stands with both feet on a quicksand.”
-V. Trapp
This aspect troubles some, because they fear there is some part of their heart that is not truly trusting God. We may sympathize with this concern, knowing that as imperfect people it is impossible for us to “trust in the Lord” perfectly. In principle, we gather that Proverbs 3 does not describe an objectively perfect trust in God, but a heart and life that does not consciously reject or defy God with unbelief.
In fact, the following phrases will explain what Solomon intended with the phrase “with all thine heart.”
“This trust is not the mere cold assent of enlightened judgment. It is trust … with all your heart. It is a childlike, unwavering confidence in our Father’s well-proved wisdom, faithfulness, and love.”
-T. Bridges
“Lean not unto thine own understanding.” Trusting God with all our heart means to decide to put away our “own understanding” and instead to choose to trust God and His understanding, especially as declared in His word.
“Do not rely, or lean as on a broken crutch, depicts what is meant by ‘trust.’”
-W. Waltke
“It is on GOD, not on thyself, that thou art commanded to depend. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool…Self-sufficiency and self-dependence have been the ruin of mankind ever since the fall of Adam. The grand sin of the human race is their continual endeavour to live independently of God.”
-AC. Clarke
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