Blessed is the man who listens to me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Waiting at my doorposts.
For he who finds me finds life
And obtains
favor from the Lord.
But he who
sins against me injures himself;
All those
who hate me love death.
Proverbs 8:34-36 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Often in the book of
Proverbs, wisdom is referred to as if it were a person. Here, “she” is talking
about the benefits of seeking her. It says we are blessed for listening to
wisdom. Remember that blessed does not mean happiness so much as “the joyful
spiritual condition of those who are right with God and the pleasure and
satisfaction that is derived from that.*” It doesn’t change our circumstances;
it changes how we respond to our circumstances. It is an attitude or state of
mind regardless of what happens. We find this blessing if we listen to wisdom,
specifically God’s wisdom. The world’s wisdom will lead us astray, to
destruction and pain, only God’s wisdom will lead to anything truly good. That
is why we must listen to, eagerly seek and wait for that wisdom.
How do we do that? Prayer is
the first and foremost step. Regular communication with God is imperative for
He is the source of true wisdom. Another way is by studying the Bible, diving
into its wisdom and knowledge and applying the riches found there. That is
God’s spoken, living Word and the guidebook for our lives.
What will we gain besides
blessings? By seeking and applying God’s wisdom, we find life and God’s favor.
We cannot have favor with a holy God through sin, the very thing He hates. We
must seek and imitate Him in order to find favor. We find life, vibrant,
abundant life here on earth by following God’s wisdom. It naturally leads to a
way of life that has less pain and sorrow than a life which follows the world’s
ways, a way fraught with sin, because the wages of sin is death. We also find
eternal life by following God’s wisdom. The blessings of wisdom extend beyond
earth into eternity.
Resisting or refusing God’s
wisdom leads to pain and suffering in this life and death in the next. We must
follow God’s wisdom, not the world’s or our own, to find life, peace and joy.
By choosing to serve ourselves or do what the world says we will only hurt
ourselves. We prove whom we love by the choices we make, by whose wisdom we
choose to listen to. Is your allegiance with God or the world? Are you
following the world’s wisdom or God’s? Do you eagerly seek to find and apply
God’s wisdom, or do you just look at it and call that good? Ask God to show you
His wisdom and the benefits of it. Seek it whole-heartedly and enjoy the fruit
of life.
*quotation
taken from Discovering Hope in the Psalms by Pam Farrel, Jean E Jones
and Karla Dornacher, page 17.
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