Proverbs 16:16-20

Consider who wrote this. Solomon possessed more of both wisdom and gold than any man alive — and this is his verdict from the top of both piles. How much better? Better by the worth of a soul, by the blessedness of heaven, by the length of eternity. And here is the kicker for every man grinding after money: multitudes labor night and day for gold and miss it — but who was ever disappointed in the effort to get wisdom? That door opens to everyone who knocks (James 1:5). Hold the helm, and you will be surprised how often the cargo comes with it.

A highway is a built road — raised, graded, beaten hard by being walked on, over and over. Departing from evil is not one heroic swerve; it is the upright man's daily commute, packed firmer every trip. And mark the indirect strategy: you cannot guard your soul directly, by feelings — you watch your soul by watching your way: the route, the screen, the second drink, the door you simply don't walk through. Nothing serves the devil's purposes better than a strict creed wedded to a loose practice; and the real injury was never that we live in the world, but that the world lives in us. Keep the way, and the way keeps you.

The most quoted warning in the book, sitting at the book's center — and at the center of every ruin you have ever watched. It was pride before the first destruction of all: an angel said "I will be like the most High" and fell like lightning; a woman was told "ye shall be as gods" and the race fell with her. It was pride before Nebuchadnezzar's grass-eating madness ("Is not this great Babylon, that I have built..." — Daniel 4:30) and pride before Haman's gallows. The physics are simple: a haughty spirit carries the head high, and the man who is looking up at himself cannot see his own steps — what wonder if he falls? Mark it well: God resisteth the proud (1 Peter 5:5) — pride is the one sin that books God Himself as the opponent. Either pride must be cast out of me, or I must be cast out from the company of the blessed. There is no third option, because heaven is a high city with a low gate.

The winning team is not always the right table. Better the humble company with nothing to divide than the victors' tent with the proud — because one table is under God's resistance and the other under His grace: He "giveth grace unto the lowly" (Proverbs 3:34). And the argument that ends all argument: when Majesty Himself "made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), shall the worm swell with pride?

Two wings, one bird. Handle the matter wisely — plan, work, take counsel — and trust the LORD. To trust God without wise care is to test Him; to take wise care without trusting God is to insult Him. Fly with both wings and the verse ends in the book's plainest beatitude: "whoso trusteth in the LORD, happy is he." Not the talented, not the lucky — the trusting. Trust Him with hope, beside hope, above hope, against hope; that is the only happiness in this chapter with no fine print under it.