Proverbs 29:10-14

Violent men hate the man of integrity — the hatred traces all the way back to the first prophecy God ever spoke, the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15). Nothing but the gospel can actually kill that principle in a heart; everything short of it only chains the violence down. Meanwhile "the just seek his soul" — the godly seek the upright man's welfare, ready, like Jonathan or Obadiah, to lay down their lives for the brethren. The world's hatred and the church's love meet over the same upright man.

The fool empties out his whole mind the instant it fills — his thoughts lie at the tip of his tongue, and there is no door at his mouth. The wise man holds his back, weighs it, keeps it in until the right time. (We sometimes flatter ourselves that blurting everything is a mark of honesty; it is far more often a mark of folly.) The wise man will never speak against his mind, but he will not always speak all his mind. Delay cools the heart and clears the head.

A ruler who likes to hear flattering lies will soon have nothing but liars around him — for the whole court reshapes itself to please him, and a man who carries Satan in his ear is no less guilty than the one who carries him on his tongue. Leaders are the mirrors people dress by; tolerate dishonesty at the top and the whole house learns to lie. What a leader rewards, he multiplies.

The poor man and the man who grinds him down "meet together" in this much: both owe the very light in their eyes — their life and breath — to the same God, who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good" (Matthew 5:45). The Lord is no respecter of persons; rich and poor stand on level ground before their common Maker. Lazarus and Zacchaeus alike were monuments of His mercy. The oppressor should tremble to remember that the eyes he uses to scheme were lit by the God who defends the poor.

A ruler who deals justly and faithfully with the poor — the ones with no leverage and no bribe to give — secures his throne, because he wins the thing no army can buy: the love of his people. David was a poor man's king. And the verse points past every earthly throne to the Saviour-King whose throne is established forever, who took up the cause of the lowliest, and whose kingdom shall have no end.