Okay, so maybe the title of this post should be Friday’s Funnies, but you get the point. We all stretch the truthfrom time to time. I remember as a kid my catching my mom telling a neighbor something I knew was not true and her reply was ‘it’s okay it was just a little ol white lie’.
People today are far worse, the recent political campaigns across America were a prime example of how accustomed and perverse we have become to lying. Folks need to read and take to heart 2 Corinthians 5:10 before it is to late.
TEXT
The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.
Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal faithfully are His delight.
STUDY
CHAP. 12
1–2. Is it not Christ here spoken of, who in our nature fulfilled all righteousness, and for which he obtained favour for himself and people? See the Commentary on the first and the fifteenth Psalms in confirmation.
3–9. The man here said to be despised, but who hath the servant of Jehovah for his portion, is preferable to the self-righteous who is destitute of the bread of life. Isaiah, 42:1. Matt. 20:27, 28.
10–18. David gives one of the best comments upon the words, that are like the piercings of the sword. Psm. 141:5. And the apostle shews wherefore it is so. Heb. 4:12, 13.
19–25. What but Jesus, the uncreated word, can give comfort to an heart born down under the pressure of sin? Thy love (saith the church) is better than wine; Song, 1:2. Yes! for though wine may raise the drooping spirits as a momentary cordial, yet Jesus’s love raiseth the dead. Ephes. 2:1.
26–28. All these are expressive of one and the same thing. The margin of the Bible renders it, The righteous is more abundant than his neighbour. Unto every one that hath (saith our Lord) shall be given and he shall have abundance. Matt. 25:29; intimating that grace is an increasing gift from the Lord. So that while the sinner is waxing worse and worse, he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Job 17:9.
REFLECTIONS
HOW blessed is every portion of the divine word, when read with an eye to Christ. Wherever Christ is seen, and known, and enjoyed; there the word becomes life and spirit to the heart. I found thy words and did eat them, (saith one of the prophets) and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart. And what rendered God’s word so sweet was, that Christ filled every part of it. These were the green pastures in which God caused his servant to lie down, when he fed him beside the still waters. When Christ is seen in them, and the Holy Ghost gives the soul to taste Christ in them; then as the church said, so all the people find; it is blessed to sit down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit is sweet to the taste. Reader! do you find it to be so? Have you found Christ in this chapter? Depend upon it, the grace of God, and the word of God, which bringeth salvation, brings it from this source: and it then flows in upon the soul, in rich, full, free, and blessed streams of Christ as the salvation of God for poor sinners. Oh! for grace so to find, so to enjoy, so to relish, and so to live upon Jehovah’s precious gift to men. In this way of Jesus and his righteousness is life, and in the very path-way thereof, the private, as well as the public ordinances of grace, there is no death.
Robert Hawker, Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: Proverbs–Lamentations, vol. 5 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2013), 44–46.
Ver. 19. The lip of truth shall be established for ever, &c.] The man that speaks truth is and will be established in his credit and reputation among men; he is uniform and all of a piece, and what he says is believed; truth, though it may be opposed, will prevail against lies and falsehood; the word of truth, the Gospel of Christ, will stand for ever; the ministers of truth and righteousness will be continued to the end of the world; Christ, who is truth itself, abides the same to-day, yesterday, and for ever. But a lying tongue is but for a moment; if a liar speaks truth for once, he does not continue in it long, but quickly returns to his former course; or rather the lie he tells is very shortlived, it is soon discovered, and he comes into contempt and disgrace, and loses all his credit and reputation among men of honour and honesty, and is sometimes suddenly snatched away by death, as Ananias and Sapphira; all error and heresy in a short time will cease and be no more; and antichrist, whose coming is with lying wonders, the direct opposite of the lip of truth, will be brought to ruin in a moment. Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, who are followed by some Christian interpreters, as Montanus, and some in Vatablus, render it, but, or for ever, I will cause the lying tongue to cease, or be at rest from speaking; as if they were the words of God, threatening to cut off the lying tongue; but Jarchi and Gersom render it for a moment, or a very short time, as we and others do; or, whilst one winks, in the twinkling of an eye; so soon is such a person removed.
John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 4, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 414.
Ver. 22. Lying lips are abomination to the Lord, &c.] Such that speak lies in common talk; and that deliver out doctrinal lies, false doctrines, lies in hypocrisy, as are the doctrines of Rome; these are abominable unto God; as being contrary to his nature as the God of truth; contrary to the Scriptures of truth he has endited; contrary to the truth of the Gospel he has published; contrary to his Son, who is truth itself; and to the Spirit of truth, which leads into all truth, as it is in Jesus; wherefore an abomination and a lie are joined together, Rev. 21:27. But they that deal truly are his delight; or the objects of his good will and pleasure, as the word signifies; they are grateful and acceptable to him; he is well-pleased with them, and delights in them. Not only such that speak the truth, but do the truthk, as the words may be rendered; whose words and actions, doctrine and life, agree together: it is not enough to embrace, profess, or preach the truth, but he must practise it; see John 3:21; 1 John 1:6 he must deal truly with God and men, or faithfully, as the Targum and Vulgate Latin version; he must be true to his word and promises, and faithfully perform what he has agreed unto. Or, that work faith; that work the work of faith, that faith which works by love; that live on Christ and his righteousness; such are well-pleasing to God; without which faith it is impossible to please him, Heb. 11:6.
John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 4, The Baptist Commentary Series (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1810), 415.
DEVOTIONAL
Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment. Proverbs 12:19
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