Read Proverbs 16:31–17:6
Questions from the Scripture text: What is a crown of glory (Proverbs 16:31a)? Under what conditions (verse 31b)? Who is better than the mighty (Proverbs 16:32a)? And who is better than he who takes a city (verse 32b)? Where is the lot cast (Proverbs 16:33a)? From where does its decision come (verse 33b)? What is better, under what condition, than what else, under what other condition (Proverbs 17:1)? Who will rule over whom (Proverbs 17:2a)? With whom will this servant share what (verse 2b)? How are silver and gold tried and refined (Proverbs 17:3a)? Who does this for the heart (verse 3b)? What does an evildoer heed (Proverbs 17:4a)? To what does a liar listen (verse 4b)? Whom does the poor’s mocker actually reproach (Proverbs 17:5a)? What will happen to the one who is glad at calamity (verse 5b)? Who are the crown of old men (Proverbs 17:6a)? Who is the glory of children (verse 6b)?
What people should we honor? Proverbs 16:31–17:6 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these nine verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should honor those people who have lived a life of godliness.
Crowns bookend this section (Proverbs 16:31, Proverbs 17:6). Among godly generations, the righteous elderly are not the feeble to be replaced, but the honored to be aspired to. The older generation is crowned by the next generation of the godly who will come from them (Proverbs 17:6a), and the younger generation considers it a great honor to have come from their ancestors (verse 6b).
Within these bookends, the Spirit gives us several components of a good, long, godly life: slowness to anger and self-control (Proverbs 16:32), trusting the outcome of one’s choices to YHWH (Proverbs 16:33), the meekness to avoid strife (Proverbs 17:1), the wisdom to act and rise above one’s station (Proverbs 17:2), living unto YHWH and before His face (Proverbs 17:3), being wary of heeding sinful speech (Proverbs 17:4), and having regard for all humanity as made in the image of God and being under His justice (Proverbs 17:5). When the elderly have lived this way, they have good hope of God giving them progeny who will honor them and live this way, too.
So, take inventory, if you will. If you are elderly, has God, by His grace, given you this sort of life? If you are middle aged, what course corrections might need to be made, and identify the elderly whom you wish to emulate. And, if you are young, begin by glorying in those godly whom the Lord has sent before you.
What season of life are you in? Of the list of virtues in the middle paragraph, which do you need most to work on?
Sample prayer: Lord, thank You for the grace which grows us in godliness. Please keep granting it to us from generation to generation, through Christ, in Whose Name we ask it, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH400 “Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me”