“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left; remove your feet from evil.” Proverbs 4:23-27
One of things that immediately stands out in this passage is the frequent mention of the body. Our heart, mouth, lips, eyes, and feet are all pictured as parts of us whose natural tendency is to go astray. The admonition in our passage is to be aware of this and to take the necessary action to tame them. It’s going to take effort on our part to discipline these areas of our life so that we can walk in wisdom and righteousness.
In the verses immediately before our passage the first consideration in taming ourselves is to bring each body part into subjection to the Holy Scripture. Heart, mouth, lips, eyes, and feet are all mentioned as needing to be directed, evaluated by the Word of God. With that foundation established, our passage then gives us more direction on what we need to do in each case.
The word “Keep” means to guard, protect, as well as attend to, and care for. We need to “keep” our hearts. Just because we feel something or desire a particular thing doesn’t make it right. We need to evaluate and attend to our hearts if we want to bring it into subjection to the Word.
The same is true for our mouth and lips. Lying and perverse speaking comes naturally as James 3:1-12 makes clear. Perverse speaking includes lying but more broadly refers to any unclean, objectionable, or ungodly speech. Put away means to remove, turn away from, or put a large distance between you and an object. We should be committed to the truth and put a huge distance between us and perverse speech.
Keeping your eyes looking straight ahead means staying focused on the words of wisdom and not allow yourself to be distracted by various lusts or ideologies that would lure you off the path. Do not be interested in evil but focus on the good. The reference to eyelids looking before you implies paying attention to the people and situations that God has brought to you today instead of being distracted by future or far away fears or desires. Deal with what is in front of you. There are many things that will try to distract us, and some that look very appealing. The admonition is to not allow yourself to get distracted from the path of wisdom and righteousness.
Finally, ponder the path of your feet. This is an overall summary of the whole passage. Take the time to think about what you are doing and evaluate your life according to the Scripture. Evaluation is one of the things that separates us from all other creatures. Don’t let your life be reactionary, acting only on impulse like an animal. Think about your path and correct it if you’ve gotten off track.
This is how we are to walk the path of the just which Proverbs 4:18 says, “…is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter until the perfect day.”
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn