Proverbs 10:7

Proverbs 10:7

I. Who are meant by the "just" to whom blessedness is here attributed? By the just alluded to here are meant those who, having felt the power of God in that call which God makes to men to be His servants, have obeyed that call, and have given themselves to the service of the Most High. God calls everyone to do some work for Him, and He expects everyone to do that work "justly." (1) The justice of the just will consist, first, of that which lies at the very basis of all true religion, namely, prayer. It is utterly impossible for the inner life of the true Christian to be supported without prayer. You do not expect a man to battle against a mighty current without stretching forth his hands to swim; even so, a man cannot live in the tossing sea of doubt and difficulty without stretching forth his hands, in the spirit of grace and of supplication, to implore assistance through the name and on account of the merits of Jesus Christ alone. (2) Again, the justice of the just consists in a constant endeavour to cultivate such a spirit of faith as shall promote an abiding sense of God's presence and of Christ's love. There can be no godliness where God is not in all the thoughts. There can be no true Christianity save where the heart is so dependent upon Christ that all hope is based on His Atonement, all joy looked for through His Cross. (3) Again, the justice alluded to in the text may be said to imply a constant endeavour to further the true interests of the Church of God. Everyone who has become a member of Christ's body must take heed to, and respect, that body of which he is a member.

II. What does the text say of the just man? It says that his memory is blessed. His memory is sweet and precious. His name is ever spoken of with honour and commendation. "Men to whom he has been useful, either in things spiritual or in things temporal, bless him whilst he is alive, and after death they pronounce him to be blessed." "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."

E. Cheese, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates' Journal, May 12th, 1881.

I. "The memory of the just is blessed" self-evidently so, for the mind blesses it, reverts to it with complacency, mingled with solemnity, returns to it with delight from the sight of the living evil in the world, sometimes even prefers this silent society to the living good.

II. Their memory is blessed when we consider them as practical illustrations, verifying examples of the excellence of genuine religion, and that it is a noble thing in human nature, and makes, and alone makes, that nature noble.

III. Their memory is blessed while we regard them as diminishing to our view the repulsiveness and horror of death. Our Lord's dying was the fact that threw out the mightiest agency to this effect. But, in their measure, His faithful disciples have done the same.

IV. Their memory is blessed as combined with the whole progress of the cause of God on earth, with its living agency through every stage. Think what they have been employed and empowered to do in the propagation of truth, in the incessant warfare against all manner of evil, in the exemplification of all the virtues by which he could be honoured.

V. Is it not a reasonable object of Christian desire to leave a memory that shall be "blessed"? Not a passion for vainglory, not that so-extolled aspiring to endless fame. But a desire that the remembrance which will remain in the minds of those who are to survive or follow should not be one causing pain, disappointment, or shame. A wish to be, in remembrance, numbered with the faithful and zealous servants of God and Christ.

J. Foster, Lectures,2nd series, p. 220.

References: Proverbs 10:7. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 236; D. Burns, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 328. Proverbs 10:8. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 238. Proverbs 10:9. Ibid.,p. 240; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 16. Proverbs 10:11. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 242.Proverbs 10:12. W. R. Nicoll, Calls to Christ,p. 41.Proverbs 10:13. R. Wardlaw, Lectures on Proverbs,vol. i., p. 241.Proverbs 10:14. Ibid.,p. 245.Proverbs 10:15. Ibid.,p. 247. Proverbs 10:18. Ibid.,p. 255.Proverbs 10:19 . Ibid.,p. 254.