Our Heart

[Proverbs 21:1-4]

Friends, if we look at Proverbs 15:13, the Bible says: “A joyful heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sorrowful, the spirit is broken.” When we apply this word to each of us, I want to ask you a question: “Do you have joy in your heart, or do you have sorrow in your heart?”
If there is joy in your heart, that joy will be “good medicine” for you (17:22). But if you have sorrow in your heart, it will “dry up your bones” (v.22). If our heart is sorrowful, it will harm our spirit (15:13).

Today, focusing on Proverbs 21:1-4, I want to meditate on four points about our heart and receive the lessons given to us.

First, God guides our heart.

Look at Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”
Do you think the heart of the president of our country is in God’s hand? Even if the president does not believe in Jesus and is an unbeliever, do you think his heart is in God’s hand? In today’s passage, the wise King Solomon says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord.” Here, “the king’s heart” does not only refer to King Solomon himself but to all kings. Even here, “the king’s heart” refers to the hearts of foreign kings who are not kings of Israel. This means that “the king’s heart” includes the hearts of pagan kings who do not believe in God. What Solomon is saying now is that the hearts of all the kings of this world are in God’s hand. This means that God guides the hearts of all those kings.

As one example, God guided not only the heart of King Solomon, who believed in God, but also the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who did not believe in God. Look at Exodus 10:1-2: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them, and so that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.’”
God guided Pharaoh’s heart by hardening it. What was the purpose? There were two purposes. The first was to show God’s signs among him and his officials, and the second was so that the signs God performed among them could be told to the people of Israel and their descendants.

Another example is during the time of Ezra, when God guided the heart of King Artaxerxes and caused him to give orders to the treasury officials to quickly fulfill Ezra’s requests (Ezra 7:21).
The reason God did this is explained in Ezra 7:27-28: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, who put it into the heart of King Artaxerxes to bring honor to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and who extended to me a gracious hand before him and his officials. Because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.”
What does this mean? God put it into King Artaxerxes’ heart to beautify the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. And God granted Ezra favor and strengthened him so that he was able to gather leaders of Israel and go up with them to Jerusalem, and ultimately the temple of God was beautified.

God guides the hearts of kings, and as Proverbs 21:1 says in the latter part, “He directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” Just as the Lord directs the channels of water according to His pleasure, God guides the hearts of kings according to His will.

Therefore, the Bible says: “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps” (16:9), “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord” (16:33), “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (19:21), “A person’s steps are directed by the Lord. How then can anyone understand their own way?” (20:24).
From these verses, the point is that even though we plan our ways with our heart, only God’s sovereign will is fully accomplished.

Then, how do we interpret the case when King Solomon, in his old age, allowed his wives to turn his heart to follow other gods? (1 Kings 11:4). 1 Kings 11:4 says: “For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.”
Although Proverbs 21:1 says God guides the king’s heart, Solomon rejected God’s guidance and turned his heart according to his own will to follow the idols his wives served. This was doing evil in the sight of God (1 Kings 11:6). Solomon’s heart was not loyal to God; it was a perverse heart (Proverbs 11:20).

The lesson we must learn here is that we must not reject God’s guidance and live according to our own heart like Solomon did. Rather, we should yield our heart to God and live according to His guidance.

Secondly, God examines our hearts.

Look at today’s text, Proverbs 21:2: “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”
Do you think all your actions are right? Do you believe that all your actions are just?
In the well-known story of Samuel, when he obeyed God’s word and went to Bethlehem (1 Samuel 16:4) to find the one God would anoint (verse 6), there is a scene where Samuel sees Eliab, one of Jesse’s sons, and says, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him” (v.6). But God said to him: “Do not look at his appearance or at his height, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (v.7).
Even Samuel thought Eliab was God’s anointed because he looked at his outward appearance. That is, Samuel thought his judgment was correct, but he could not see the heart as God does, so he misidentified God’s anointed.
However, the Bible clearly states in the latter part of Proverbs 21:2: “The Lord weighs the heart.” Also, Proverbs 16:2 says: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits.”
Proverbs 24:12 says: “If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?”
What does this mean? It means that the all-knowing God knows everything about our hearts. God who examines and understands our hearts knows all our thoughts and motives.
That is why the psalmist confessed in Psalm 139:1-4:
“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thoughts from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, You know it all.”
God knows us. Indeed, the Bible says the Lord knows us clearly and nothing about us is unknown to Him.
But what is the problem? The problem is that we humans are foolish and mistakenly think our actions are right.
Look at Proverbs 12:15: “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.”
Humans are foolish and do not recognize their sinful condition, instead believing themselves to be right.
Pastor Park Yoon Sun explained five reasons why humans do not see their sin:
(1) Because they forget their past sins,
(2) because they do not foresee future sins,
(3) because they vaguely sense their wrongs against others but do not realize how much they lack before God,
(4) because they do not know that not believing in God is the greatest cause,
(5) because their heart is deceitful and has thoughts that justify their faults.
The most foolish sin of humans is that, just as we deceive others, we try to deceive God who examines us (Job 13:9). This happens because we think God does not scrutinize us (Psalm 10:13), but the truth is that we are proud (v.4).

Friends, our God is a God who examines (Genesis 16:13). God watches from heaven and looks at all humanity (Psalm 33:13). God examines to the ends of the earth and sees all the world (Job 28:24). God’s eyes are everywhere, observing the wicked and the righteous (Proverbs 15:3). God examines sin (Psalm 130:3), and He also examines our affliction (Lamentations 1:9). God pays attention to our paths and examines all our steps (Job 34:21). The righteous God examines the hearts of people (Psalm 7:9). God not only observes our actions but also looks deep into our spirits and knows everything (Park Yoon Sun).

Thirdly, the heart that pleases God is a heart that practices justice and righteousness.

Look at today’s text, Proverbs 21:3:
“Doing justice and righteousness is more pleasing to the Lord than sacrifice.”
Friends, do you remember what Samuel said to King Saul, that “obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22)? Samuel clearly said to King Saul, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?” (verse 22).

When I meditate again on this word, I think that we too, like King Saul, may be loving and serving God from our own perspective. In other words, we might think God likes worship, so we prepare carefully to worship on Sunday, but then we live the other six days disobeying God’s word.

The reason is that from God’s perspective, He is more pleased with us living a life obedient to His word than with us offering countless acts of worship.

Looking at today’s passage, Proverbs 21:3, King Solomon, the writer of Proverbs, says that God is more pleased with doing justice and righteousness than with offering sacrifices.

In other words, God is pleased when we worship Him, but even more pleased when we do justice and righteousness in this world.

However, if we think carefully about this, Solomon went to Gibeon and offered a thousand burnt offerings on the great altar there (1 Kings 3:4), but in his old age, his thousand wives turned his heart to follow other gods (11:3-4), thus disobeying God’s command.

When I meditate on this fact, I think: “When we offer God a thousand acts of worship, Satan uses his thousand servants to deceive us. From our perspective, we might think offering God a thousand acts of worship would please Him, but from God’s perspective, He is more pleased when we obey His first command.”

Friends, in human sacrificial acts, what God primarily requires is not the offering itself but their religious ethical obedience. This religious ethical obedience means obeying God’s commandments by doing justice and righteousness.

However, in the days of the prophet Isaiah, the people of Israel offered countless sacrifices without practicing justice and righteousness (Isaiah 1:11). Regarding such sacrifices, God said:
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?” (verse 11)
“I am not pleased with them” (verse 11)
“You only burden me with your solemn assemblies” (verse 12)
“Do not bring any more vain offerings” (verse 13)
“They are detestable to me” (verse 13)
“I cannot endure them” (verse 13)
“My soul hates them; they are a burden too heavy for me” (verse 14).

The prophet Jeremiah said that offering sacrifices while neglecting obedience to God’s word is nothing but trying to find peace in a sinful life (Jeremiah 7:8-10) (Park Yoon Sun).

Look at Jeremiah 7:8-10:
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘We will be safe,’ yet you steal, kill, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods you do not know. Then you come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’—only to continue doing all these abominations.”

Ultimately, the people of Israel lied, stole, killed, committed adultery, swore falsely, and worshiped idols, yet came into God’s temple and said before God, “We are saved; we are safe” (verse 10).

If we apply this to ourselves, we say that once saved by believing in Jesus, we can never lose salvation, but then go out into the world sinning, and every Sunday come into the Lord’s house saying, “Once saved, always saved,” thinking we are safe even though we sin because we are already saved.

This kind of worship, where we comfort and reassure ourselves, is never pleasing to God.

Friends, what pleases God is right worship and a right life.

When our worship, which is pleasing to God, is accompanied by a life that obeys God’s word, God is pleased.

God’s word in today’s text, Proverbs 21:3, says that doing justice and righteousness is what pleases God.

Friends, why should we do justice and righteousness?

Because the Lord practices justice and righteousness (Psalm 99:4).

And because “blessed are those who keep justice, and he who does righteousness at all times” (Psalm 106:3).

Lastly, and fourthly, the heart that God considers sinful is the proud heart.

Look at today’s passage, Proverbs 21:4:
“Haughty eyes, a proud heart, and the prosperity of the wicked—these are sin.”

Here, the writer of Proverbs, King Solomon, points out three sins.
In other words, he says there are three things that God regards as sin:

(1) “Haughty eyes.”
Here, “haughty eyes” refers to “a person looking to gain more than their proper measure.”
Such a person has an empty heart and even acts as if they are already someone of high status (Park Yoon Sun).

Therefore, the Psalmist David said:
“Lord, my heart is not proud, nor are my eyes haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me” (Psalm 131:1, Korean Revised Version).

David strove not to have a proud heart. He strove not to have haughty eyes.
Thus, he did not strive after great things or marvelous things beyond his reach.

Sometimes we undertake “great things” claiming to do so in faith, but such reckless ventures are not more than expressions of ambition and greed to fulfill our desires.

(2) “A proud heart.”
The proud heart is a much more fearful and dangerous sin because the pride within the heart is hidden and does not outwardly show.
Such pride is difficult to control (Park Yoon Sun).

Friends, we must not think beyond our measure.
We must not strive after things beyond our proper portion.
In other words, we must not say or do things beyond our measure (Numbers 16:7).

Rather, as Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:13,15, we should not boast beyond our measure.
We should think, speak, and act according to the measure of faith God has given us (Romans 12:6).

The reason we should not be proud is that “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18).
Because “Pride of the heart leads to destruction” (18:12).

(3) “The prosperity of the wicked.”
I think there is no sin more dangerous than the prosperity of the wicked who have haughty eyes and proud hearts.
Especially if, despite their pride and arrogance, “the sufferings of others do not affect them, nor do the disasters that befall others” (Psalm 73:5), how much more will they become haughty and arrogant?

Furthermore, if their income exceeds their desires (v.7), they are always at peace, their wealth increases (v.12), and their strength is robust (v.4), how much prouder will these wicked people become?

Their end (v.17) is destruction (v.18), ruin, and utter desolation (v.19).

Thus, the prosperity of the wicked, haughty eyes, and a proud heart are sins that God condemns (Proverbs 21:4).

Friends, we must have humble hearts.
We must associate with the humble and lower our hearts (16:19).
We must consider others better than ourselves with humble hearts (Philippians 2:3).

Why?
Because humility is the guide to honor (Proverbs 15:33; 18:12).
Because God gives grace to the humble (3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).
Because God saves the humble (Job 22:29).

I pray that all of us may have the humble heart of Jesus (Philippians 2:5).

To conclude this meditation, friends, our hearts are in God’s hands.
We must not forget that God guides our hearts.
And God examines our hearts.

Therefore, we must do justice and righteousness that please God.
And we must cast away the proud heart that God regards as sin and embrace a humble heart.