Streams of Water

King Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes and most of Proverbs, wrote about his experiences and not only the things he had learned to do, but also those not to do. His writings, close to 3,000 years old and in Hebrew, have lost nothing through time and translation. God, who rules in the affairs in men, has preserved His words.

Perhaps more than ever, we should carefully examine and consider the God-breathed words penned by the third king of Israel.

"1The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will.
2Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart."
-Proverbs 21:1-2

I tend to read the Proverbs of Solomon as isolated verses, each from which I glean a bit of practical wisdom for my own life. For the first time, these verses struck me as being very much connected, and certainly, Solomon did not write just one verse per sitting.

Typically, I have read verse 1 and applied it to disagreeable parents, unforgiving professors, or blinded politicians. If no germane example was handy for me to relate to what I had just read, I would quickly gloss over the verse and try to pick a situation out of my own life in which I could identify pride to confess, where I thought my own way was best.

Something can, no doubt, be gleaned from such a cursory glance at each verse individually, but when seen together, these verses are so encouraging in terms of God's total sovereignty. Solomon was both a monarch (the subject of the first verse) and a man (spoken of in the second). A stream, or any body of water, for that matter, will flow in the path of least resistance, or down the course of that which seems to benefit the stream most from a work perspective. This, by the way, is why the Colorado River could not have formed the Grand Canyon over millions of years, but that is a topic for another piece. How much more, then, will men and women, with God-given cognitive resources in a corrupted world, attempt to do that which they feel is right, even in the face of staunch resistance?

Perhaps there were other kings whose hearts Solomon wished that God would change. Much more likely, though, is that Solomon himself is the primary king spoken of in verse 1. Whose heart, then, is God weighing in the verse immediately following, but Solomon's? Personal experience had taught this wisest of men that despite holding power, riches, and honor, no man was immune to God's reproving hand, that no man's ways were higher than God's.

Whether you are a king, teacher, mailman, or sports broadcaster, not only is your heart weighed by the Lord; it is turned in whichever way He wills.

How, then, are rivers turned? Off the top of my head, I can think of only two: dams and other courses that are dug and then connected to the stream in question. First, may God give us the grace and the wisdom to identify His leading and take the courses that He has dug for us rather than going through a painful dam-building process until our hearts are pointed in the proper direction. And second, may we more carefully examine God's Word in the context in which it was given, so as to learn more of and grow ever closer to our Almighty God, King, and Creator.