Proverbs

‘Make the bad people good, and the good people nice’, is supposed to have been a child’s prayer: it makes the point, with proverbic brevity, that there are details of character small enough to escape the mesh of the law and the broadsides of the prophets, and yet decisive in personal dealings. Proverbs moves in this realm, asking what a person is like to live with, or to employ; how he manages his affairs, his time and himself. This good lady, for instance - does she talk too much? That cheerful soul - is he bearable in the early morning? And this friend who is always dropping in - here is some advice for him...and for that rather aimless lad... 

But it is not a portrait-album or a book of manners: it offers a key to life. The samples of behavior which it holds up to view are all assessed by one criterion, which could be summed up in the question, ‘Is this wisdom or folly?’  ...but wisdom as taught here is God-centered and even when it is most down-to-earth it consists in the shrewd and sound handling of one’s affairs in God’s world, in submission to His will.

Derek Kidner