Wisdom Wednesday: Wisdom and Truth Part 1
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
“Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me
wisdom in the secret heart.” (Psalm 51:6) NASB 95
The context of the 51st Psalm of David is a psalm of conviction, sorrow, and confession, requesting mercy and forgiveness for his public sin. This was penned after Nathan the prophet came to him and convicted him of his sin with Bathsheba.
After confessing his sin and requesting God to forgive and cleanse him, David states two things about God:
- That God delights in the absolute truth in a person’s heart (inward being)
- That God teaches wisdom to that same inward being.
Truth and wisdom here are linked. God is pleased when the heart accepts and yields to the truth of God’s personal existence, and God teaches that believer the wisdom to walk with Him in a personal relationship.
At an earlier point in David’s life as a fugitive, trusting in God to protect him, David again linked his way of walking before the Lord (the wisdom of daily walk of integrity before the Lord) to walking in God’s truth:
Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity,
And I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.
Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.
For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes,
And I have walked in Your truth. (Ps 26:1–3)
This “truth” is the ultimate truth of God’s personal existence -a creator and sustainer of all things. Philosophers use the expression “ultimate reality” to refer to the deepest or most fundamental nature of our existence, the universe. Philosophers ask, “Is there existence that transcends (goes beyond) the physical world?” The Scriptures answer this question effectively with, “Yes, the Creator is a personal God who seeks people to know the truth, and to wisely walk in that truth.”
David’s son, Solomon, understood the link between truth and wisdom, writing the proverb: Buy truth, and do not sell it, Get wisdom and instruction and understanding. (Proverbs 23:23). This verse is within a chapter that encourages discipline to apply yourself to the diligent search and study of truth (“Buy it”) in order to secure the wisdom to walk in the truth.
I was in college and graduate school in the 1960’s when the “God is Dead” movement flourished and brought with it the death of a search for truth and hope for ultimate reality. I recall the popular song “Alfie” written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1966 film by the same name. The song’s lyrics articulated the existential despair, and conclusion that the only ultimate truth or purpose for living is “love”:
What’s it all about Alfie, Is it just for the moment we live?
What’s it all about, When you sort it out, Alfie
Are we meant to take more than we give
Or are we meant to be kind? And if, if only fools are kind, Alfie, Then I guess it is wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie; What will you lend on an old golden rule?
As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above, Alfie, I know there’s something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in, I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie; Until you find the love you’ve missed
You’re nothing, Alfie
In one sense they were wrong. No, finding human love is not the ultimate reality. But, in another sense, yes, the ultimate reality is a Person, who demonstrated true love.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7–12)
Bacharach and David were so close! It is all about knowing the ultimate truth of a Personal God, Who wants us to know Him and the love He demonstrated by the gift of salvation in His Son, so we can abide (walk in wisdom) in Him. This is ultimate truth linked to wisdom.
In this series, of weekly devotions we will examine the relationship between truth (the reality of the Person of God) and wisdom, the practice of living to follow and glorify (reveal) Him. Existential though is still pervasive in this world and we have an opportunity to share the truth of the real ultimate reality – the Creator God in the person of Jesus Christ, Who is the truth, the way and the life. (John 14:6)