Shepherding Lips and Storm-Tested Souls + Bluegrass Evening
Day 25: Shepherding Lips That Feed Many
Shepherding Lips That Feed Many
“The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of sense.”
The word "feed" is the same Hebrew word used for "shepherd". The lips of the righteous are shepherding lips. They nourish, guide, and protect. When Yahweh speaks, His words are like refined silver, pure and life-giving. And when the righteous imitate their God, their words become instruments of care. They bind wounds. They strengthen the weak. They give direction to the wandering.
But the fool has no such reservoir. He spends whatever common grace wisdom he has until it runs dry. And when it is gone, he is left empty. He calls out for help, but there is no substance in his world to sustain him. His worldview has eaten itself alive.
The modern unbeliever often masks this emptiness with slogans. “Trust your gut.” “Do what feels right.” But these are crumbs, not bread. They cannot sustain a soul.
The question, then, is simple: where will you be fed? If you desire wisdom, you must go where wisdom dwells. Come to the bride of Christ. Here, wisdom is not abstract. It is embodied. Here you eat and drink Christ, the Wisdom of God. Here you are shepherded by voices shaped by divine truth. Here, the lips of the righteous feed many.
The Blessing That Bears No Sorrow
“The blessing of Yahweh makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.”
This blessing is not a promise of ease. Even our Lord, who perfectly pleased the Father, was a man of sorrows. The difference is not the absence of sorrow, but its meaning.
For the righteous, sorrow is not wasted. It is formative. It is instructive. It is woven into God’s larger purposes. The wise man does not drown in sorrow; he learns from it. He is deepened by it. He is matured through it.
The fool, however, cannot interpret sorrow. He sees it as bad luck, as a meaningless interruption. He wallows in it without growth. He repeats his errors. He stagnates.
Yahweh’s blessing enriches because it gives context. It frames even suffering within covenant faithfulness. The righteous man can say, even in tears, “This is from my Father.” And therefore, even sorrow becomes a teacher.
Laughter, Judgment, and the Passing Storm
“Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool… What the wicked dreads will come upon him… When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more.”
Sin, for the fool, is entertainment. It is sport. It is communal amusement. He gathers companions who celebrate his rebellion. He shares his misdeeds, not in shame, but in delight. Sin loves company because it feeds on affirmation.
But wisdom delights in something deeper. As Bruce Waltke notes, just as the strong delight in strength and musicians in skill, the wise delight in understanding. Why? Because they know how the story ends.
To the fool, life appears humorous, but it ends in tragedy. To the wise, life may include sorrow, but it is ultimately a comedy. It resolves in glory.
This is why the wise are not brittle. They are not easily shaken. They do not see conspiracies under every rock. They see covenant. They trust promises. They stand firm.
The wicked, however, knows—deep down—that judgment is coming. His laughter is nervous. Every successful sin is a temporary victory, a defiant shout toward heaven: “Not yet!” But he knows the storm is forming.
And the storm will come.
As a Floridian, I understand this well. A hurricane does not negotiate. It arrives with force, and when it passes, what once stood is often gone. So it is with God’s judgment. The whirlwind of Yahweh will sweep through, and the wicked will not remain.
But the righteous? They endure. They are planted. They are established forever.
So we live differently. We laugh—but not with the fool’s hollow laughter. We laugh with the deep, settled joy of those who know the ending. As Chesterton said, angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. The righteous can rejoice because they take God seriously.
And so, even through sorrow, even through storms, we press on: fed by wisdom, enriched by blessing, and rooted in a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Bluegrass Evening: A Man of Constant Sorrow
It was an honor to host some really talented and godly young brothers in our congregation for a bluegrass show. The goal was to raise money for a mission trip to Romania. I am happy to say all the money was raised!
Romania to minister the gospel!