Proverbs 16:1 Commentary and Bible Study

The KJV translates the verse so as to identify two aspects of man that are under the overruling control of the Lord – man can neither think nor speak without God’s determination, but most translations form a contrast between these two aspects teaching that man proposes but God disposes. The Hebrew conjunction can be rendered either ‘and’ joining the heart and the tongue together, or ‘but’ contrasting the two and the translator has to decide which is more appropriate. The KJV translation can only be achieved by translating ‘in man’ instead of ‘to man’, but the normal use of the preposition, the emphasis required by the position of the word, and the evident correspondence with ‘from the Lord’ make this unlikely. The arrangements or preparations of the heart are ascribed to man (this is a concession to man for God is sovereign over his thoughts as well), but what comes out of his mouth in spoken words is from the Lord. Man may arrange his thoughts out of a disordered mass into ordered ranks like military on display, and may feel that he has complete control over them. It may seem that his words can only express the thoughts that are within his heart so that there is little scope for any variance between the two, but nevertheless it is the Lord who determines the final outcome. The lesson then is about man’s uncertain control of the final outcome of a matter: he plans to say one thing but ends up saying another. He is not his own guide as he likes to think. There is no situation in which he would appear to have greater determination than over the thoughts of his own heart and over the words he ends up speaking, and yet even here God’s overruling may result in something quite unexpected coming out of his mouth. Solomon is particularly interested in those areas of God’s superintendence which we might think are peculiarly our own. Wardale cites Balaam (Numbers 23) as an example of someone in whose heart there was an intention to say one thing but who actually said something quite different, and Gill mentions Caiaphas (John 11:49-51) as another, both false men made prophets by God on the occasion. But if God is Lord over our words, then what is he not Lord over? At times when our words express complex ideas, we hardly know ourselves how they will come out, but the Lord knows and he is at work when we cannot perceive the operation of his hand. Romans 7:15 gives us another expression of this.