“For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up success for the upright; He is a shield for those who live with integrity so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of his faithful followers. Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity—every good path.” (Proverbs 2:6-9 CSB – Read the chapter)

As we talked about last time, Solomon said to his son that following his instructions would lead him to understand the fear of the Lord. They would lead him to come to understand who God is. That seems like a pretty good deal all by itself, but Solomon goes on to give us a lot more than that. Over the course of the rest of the chapter, as well as the next several that follow, Solomon goes on to explain what are the results of coming to know the Lord. The results are, in a word, wisdom. As for what that wisdom brings, let’s start talking through it here.

What is the purpose of wisdom? Simply saying something like, “to be wise” doesn’t work because you can’t define a word with itself. And besides, defining what something is doesn’t tell us what that thing is for. So, what is wisdom for? To help us live a better life? That seems too small. It’s also kind of selfish. Wisdom seems like it should be about more than just us and our needs or interests. One more time: What is wisdom for?

Let’s try this on for size: the purpose of wisdom is to enable us to live more fully within the spacious boundaries of God’s kingdom so that we can become effective ambassadors of that kingdom, inviting others to join in it and its blessings with us. The goal of pursuing wisdom is so that we can get better at doing life and live a better life so that others might see it and be inspired to pursue such an end for themselves.

This idea is what Solomon is pointing to in these verses. Wisdom is about living a better life for the sake of others. And it all starts with God. “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” This is a point we just can’t emphasize enough because we are so prone to forgetting it. God is the source of wisdom. He is the source of all knowledge. We won’t really understand anything with His help.

That last point is particularly important. We can figure out how things work fairly well on our own. We can do experiments and run tests of various kinds and learn the mechanics of just about anything. From careful observation we understand the intricate workings of all of the various systems in our bodies. We know how our brains work to an incredibly minute degree. We know which neurons fire and in which ways to generate which thoughts we are thinking. We know what areas of the brain are in charge of different kinds of thoughts and feelings and body movements. But important and helpful as that kind of knowledge is, it doesn’t tell us anything about why we have the thoughts we do. Actual understanding escapes us without help beyond what we can reach for ourselves. Wisdom is knowledge plus understanding. If you have just one or the other, wisdom will escape you. Both are necessary.

God doesn’t just give wisdom like this, though, He enables those who follow Him in pursuit of wisdom to experience success. “He stores up success for the upright.” That sounds good, but we have to think carefully about this for just a second to make sure we don’t think something Solomon didn’t intend to communicate. God doesn’t just make success something we automatically experience here and now whenever we do what is right. That’s not how life in a broken world works. Oh, we experience the success of our efforts on occasion, but God stores up success for those who follow Him. This is a note of hopefulness for those who are committed to the path of wisdom, who live lives that are upright and true. We will experience all the fruits of our patient, persevering labors, but not always right now.

Yet while God stores up success for us so that we can enjoy their fullness later when there is no sin in the world to steal from our delight, He does more to guard our ways from abuse here and now. “He is a shield for those who live with integrity so that he may guard the paths of justice and protect the way of his faithful followers.” Now, does this mean we don’t or won’t experience any kind of trouble in life if we just stick to the path of righteousness that God has cleared for us to walk after Him? No, and experience itself bears this out rather well. But we don’t know and couldn’t even imagine how much trouble God keeps us from experiencing when we are sticking close to Him.

There will still be some trouble because the world hates Him and we are the closest convenient target. Jesus experienced more than His fair share of trouble. But generally speaking—and remember that the proverbs describe how life works all things being equal—the life outcome for those who walk the path of wisdom that God reveals will be better and more peaceful than it will for those who don’t. The reason for this is God’s aid and protection and the shield that wisdom itself provides. When we make wise choices, the fruits of wisdom will usually return to us. Our relationships will be stronger, we will have less we feel like we need to hide, we will be more at peace, we will be better respected in our community, and so on and so forth.

Finally, at the end of this little section, Solomon gives us the payoff. He gives us the why of wisdom. “Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and integrity—every good path.” When we pursue a relationship with God and make intentional strides toward growing in His wisdom, the result will be growth in wisdom. We will achieve the aim of our efforts. We will come to better understand what is right and true and good in the world around us. We will know how to pursue these things and why the pursuit is worth its trouble. In other words, wisdom is often its own reward. The better and deeper we understand this, the more we will gain from our pursuit of it; the more likely we will be to pursue it in the first place.