Proverbs 7:1 - Meaning and Application

These verses introduce Solomon’s warning against fleshly lusts. They are much like Proverbs 6:20 and following, and they end at Proverbs 7:5 the same way that earlier section ended at Proverbs 6:24, with the purpose of keeping a person from the strange woman. In other words, that is what he is aiming at. Here he says, “Keep my commandments,” where before he said, “Keep your father’s commandment,” and the meaning is the same, because he is speaking to us as sons. He speaks in God’s name, since it is God’s commandments, God’s words, and God’s law that we must keep.

God’s word must be to us, first, something we guard carefully. We must keep it as our treasure, storing God’s commandments safely so the evil one cannot steal them from us (Proverbs 7:1). We must also keep it as our life: “Keep my commandments and live” (Proverbs 7:2). That does not only mean, “If you keep them, you will live,” but also, “Guard them as you would guard your own life, because you cannot live without them.” It would be a kind of death for a good person to be cut off from God’s word, because by it he lives, and not by bread alone.

Second, God’s word must be something we handle with great care. “Keep my law as the apple of your eye” means to protect it as something very precious. Even a small speck bothers the eye, so nature has guarded it carefully. We pray with David that God would keep us as the apple of his eye, that our lives and comforts would be precious in his sight (Psalm 17:8), and they will be so (Zechariah 2:8) if we are equally careful with his law and afraid to break it, even in the smallest way. People who mock careful and disciplined living as needless fussing do not see that the law is to be kept like the apple of the eye, because in truth it is the apple of our eye. The law is light, and the law in the heart is the eye of the soul.

Third, God’s word must be something we value and keep in mind all the time. “Bind them on your fingers” means, let them be precious to you, like an ornament, like a diamond ring, like the seal on your right hand. Wear them continually, like a wedding ring, the mark that you belong to God. Treat the word of God as something that gives you honor, as a sign of your dignity. Bind them on your fingers so they will always remind you of your duty, and so you will keep them in view, like something written on the palms of your hands.

Fourth, God’s word must be something we love deeply and think about often. “Write them on the tablet of your heart,” as we say of the names of dear friends, that they are written in our hearts. Let the word of God live richly within us, written where it is always ready to be read. Where sin was once written (Jeremiah 17:1), let the word of God now be written. This is also the promise of the new covenant, “I will write my law in their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10), which makes this command possible and easy to follow.

Fifth, God’s word must be something we know well and spend time with. “Say to wisdom, You are my sister,” and call understanding your close relative, someone you are closely tied to and warmly attached to. Call her your friend, the one you seek out. We must make God’s word familiar to us, consult it often, care about its honor, and take pleasure in being with it.

Sixth, God’s word must be our defense and our armor, to keep us from the strange woman, from sin, that flattering but destroying thing, especially the sin of sexual impurity (Proverbs 7:5). Let God’s word strengthen our fear of that sin and our resolve against it. Let it uncover the tricks used to draw us in, and let it give us answers to every flattering lie.