Two Fates, Two Fountains: Text: Proverbs 10:6
Introduction: The Great Antithesis
The book of Proverbs is not a collection of fortune cookie platitudes for a well-adjusted, vaguely spiritual life. It is a book of spiritual warfare. It operates on the fundamental biblical principle that there are two ways to live, and only two. There is the way of wisdom, which is the way of righteousness, and there is the way of folly, which is the way of wickedness. There is no third way, no neutral ground, no demilitarized zone. You are either for Christ or against Him. You are either gathering with Him or scattering abroad. Every decision you make, every word you speak, every thought you entertain, places you squarely on one side of this great antithesis or the other.
Our modern sensibilities recoil from this. We want nuance, we want gray areas, we want to believe that we can have our cake and eat it too. We want to be "good people" without submitting to the definition of goodness that God provides. But Solomon, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, will not allow us this comfort. He draws the line bright and sharp. And in our text today, he shows us that this fundamental difference between the righteous and the wicked is not just an internal state of being. It has tangible, external consequences. It determines whether your life is a fountain of blessing or a sewer of violence.
This proverb presents us with a stark contrast, a diptych of two heads, two mouths, and two destinies. One is crowned with blessings. The other is a thin covering for a reservoir of violence. The world tells you that your words are your own, that your life is your own, and that you can define your own reality. The Word of God tells you that your life and your words are seeds, and you will, without fail, reap the harvest that you have sown.
The Text
Blessings are on the head of the righteous,
But the mouth of the wicked covers up violence.
(Proverbs 10:6 LSB)
The Crown of the Righteous (v. 6a)
The first clause sets before us a glorious reality:
"Blessings are on the head of the righteous," (Proverbs 10:6a)
First, who are the righteous? In our therapeutic age, we are tempted to think of the righteous man as the "nice guy," the pleasant fellow who doesn't rock the boat. This is a profound error. In the Bible, righteousness is a forensic term. It means to be in right standing with God. It is to be declared "not guilty" before the bar of His holy law. In the ultimate sense, this is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30). When God looks at a believer, He does not see our pathetic, stained-glass attempts at morality; He sees the perfect, unblemished righteousness of His Son.
But this imputed righteousness is never a mere legal fiction. It is a transformative power. The man who is declared righteous by God begins to live righteously. He walks in integrity. He submits his thoughts, words, and deeds to the lordship of Christ. He is not perfect, but his trajectory is one of repentance and faith. He is oriented toward God's law as a deer is oriented toward the stream.
And what is the result? "Blessings are on the head." This is a picture of a crown. It is a public, visible, manifest reality. These are not just spiritual, internal feelings of well-being. The Hebrew word for blessing, berakah, is robust. It refers to favor, prosperity, fruitfulness, and health. This is covenantal language, straight from Deuteronomy 28. If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, He will set you high above all the nations. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field. Your children will be blessed, your crops will be blessed, your livestock will be blessed. These blessings will come upon you and overtake you.
This is not the health and wealth gospel, which turns God into a cosmic vending machine. This is the logic of the covenant. God's design for the world is that obedience leads to blessing and disobedience leads to cursing. Sin has broken this connection in many ways, and we see the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper for a time. But the underlying principle, the grain of the universe, remains. A life lived in submission to God trends toward life, health, and prosperity. A life lived in rebellion trends toward death, sickness, and poverty. The blessings on the head of the righteous are a public testimony to the goodness of the God they serve.
The Cloak of the Wicked (v. 6b)
The contrast could not be more severe. We move from a head crowned with blessings to a mouth that conceals a horror.
"But the mouth of the wicked covers up violence." (Proverbs 10:6b LSB)
Notice the parallel. The blessing on the righteous is a visible crown. But the defining feature of the wicked is what is hidden. The word here for violence is hamas. It means cruelty, injustice, and malicious harm. The wicked man is a man whose heart is a cauldron of this hamas. His thoughts are bent on destruction, on how to get ahead, on how to use people, on how to tear down and devour.
But he does not always wear this on his sleeve. His mouth "covers" it. This is the essence of hypocrisy. The wicked man uses his words not to reveal truth, but to conceal his true intent. His speech is a smokescreen. He speaks of peace while plotting war (Psalm 28:3). He uses flattery to set a net for his neighbor's feet (Proverbs 29:5). His words are smooth as butter, but war is in his heart; his words are softer than oil, yet they are drawn swords (Psalm 55:21).
This is why we must be a people of discernment. The world is full of mouths that cover up violence. Think of the politician who speaks of "choice" to cover the violence of abortion. Think of the revolutionary who speaks of "justice" and "equity" to cover the violence of envy and theft. Think of the smooth-talking predator who uses words of affirmation to cover his violent lusts. The wicked man's greatest weapon is his mouth, because it is the tool he uses to camouflage the hamas that resides in his heart.
There is another way to read this phrase, and the Hebrew allows for it. It can also mean that violence will cover, or overwhelm, the mouth of the wicked. In this sense, the violence they have plotted and concealed will eventually come back to consume them. The trap they set for others, they will fall into themselves. The evil they spoke in secret will be shouted from the housetops. The violence they covered will one day cover them, silencing their mouths in judgment. Haman builds a gallows for Mordecai, and it is Haman who swings from it. This is the boomerang effect of sin. The universe is wired for justice, and God will not be mocked.
Two Fountains
So we have two heads, two mouths, two destinies. But what is the source of this difference? The source is the heart. Jesus tells us that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). The mouth is simply the overflow valve for the heart.
Proverbs says elsewhere that "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence" (Proverbs 10:11). This is the same contrast. The righteous man has a heart that has been cleansed by the grace of God. Christ has taken up residence there. And so, what flows out of his mouth? A fountain of life. His words build up, they encourage, they speak truth, they bring grace to the hearers. His speech is a source of blessing to those around him.
The wicked man, on the other hand, has a heart that is a cesspool of violence. And so his mouth, even when it is trying to be pleasant, is simply the lid on that cesspool. The pressure is always building. And eventually, what is inside will come out. The mask will slip. The smooth words will give way to the drawn sword.
This is a call to radical self-examination. What is your mouth? Is it a fountain or a sewer lid? Do your words bring life and blessing to your spouse, your children, your co-workers? Or do they cover up a heart full of bitterness, envy, and malice? You cannot fix your mouth by simply trying to say nicer things. You must go to the source. You need a new heart. You need a heart transplant, and only the Great Physician can perform it.
Conclusion: The Uncovered Head and the Silenced Mouth
The ultimate expression of this proverb is found at the cross of Jesus Christ. There we see the truly Righteous One. And what was on His head? Not a crown of blessing, but a crown of thorns. He who deserved all blessing took upon Himself the curse that we deserved (Galatians 3:13). He wore our crown of thorns so that we could wear His crown of righteousness.
And what of the wicked? At the cross, all the violent mouths of humanity were gathered against Him. The mouths of the religious leaders covered their violent envy with pious-sounding accusations. The mouth of Pilate covered his violent cowardice with the language of jurisprudence. The mouths of the soldiers and the crowd hurled violent abuse.
But a day is coming when every mouth will be stopped (Romans 3:19). On that day, all the violence that was covered up will be exposed by the searing light of God's holiness. And all those who are not hidden in Christ will be overwhelmed by the violence of their own sin, which will come back upon their own heads. Their mouths will be silenced forever.
But for the righteous, for those who have fled to Christ for refuge, the blessings that were purchased at the cross will be fully realized. We will stand before the throne, and on our heads will be a crown of life, a crown of glory, a crown of righteousness. Our mouths will be opened, not to cover violence, but to sing the praises of the Lamb who was slain, from whose mouth comes a sharp sword of judgment, and on whose head are many crowns.