The Internal Atmosphere: Two Ways to Live Text: Proverbs 15:15
Introduction: The Tyranny of Circumstance
We live in a therapeutic age, which is another way of saying we live in a childish age. The modern man is a creature of his circumstances, a victim of his environment, a puppet whose strings are pulled by his feelings, which are in turn determined by whatever is happening to him at the moment. If his stock portfolio is up, he is happy. If his car breaks down, he is miserable. If he gets a promotion, he is content. If he is criticized on social media, he is devastated. His internal world is nothing more than a weather report of his external world. This is the essence of materialism. It is the belief that your material conditions determine your spiritual state. And it is a damnable lie.
This worldview is not just foolish; it is a form of slavery. It hands the keys to your soul over to the most fickle and unreliable things imaginable: fallen people, a groaning creation, and sheer chance. The secular man believes that to have a good life, he must meticulously arrange all his external circumstances into a pleasing pattern. But this is like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall. The world is fallen. Entropy is a law. Your car will break down. Your body will fail. People will disappoint you. And if your joy is dependent on these things staying in line, then your life will be, as the proverb says, evil. It will be a series of wretched, miserable days.
The book of Proverbs, and the whole counsel of God, presents a radical and revolutionary alternative. It teaches that the Christian's internal state is not determined by the external state. Rather, the Christian's internal state determines his experience of the external state. The heart is not a thermometer, passively reflecting the temperature of the room. The heart is a thermostat, actively setting the temperature of the room. This proverb sets before us two paths, two kinds of days, two kinds of lives. And the hinge upon which everything turns is the condition of the heart.
The Text
All the days of the afflicted are evil,
But a good heart has a continual feast.
(Proverbs 15:15 LSB)
The Miserable Life (v. 15a)
The first half of the verse gives us a stark and unflattering portrait of a particular kind of life.
"All the days of the afflicted are evil..." (Proverbs 15:15a)
Now, we must be careful here. The word for "afflicted" can certainly mean one who is oppressed by poverty or injustice. The Scriptures are filled with God's concern for the poor and the oppressed. But the context of the second line shows us that the primary meaning here is not circumstantial, but dispositional. This is the man who is afflicted in spirit. He is the downcast, the sour, the perpetually pessimistic. He is the man whose soul is always in a defensive crouch, waiting for the next bad thing to happen.
For such a man, "all his days are evil." The word "evil" here means wretched, miserable, or calamitous. It does not mean that every day is filled with fresh tragedy, but rather that every day is experienced as a tragedy. Whether the sun is shining or the rain is falling, his internal disposition paints it all gray. A sunny day means a sunburn is coming. A promotion means more responsibility and more chances to fail. A compliment is just flattery designed to manipulate him. He sees the worm in every apple and the cloud in every silver lining.
This is the man who is a slave to his circumstances. Because he has no internal anchor, he is tossed about by every wave. His days are "evil" because his heart is not right. He is afflicted because he has a grievance-based worldview. He believes the world owes him something, that God has short-changed him, and so he interprets every inconvenience as a personal injustice and every hardship as a cosmic betrayal. This is the spirit of grumbling and complaining, the very sin that characterized Israel in the wilderness. Despite being delivered from slavery and fed with manna from heaven, their days were evil because their hearts were evil.
This is not a psychological problem to be medicated; it is a spiritual problem to be repented of. It is the sin of unbelief. It is a refusal to believe that God is good and that He is sovereignly working all things together for the good of those who love Him. The afflicted man looks at his circumstances and calls them evil. The man of faith looks at his God and calls Him good, regardless of the circumstances.
The Festive Life (v. 15b)
In glorious contrast, the second half of the verse shows us the alternative.
"...But a good heart has a continual feast." (Proverbs 15:15b LSB)
The Hebrew for "good heart" is literally "good of heart" (tov-lev). It can be translated as a merry, cheerful, or glad heart. This is not a matter of natural temperament. This is not about being a bubbly extrovert. This is a theological condition. A good heart, in the biblical sense, is a heart that has been made good by the grace of God. It is a heart that is rightly related to its Creator. It is a heart that trusts God's promises, rests in His providence, and delights in His law.
And what is the result of this good heart? A "continual feast." A feast is a time of joy, abundance, fellowship, and celebration. The man with a good heart lives in a state of perpetual celebration. This does not mean he is never sad or that he never suffers. Our Lord was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Paul was beaten, shipwrecked, and imprisoned. But in the midst of it all, he commanded the Philippians to "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice."
The feast is continual because its source is continual. The feast is not the circumstances; the feast is God Himself. The man with a good heart is feasting on the goodness of God, the forgiveness of his sins, the promise of eternal life, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. These things do not change when the car breaks down. The supply of this feast is not threatened by a bad report from the doctor or a downturn in the economy. The source of the joy is transcendent, and therefore the joy itself can be constant.
This is why the Christian can obey the command to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess. 5:18). We are not giving thanks for the cancer, but in the midst of the cancer, we give thanks for a God who is sovereign over the cancer. We are not rejoicing in the persecution, but in the midst of persecution, we rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for the Name. The continual feast is the deep, abiding joy of knowing that our God reigns, that our sins are forgiven, and that our future is as bright as the promises of God. The man with a good heart sees the hand of God in every providence and tastes the grace of God in every bite of bread. His life is a sacrament, a continual feast, because he is seated at a table prepared for him by God Himself.
The Gospel at the Table
So how does one get from the first half of this verse to the second? How does a man with an afflicted spirit, whose days are all evil, become a man with a good heart, who enjoys a continual feast? The world offers its solutions: positive thinking, mindfulness, therapy, medication. These are like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. They deal with symptoms, not the disease.
The disease is a heart that is not right with God. It is a heart alienated from its source of life and joy. The only cure is a heart transplant, which is precisely what the gospel offers. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God promised, "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).
This new heart is a gift, purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. On the cross, Jesus entered into the ultimate affliction. He bore the ultimate evil. He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" so that we who trust in Him would never have to. He was afflicted so that we could be glad. He starved so that we could feast. He endured the evil day so that all our days could be a continual celebration of His grace.
To have a good heart is to have a heart that has been washed in the blood of Christ and is now indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. It is a heart that is no longer trying to justify itself, but rests entirely in the finished work of Jesus. That is the source of the feast. Our feast is not our own righteousness; our feast is Christ's righteousness, given to us as a free gift. Our joy is not in our performance, but in His performance on our behalf.
Therefore, the path to the continual feast is the path of repentance and faith. We must first repent of our grumbling, our unbelief, and our self-pity. We must agree with God that our afflicted spirit is a sin against His goodness. And then, we must look away from ourselves and our miserable circumstances and look to Christ. We must believe that He is who He says He is, and that He has done what He said He has done. When we do that, God gives us a new heart. And with that new heart comes a new appetite, an appetite for the things of God. And He has prepared a table for us, a continual feast of His grace, His forgiveness, and His fellowship, that will last us all the days of our lives, and on into eternity.