Proverbs 3:3

“Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” (NASB)

STRONGS HEBREW/GREEK ORIGINS

“Do not let kindness (checed: mercy, lovingkindness, goodness) and truth ('emeth: stability, continuance, faithfulness, reliableness of testimony, of judgment and of divine instruction) leave (`azab: forsake, depart from) you; bind (qashar: conspire, league together, tie) them around your neck, write (kathab: record, inscribe, engrave) them on the tablet of your heart (leb: mind, understanding, inner man, will, moral character, conscience, seat of emotions and passions).”

SUMMARY

Don’t let kindness, mercy, goodness, truth, faithfulness and reliableness of divine instruction depart from you. Time them tightly around you neck, engrave them on the tablet of your inner man, where the seat of your emotions, character and passions reside.

MEDITATION

The Scriptures speak a lot about the heart of a man. I think, perhaps, we see the heart as some nebulous inner place that’s quite mysterious. The NT often refers to the heart as “cardia” – an innermost place where all that we are is confined- a place where the actions of a man originate. Oddly though, it is often directly related to the thoughts and mindsets of man. With this in mind, we can better understand that joining ourselves with the biblical definition of kindness and truth enables us to be a student of Wisdom (as Proverbs instructs us). Today, visualize the tablets, or panels if you will, of your heart. What is written upon them? What moves you? What guides your every decision and thought pattern? What is the origin of your life’s motivation? Today, may we be found clinging ever so tightly to these things of Proverbs 3:3. Let Wisdom guide you.