(9) Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. (10) When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, (11) discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you.
These three verses give the next progressive blessing for the young man pursuing wisdom: discernment for living. Verse 9 starts off with the word ‘then’ indicating that this does not occur until what was previously stated occurs. Only after you gain a fear of the Lord and God grants your desires for more wisdom (v. 5-8), will you develop discernment for living your life. It is important not to reverse the order of the fear of the Lord and wise living. A person may live a good life, but without the fear of the Lord, without salvation, his good decisions will be limited to this world and his eternity will be spent separated from his Creator in the eternal fires of hell. So true is the Scripture “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36) Wisdom must begin with the fear of the Lord.
The parts of this blessing include an understanding of righteousness, justice, equity, viz., every good path. (If you will recall, this is one of the objectives of the book of Proverbs - see 1:2-6). The word ‘path’ is used metaphorically for the course a person chooses for his life. Wisdom provides the insight to choose every good path, thus developing a lifestyle that follows a course, i.e. consistently chooses, of what is morally correct.
The wise father now explains the reason for this understanding. As you put wisdom in your heart (v. 1-4), this knowledge becomes ‘pleasant to your soul.’ Choosing every good path becomes natural and pleasant because you (1) know what is right, (2) understand the advantage of doing right, and (3) discern the consequences of not choosing the right path. This discretion protects you from evil because it keeps you on the good path.
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Related Scriptures: Psalm 32:8; 119:105; Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 7:13-14; John 14:6
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“[Wisdom] saves the good man from the consequences of naiveté.” - William McKane
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