Sunday, October 5, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Proverbs 8
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 115
Key Verse
Proverbs 8:19 — “My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.”
Devotional Thought
Wisdom is not hidden in a scholar’s study; she stands in the street. In Proverbs 8, she cries aloud “in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths,” at the city gates where merchants haggle and travelers enter. She calls out to “the simple” and to “fools,” not only to the learned. Her voice is public, urgent, and plain: “Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.” She speaks of “excellent things,” of truth and righteousness, and she promises that those who seek her early will find her. Then the passage lifts our eyes higher: wisdom was with the LORD “in the beginning of his way,” present when He prepared the heavens and set a compass on the face of the deep. She was “daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,” and her delights were with the sons of men. This is no mere abstraction; it is the order by which kings reign and princes decree justice, the skill woven into creation itself.
Psalm 115 answers the proud question of the heathen: “Where is now their God?” The psalmist will not steal glory for Israel: “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.” The nations trust in idols of silver and gold, which have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see. “They that make them are like unto them,” the psalm says—we become what we worship. But “our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” He is help and shield to those who fear Him, mindful of us, blessing small and great.
It is October, and the year is turning toward its close. Leaves fall, light shortens, and the world seems to whisper that nothing lasts. Yet wisdom still stands at the gate of these ordinary days—at the school drop-off, the office desk, the kitchen table, the quiet hour before sleep. She asks us to weigh our currency: silver, gold, rubies, “all the things that may be desired” cannot compare with her. And she tells us where she was when God “appointed the foundations of the earth.” To find her is to find life and “favour of the LORD”; to refuse her is to wrong our own soul. So the psalm and the proverb meet: trust not in the works of men’s hands, but in the living God, whose wisdom was before the hills and who still speaks in the streets.
Reflection
- Where in your daily routines is wisdom crying out to you, and what “choice gold” are you tempted to receive instead?
- Psalm 115 says those who make idols become like them—what are you becoming as you trust what your hands can handle?
Prayer
O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake. Thou art in the heavens and hast done whatsoever thou hast pleased; the idols of our age have mouths but cannot speak. Give us ears to hear Wisdom crying in the streets, and hearts to receive her instruction rather than silver. Teach us to fear thee and to hate evil, to trust thee as our help and shield. Bless us, small and great, and let our lives praise thee from this time forth and for evermore. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 115:1 — “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.”