Trinity Sunday, Year C. Series

Proverbs 8:1-4, Proverbs 8:22-31, Psalm 8:1-9, Romans 5:1-5, John 16:12-15.

A). A TRINITARIAN DELIGHT IN CREATION.

Proverbs 8:1-4; Proverbs 8:22-31.

Proverbs 8:1-4 alerts us to the call of Wisdom: a call which is heard in the highways and byways of life, in the marketplaces and from the tops of the roof. Dame Folly, by way of contrast, lurks around the corner (Proverbs 7:12), seeking whom she may devour (Proverbs 7:25-27). No wonder, then, that the book of Proverbs tells us that “Wisdom is the principal thing,” and instructs us to “get wisdom” (Proverbs 4:7).

In this chapter, Wisdom speaks of herself as having been with the LORD before the beginning of Creation (Proverbs 8:22-23). This elaborates the thought of Proverbs 3:19-20 - and anticipates John 1:1-4. It is clear in both passages that Wisdom/Word was both present and active with God at Creation.

Lady Wisdom (as I like to call her) looks back to the early days of Creation – and before all these, she says, “I was brought forth” (Proverbs 8:24-26). The element of begotten-ness reminds us of the beginning of the Christ hymn (Colossians 1:15-17) – and Wisdom, likewise, has the status of the firstborn, and all that that implies. In the New Testament it is Jesus who is recognized as the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

Wisdom “was there” (Proverbs 8:27-29) at the marking out of the foundations of Creation, at the separating of the waters, and at the setting of the limits of the sea (cf. Genesis 1:6-10). Here we see this personification of Wisdom as contemporary with God. We also see Wisdom in community with God as architect, builder, and ruler.

Depending how the opening phrase of Proverbs 8:30 is translated, Wisdom was there either as a fellow-worker or as playful companion. She was either the subject of His delight, or filled with delight. Wisdom’s joy in the presence of the LORD is always uninhibited.

Like the LORD, Wisdom’s joy is in the whole world: and especially in the human race (Proverbs 8:31). This causes us to exclaim with the Psalmist: ‘What is man, that he remembered is by thee? Or what the son of man, that thou so kind to him should be?’ (Psalm 8:4).

Of Jesus it was said that ‘the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding…’ (Isaiah 11:2). Jesus grew in wisdom (Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52), taught with wisdom (Matthew 13:54), and worked through wisdom (Mark 6:2). Jesus manfully rose to the defense of the metaphor which I have called Lady Wisdom (Luke 7:35) - which was, in a sense, another way of defending Himself.

It was the wisdom of God that set the Cross at the centre of the plan of salvation. This was foolishness to the world, but not to those who are being saved (1 Corinthians 1:21). The world may think us strange to embrace this strange teaching – but it is our wisdom to do so.

B). A PRAYER OF PRAISE.

Psalm 8:1-9.

This is the only praise Psalm which is addressed entirely to the LORD. No call to worship like Psalm 95:1, ‘O come let us sing unto the LORD’. No asides to the congregation like Psalm 107:2, ‘Let the redeemed of the LORD say so’.

Psalm 8:1. The vocative brings us straight into the presence of the LORD (Yahweh): “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” That presence is maintained throughout the meditation, right down to the repetition of the same line in the final verse (Psalm 8:9). This brackets the whole Psalm with the awareness of the One to whom our address is made. Thus we may ‘boldly approach’ (cf. Hebrews 4:16) the LORD, the Sovereign, the maker of heaven and earth.

Although bold, the very use of the vocative suggests a sense of awe in this approach to the LORD. Yet it is not cold fear, but an approach to One who we can call “our” Adonai, “our” sovereign - ultimately “our” Father! The approach celebrates the excellence, the magnificence of God’s great name “in all the earth!” and reminds us how He has set His “glory”, his ‘weight’, as it were, “above the heavens.”

Psalm 8:2. Jesus quoted “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings” as a challenge to ‘the chief priests and scribes’, who wanted to silence the children from singing ‘Hosanna to the son of David’ (Matthew 21:15-16). The babbling of “babes and sucklings” is better than the bitterness of the unbelief of ‘religious’ people! The “babes and sucklings” represent the ‘babes in Christ’, new disciples (Luke 10:21; Mark 10:15; John 3:3), or maybe even all disciples (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Such babbling “stills the enemy and the avenger”. One faltering lisping prayer from faith-filled trusting lips has more value, more weight before God than all the litanies of unbelief. The Psalm’s “thou hast ordained strength” becomes ‘thou hast ordained praise’ in Matthew 21:16. I would suggest that that is where our ‘strength’ lies - in ‘praise’!