The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is insight.
– Proverbs 9:10
Now, this is how we started in Proverbs 1:7, realizing that wisdom begins with worship, that worship fear of God, reverence for God, and living in awe of God with a God-centered perspective on all of life is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 is saying the same thing again.
Proverbs 9:10 teaches us that wisdom flows from worship.
So a reminder to us in our lives, wisdom flows from worship. Then I just love the second part of this verse that says, “The knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” Oh, what a beautiful phrase for those who want insight to be able to have a proper perspective on our lives and proper understanding of different circumstances in our lives, different decisions we make in our lives, and just to see rightly in the world around us.
Where does that come from? It comes from knowledge of the Holy One. It comes from knowledge of God, knowing God. I think about Jeremiah 9:23 and 24, and specifically its relationship to wisdom. Listen to these words. Jeremiah 9:23, “Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom like the wisdom he thinks he has. Let not the mighty man boast in his might like the might he thinks he has. Let not the rich man boast in his riches. But let him who boasts, boasts in this, that he understands and knows me.”
Proverbs 9:10 teaches us that knowing God is the most important thing in this world.
That he understands and knows me. That’s Proverbs 9:10. “The knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” So let’s live today like this is the one thing we want to boast in, knowing God, and as we know Him, to realize that flowing from the knowledge of Him and the fear of Him is insight and wisdom that we all need in this world.
Oh God, we pray that you would help us today to know you more, to fear you more, and I pray for that in my life. I pray that over every single person listening to this right now. Help us today to know and fear you more than we knew and feared you yesterday, flowing from increasing knowledge of you and increasing fear of you. We pray for increasing wisdom and insight into what you’re doing in our lives, how you’re at work in our lives, and the circumstances we’re walking through and all that we see in the world around us. God, help us to see wisely with clear insight that flows from knowing and worshiping you.
Prayer for the Lobi People
And oh God, if this is true, which we know it is, we believe it is, then people can’t have this kind of wisdom apart from knowledge of you, and they can’t know you unless your Word is made known to them, unless Jesus is made known to them as the way to know you. God, we pray for the sake of the nations, for the sake of unreached people around the world, including the Lobi people of Burkina Faso. Lord, we pray you to help us as your Church to see clearly their need for the gospel and to spend our lives and our resources, even right now, our time as we pray.
God, help us to live so that they might know you so that other people around us might know you. And so that people around the world who’ve never even heard and don’t have access to your Word and the good news of the gospel, God, we pray you help us to live so that they might know you, the Holy One, and that they might fear you, revere you, enjoy you, and exalt you according to the life you designed and desire for them to live in Jesus. Oh God, we pray all this according to your Word in Proverbs 9:10. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
