For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee they shall be together fitted on thy lips.
This line belongs to the "words of the wise" that begin in verse 17. It gives a reason for listening, and raises a question: why does hearing alone change so little, and what has to happen between the ear and the mouth?
Ear and Heart Together
The call in verse 17 asks for more than attention. One commentator puts the demand on the heart as much as on the ear, and calls doubting it a sad self-sufficiency:
To give heed to the words of the wise is itself a wise thing — to apply the heart as well as the ear to those who know better than ourselves. How sad is the self-sufficiency that doubts it!
Kept Within Before It Reaches the Lips
The verse puts the two halves in an order: kept within, then ready on the lips. Edward Dennett makes that order a rule. It applies to anyone who wants to help others with Scripture:
His word is to "dwell in you richly in all wisdom." The word must dwell in me before it can come out in teaching others… You see, the words must be "kept within" first of all. Only afterwards are they ready on the lips. I must first make the word my own, so that it comes out from within. Then it flows out in teaching and warning others.
Another writer notes that few take this up, and that hearing does not stay in the ear.
A few will respond to this, but many will not, no matter how pleasant the result of doing so may be (v. 18). When the ear hears (v. 17), the lips will soon be affected too.
A Pleasure That Does Not Go Stale
"Pleasant" is the word the verse itself uses. Kelly weighs that pleasure against everything else a person might store up. And the gain does not stay private:
These words, if kept within, give satisfaction and pleasure. Everything else grows tiresome and distasteful, if not shameful. Nor is that all. They feed our own growth. They also help others, by the help they give and the confidence they inspire. So they become "together fitted to your lips."
(Kelly follows an older rendering here; the ESV reads, "if all of them are ready on your lips.")
Speaking Beyond What You Hold
If the words must be within before they are on the lips, the reverse carries a real danger. J. N. Darby warns about using Scripture that has never gone in:
There is nothing more dangerous than to use the word when it has not touched my conscience. If I go beyond what I have from God, I put myself into Satan's hands. That means going beyond what my soul actually holds, and then using it in ministry or in private… To talk with other believers about the things of God, beyond what I hold in communion with Him, is most harmful. I know of nothing that separates from God more than truth spoken out of communion with God; there is unusual danger in it.
What the Storing Is For
The next verse states the goal, and Kelly refuses to let it be read as a general maxim. The words were made known so that confidence would rest somewhere, and the address is pointed:
But there is a better effect still, "that your trust may be in the LORD." That is why such words are made known. And who else could match them? And what good do we have that we did not receive? We do well to mark what each of us owes: "today, even to you."
A Warning in Solomon's Own Life
The man who recorded these words is himself a case study. Arno Gaebelein sees this section as directed to Solomon personally, and traces how it ended:
Beginning with verse 18 we find another call to hear, and to apply the heart to His knowledge… This is the Lord's personal message to Solomon. He obeyed it for many years, and in the end disobeyed it.
Summary
- Hear inward. Apply the heart along with the ear. Doubting that we need those who know better is only self-sufficiency.
- Hide it. The order in the verse is fixed: kept within first, then ready on the lips. The word must live in you before it can come out in teaching anyone.
- Hold it. What you store inside gives lasting satisfaction, while everything else grows tiresome. It also feeds your own growth and the help you give others.
- Speak carefully. Using Scripture that has never touched your own conscience is dangerous. Truth spoken out of communion with God separates you from Him.
- Trust Him. God made these words known so that your trust would rest in Him. Solomon heeded that message for years, and then abandoned it.