Subjects for Reflection

1) All seek blessedness, yet only those who walk toward it by the straight path indicated in God’s word attain it. Among those who do, who will go astray?

2) One must arrange one’s associations with people with discernment, lest one otherwise become infected by the contagion of vices and perish;

3) taking counsel is necessary (Prov. 2:11, 11:14, 12:15). But one must find a counselor who is honest and wise;

4) habit—whether in good or in evil—draws near to the natural movements of life. And it ends in either good or evil;

5) if you have fallen into sin—do not wallow in it and do not stand in it, lest it take hold of you and become insurmountable;

6) be on guard against joking, punning, and still more against mocking anything, lest you turn serious matters into a jest, disparage what is sacred, and place what is forbidden on the level of something indifferent.

On Verse 2:

1) After God, nothing should be more important to us than His word. All the faithful must study it—not the clergy alone;

2) labor over it, and in that labor: first, strive to grasp the true meaning of what you read and ponder—having grasped the meaning, receive it into your heart; having received it into your heart, introduce its rules into the order of your life—whether they concern faith or conduct—and having done this, then carry out what you have appointed at the proper time;

3) a person has many desires: no one will be able to direct them as he should, apart from the guidance of God’s word;

4) it is not enough merely to read something from God’s word in one’s appointed hour—one must meditate on it day and night, so as to advance ceaselessly under its guidance (1 Tim. 6:11);

5) part of the night also must be devoted to pleasing God (Is. 26:9);

6) one must take care not to bind oneself by a self-willed service (Col. 2:23)—concerning which one cannot have assurance that it is pleasing to God.

On Verse 3:

1) Our nature is deficient and, left to itself, bears little fruit. But when it is filled from the divine sources, it becomes greatly active and abundantly fruitful;

2) if you do not bring forth the fruits of repentance, you will be cut down as a fruitless tree (Mt. 3:6, 10, 7:19; Jer. 15:6; Gal. 5:22; Jn. 15:6);

3) every deed must be done in its proper time (Eccl. 3:1 and following);

4) prosperity is the fruit of sincere piety (Rev. 14:13; Prov. 4:8). It is vain to expect it from human wisdom alone, or from one’s own experience, or from having the means to maneuver when wealthy or the connections to turn to when one has patrons… Success may come by chance in such a case as well, but it will not be lasting.

On Verse 4:

1) The happiness of the ungodly is illusory and fleeting (Ps. 36:2, 35–36);

2) both in their habits and in their lot, the devout are commonly very different from the ungodly;

3) no matter how the ungodly may guard themselves against every misfortune, the hour comes—and calamity strikes—unforeseen, inexorable, all-destroying—and blows them away like dust from the land of the living.

On Verse 5:

1) Thus there is a judgment—and all must appear before it (Eccl. 12:14; Acts 17:31; 2 Cor. 5:10);

2) however strong the powers of the ungodly may be in the world, they will not be able to deflect God’s judgment;

3) the distance and difference between the dwellings of the saints and the places of condemnation of sinners is immeasurably great (Mt. 25:32 and following).

On Verse 6:

1) God is all-knowing, fatherly in His providence, and looks with especial care upon the good (Ps. 127; 2 Tim. 2:19). The ungodly He will not receive into His blessedness (Mt. 7:23);

2) one must always attentively examine one’s ways and direct one’s steps, lest one stumble and turn aside onto wrong paths (Mt. 7:13; Eph. 5:12–13);

3) one must pray to God that He not permit our steps to wander (Ps. 16:5);

4) wide is the way of the ungodly—but it leads to ruin (Mt. 7:13).