Proverbs to Live By – Keep Your Heart With Diligence

“Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23 (KJV).

I chose to use the King James Version of Proverbs 4:23, for that is the version from which I memorized the verse when I was quite young.  The New English version renders it “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”  Eugene H. Peterson’s The Message Bible states: “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts.”  Heart in Proverbs (and, indeed, throughout the Bible) refers to the center of one’s inner life.  “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7, KJV). Jeremiah wrote:  “the heart is deceitful above all things” (17:9), but he also said, “And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:  for they shall return unto me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).  And in the Beatitudes, Jesus taught us, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).  Paul knew that with the heart a person came to salvation: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10, KJV).  It is no wonder, then, that the writer of Proverbs urged that we keep the heart with all vigilance (or diligence), for from it spring the issues of life, among which are the conviction to be saved from sin, the faith to turn to Jesus for forgiveness and salvation, and the knowledge to listen to and follow God in conduct of life.  Ezekiel substantiated the result of repentance and turning to God, saying He would : “make you a new heart and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 18:31).

We are to keep our heart “with all vigilance”—or “with all diligence.”  To keep vigil is to set a guard, to keep watch, to be awake and aware.  It was a common practice in biblical times to have a watchtower at city gates to which guards were assigned to keep watch over the city and to allow only those with authentic passes to enter.  Likewise, a vigil was set over fields to keep marauders from the harvest.  We’re familiar in our day with identification badges, pass codes, and even guards at places that faithfully check credentials.  Diligence is akin to vigilance, with the added idea of being persistent, steady and exerting effort.  The New International Version translates Proverbs 4:23:  “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  If we allow the wellspring of our being to be polluted, the contamination will spread and the appetites we thought were under control will produce wrong ways of thinking and acting.  In his comments on Proverbs 4:23, Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe notes:  “The Bible warns us to avoid a double heart (Psalm 12:2), a hard heart (Proverbs 28:14), a proud heart (Proverbs 21:4), an unbelieving heart (Hebrews 3:12), a cold heart (Matthew 24:12), and an unclean heart (Psalm 51:10).  And this prayer comes from Psalm 139:23: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” [The Wiersbe Bible Commentary, OT. Colorado Springs: Cook, 2007, p. 1065].  

J. Edwin Orr used the words form Psalm 139:23 as the basis of his hymn with these words which are a prayer:  “Search me, O God, and know my heart today;/Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray./See if there be some wicked way in me;/Cleanse me from ev’ry sin and set me free.”  As we set a vigil over our heart, it would be wise to remember Orr’s words and the tune by Edward J. Hopkins that accompanies the words and sing them daily as our sincere prayer.