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Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Mind Of Man And The Mind Of God
Proverbs 19:21
W. Clarkson
Here is a contrast which we do well to consider. Between our human spiritual nature and that of the Divine Spirit it is possible to find resemblances and contrasts. Both are interesting and instructive.

I. THE THOUGHTS OF MAN'S MIND. We know how fugitive these are; how they come and go like the flash of the lightning; and even those which linger are but short-lived, they soon give place to others. Even those thoughts which become "fixed," which settle down into plans and purposes, have but a brief tenure in our brain; they, too, pass away and make room for others in their turn. Our thoughts are:

1. Fluctuating and therefore many. We care for one pleasure, we pursue one object now; but in a few weeks, or even days, we may weary of the one, we may be compelled to turn our attention from the other.

2. Feeble and therefore many. We propose and adopt one method, but it fails; and then we try another, and that fails; then we resort to a third, which also fails. We pass from thought to thought, from plan to plan; our very feebleness accounting for the manifoldness of our devices.

3. False and therefore many. We hold certain theories today; tomorrow they will be exploded, and we shall entertain another; before long that will yield to a third.

4. Sinful and therefore many. Nothing that is wrong can last; it must be dethroned, because it is evil, immoral, guilty.

5. Selfish and therefore many. We are concerning ourselves supremely about our own affairs or those of our family; but these are passing interests, changing with the flitting hours.

II. THE THOUGHTS WHICH ARE IN THE MIND OF GOD. His counsel stands (text). "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11). God's purpose holds from age to age. For:

1. He rules in righteousness. He is governing the world by Divine and unchanging principles. "With him is no variableness," because he ever loves what is righteous and hates what is unholy and impure and unkind. He cannot change his course, because he cannot change his character.

2. He is working out one great beneficent conclusion. He is redeeming a lost world, reconciling it unto himself, uprooting the multiform sources of wrong and wretchedness, establishing the blessed kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of heaven on the earth.

3. He has ample time and power at his command; he has no need to change his plan, to resort to "devices." His eternal thought moves on His undisturbed affairs; and is working out a glorious consummation which nothing shall avail to avert.

4. His perfect wisdom makes quite unnecessary the adoption of any other course than that which he is employing.

(1) Steadfastness is one sign of wisdom. If we see a man or a Church perpetually changing its methods, we may be sure that it is weak.

(2) Let us make God's great and holy purpose ours;

(a) for it is that with which our eternal interest is bound up;

(b) it is certain to be victorious.

3. Let us work on for our Lord and with him, in the calmness that becomes those who are confident of ultimate success. - C.

Biblical Illustrator
There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.
Proverbs 19:21
Devices and counsel
Bp. Sanderson.
It being impossible for us to know God absolutely, the highest degree of knowledge we can hope to attain unto is by way of comparison with ourselves and other creatures. But because we fail in right knowledge of ourselves, we fail also in right knowledge of God. We think God is altogether such an one as ourselves, and yet we do not know what we ourselves are. The subject introduced by this text is, the difference between the devices of a man and the counsel of the Lord.

I. THE DIFFERENCES.

1. In the names. Devices, imaginations, fancies, chimaeras, "castles in the air." The vanity of men's fancies is seen in our ordinary dreams. The name of devices is too high an appellation to bestow upon our vain imaginations, if we knew a worse; so the name of counsel is too low to bestow upon God Almighty's eternal purpose, if we knew a better.

2. In the number. Ours are devices — in the plural; His but one — counsel in the singular. Men's purposes are various and changeable. It is the honour of God that His counsel is but one, and unchangeable. The immutability of His counsel. With God there is no after-counsel, to correct the errors of the former.

3. The efficacy. Seen in their different manner of existing. The devices of man are in his heart, but he cannot make them stand. The counsel of the Lord "shall stand"; nothing can hinder it from having its intended effect. The foundation of God standeth firm.

II. THE REASONS FOR THESE DIFFERENCES.

1. God is the prima causa, the sovereign agent, and first mover in every motion and inclination of the creature. God so orders the vain things of man's devices by His overruling providence as to make them subservient to His everlasting counsels.

2. God's eternity. Man is but of yesterday, and his thoughts casual. As himself is mutable, fickle, and uncertain, so are the things he hath to do with subject to contingencies and variations. But the nature of the Godhead is not subject to mutability. All change is either for the better or for the worse, but God cannot change for the better, because He is already best; nor for the worse, for then He should cease to be best.

3. The wisdom of God. Besides their natural ignorance, through precipitancy, misinformation, prejudice, partial affections, and other causes, they are subject to very many mistakes and aberrations. God alone is wise. He will not deceive, being of infinite goodness; He cannot be deceived by any, being of infinite wisdom. There is no room for second thoughts or after-counsels.

4. The power of God. It is not in the power of man to remove those obstacles which prevent his accomplishing his devices, but the power of God has no bars or bounds other than those of His own will.

III. THE INFERENCES.

1. Learn not to trust too much to our own wit; neither to lean to our own understandings; nor to please ourselves over-much in the vain devices, imaginations, fancies, and dreams of our own hearts.

2. However judgment may begin at the house of God, most certain it is that it shall not end there.

3. This is a comfortable consideration to all those that with patience and cheerfulness suffer for the testimony of God, or a good conscience, and in a good cause, under the insolences of proud and powerful persecutors. God can curb and restrain their malice, when they have devised wicked devices.

4. It is well for us, and our bounden duty, to submit to such sufferings as God shall call us to. Give up thyself faithfully to follow the good counsel of God in His revealed will; and then give up thy desires entirely, to be disposed by His wise counsel in His secret will; and He shall undoubtedly give thee thy heart's desire. If we submit our wills to His, both in doing and suffering, doubtless we cannot finally miscarry. He will consult nothing but for our good; and what He hath consulted must "stand."

(Bp. Sanderson.)

Man's devices and God's counsel
John Foster.
A "man's heart" is a little world, full of scheming and business. Let a man have a full inspection of his heart, its "devices," its schemes, its designs, in their succession. Notice the variety in the kinds of devices, and in men's temper and manner in respect to them. Some men are very communicative of their heart's devices; others are close, reserved, dark. Suppose that all the devices of all men could be brought out, in full manifestation, then you would have human nature displayed in its real quality. What manner of spectacle would it be! Suppose that all these devices could be accomplished. What a world you have then! One man's devices cannot be accomplished compatibly with the accomplishments of another's. The great collective whole of the "devices" of all hearts constitutes the grand complex scheme of the human race for their happiness. To every device of all hearts, God's "counsel," His design, exists parallel, whether in coincidence or in opposition. In other words, respecting the object of every device, He has His design. The text implies a great disconformity — a want of coalescence between the designs of man and God; an estranged spirit of design on the part of man.

I. THE DESIGNS OF MEN'S HEARTS ARE FORMED INDEPENDENTLY OF GOD. In what proportion of men's internal devisings may we conjecture that there is any real acknowledgment of God? Man's devising and prosecuting are in such a spirit as if there were no such thing as Providence to aid or defeat. It is deplorable to see dependent, frail, short-sighted creatures confidently taking on themselves the counsel, execution, and hazard of their schemes for being happy, in the very presence, and as in contempt, of the all-wise and almighty Director.

II. MAN'S HEART ENTERTAINS MANY DEVICES IN CONTRARIETY TO GOD. It can cherish devices which involve a rebellious emotion of displeasure, almost resentment, that there is a Sovereign Lord, whose "counsel shall stand." There is one other Mind, which has the knowledge and command of all things, a fixed design, respecting them all, paramount to all designs and devices. The counsel of the Lord sometimes is, not to prevent man's designs taking effect in the first instance. He can let men bring their iniquitous purposes into effect, and then seize that very effect, reverse its principle of agency, and make it produce immense, unintended good. But in other cases God directly frustrates them. Some devise to oppose religion; others to baffle the practical measures taken for promoting religion; others strive to get rid of the strictness of the laws of God. There are also many projects for temporal gomod, ade in a right spirit, which nevertheless are disappointed and fail, so that we have humbly and complacently to repose in the determination of our God as to what is best.

(John Foster.)

The decrees of God, or impressive impressions
Thomas Adam.
The Westminster divines say, "The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." This embraces three propositions.

I. THERE ARE DECREES OF GOD. God must have formed a plan by which to conduct all His operations. God knows the arrangements upon the accomplishment of which He has determined. The word "decree" is of the same meaning as the word "determine."

II. THE DECREES OF GOD ARE ALL INVOLVED IN ONE ETERNAL PURPOSE. All the future, and everything included in all the future, is at once and for ever before the glance of His eye.

III. THE DECREES OF GOD WERE ALL FORMED ACCORDING TO THE COUNSEL OF HIS WILL. Who can comprehend all that the counsel of His will embraced as to things decreed to exist?

IV. THE DECREES OF GOD TAKE EFFECT IN EVERYTHING THAT COMES TO PASS. This has its illustration in —

1. God's works of creation.

2. God's works of providence.

3. God's works of grace.Objections to this explanation of the decrees of God may be taken.

(1)Some say that this doctrine annihilates man's responsibility.

(2)Some say, "Then if we are to be saved, we shall be saved; and if to be lost, lost."But this is a gross perversion of gospel truth. The means, through the appointed use of which eternal life may be obtained, should be diligently and unweariedly cultivated.

(Thomas Adam.)

The devices of man and the counsel of God
T. Horton, D. D.
Two parts in this text — the proposition and the qualification.

I. THE PROPOSITION.

1. The property mentioned. "Many devices"; by which we may understand "conceits" or "contrivances." Man by nature is very apt and prone to these, whether in matter of apprehension or resolution. Reference here is specially to vain and foolish, or wicked and sinful, devices, which man easily frames, since he voluntarily and wilfully forsook the counsel of God. The variety of man's devices from the impetuousness and unsatiableness which is commonly in men's desires; from the levity and inconstancy which is upon men's souls; from a variety of lusts, and corrupt and inordinate principles, with which the heart of man is cumbered.

2. The subject of this property, man, and precisely, the heart of man. Devices seem to belong to the head rather than to the heart. The heart is here put for the whole mind and soul. The devices are in the heart originally, as the spring and fountain of all. Men's opinions and conceits take their rise first from their heart.

II. THE QUALIFICATION.

1. The simple assertion. The counsel of God may be the Word and truth of God, or the purpose and decree of God.

2. The additional opposition or correction of it. "Nevertheless." Here is the consistence of God's counsels with man's. Though man has his devices, God will have His. Because man has his devices, therefore God the Father has His. His counsel is even promoted by man's devices.

(T. Horton, D. D.)

Man's devices and God's overrulings
I. MEN PROJECTING. They keep their designs to themselves, but they cannot hide them from God. There are devices against God's counsels, without His counsels, and unlike His counsels. Men are wavering in their devices, and often absurd and unjust; but God's counsels are wise and holy, steady and uniform.

II. GOD OVERRULING. His counsel often breaks men's measures, and baffles their devices; but their devices cannot in the least alter His counsel, nor disturb the proceedings of it, nor put Him upon new counsels. What a check does this put on designing men, who think they can outwit all mankind! There is a.God in heaven who laughs at them! (Psalm 2:4).

( Matthew Henry.)

Human devices
The Evangelist.
I. THE DEVICES OF MEN'S HEARTS. The heart of man is a little world of scheming, and planning, and business. We are always devising.

II. THE VANITY OF THESE DEVICES. Our safety consists in their being kept in. They could not be suffered to come forth but at the expense of the ruin of the world. They cannot all be accomplished, because they oppose each other.

III. THE COUNSEL OF THE LORD OVERRULING THESE DEVICES. Amidst all these various devices, there is one mighty will going on. All human devices serve God's counsel. Therefore we should seek to have our devices in principle compatible with God's counsel.

(The Evangelist.)

The mind of man and the mind of God
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. The mind of man has MANY DEVICES; the mind of God has but ONE COUNSEL.

II. The mind of man is SUBORDINATE, the mind of God SUPREME.

1. This is a fact well attested by history.

2. This is a fact that reveals the greatness of God.

III. The mind of man is CHANGEABLE, the mind of God UNALTERABLE. Lessons:

1. The inevitable fall of all that is opposed to the will of God.

2. The inevitable fulfilment of all God's promises.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

People
Isaiah, Solomon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Counsel, Designs, Devices, Established, Full, Heart, Lord's, Man's, Mind, Nevertheless, Plans, Prevail, Prevails, Purpose, Purposes, Stand, Standeth, Thoughts, Unchanging
Outline
1. Life and Conduct

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Proverbs 19:21

     1115   God, purpose of
     1160   God, unchangeable
     1175   God, will of
     5014   heart, human
     5038   mind, the human
     5326   government
     5917   plans
     6182   ignorance, human situation
     6186   evil scheming
     6708   predestination

Library
How the Slothful and the Hasty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 16.) Differently to be admonished are the slothful and the hasty. For the former are to be persuaded not to lose, by putting it off, the good they have to do; but the latter are to be admonished lest, while they forestall the time of good deeds by inconsiderate haste, they change their meritorious character. To the slothful therefore it is to be intimated, that often, when we will not do at the right time what we can, before long, when we will, we cannot. For the very indolence of …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

How the Impatient and the Patient are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 10.) Differently to be admonished are the impatient and the patient. For the impatient are to be told that, while they neglect to bridle their spirit, they are hurried through many steep places of iniquity which they seek not after, inasmuch as fury drives the mind whither desire draws it not, and, when perturbed, it does, not knowing, what it afterwards grieves for when it knows. The impatient are also to be told that, when carried headlong by the impulse of emotion, they act in some …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Second Journey through Galilee - the Healing of the Leper.
A DAY and an evening such as of that Sabbath of healing in Capernaum must, with reverence be it written, have been followed by what opens the next section. [2299] To the thoughtful observer there is such unbroken harmony in the Life of Jesus, such accord of the inward and outward, as to carry instinctive conviction of the truth of its record. It was, so to speak, an inward necessity that the God-Man, when brought into contact with disease and misery, whether from physical or supernatural causes, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Kingdom of God Conceived as the Inheritance of the Poor.
These maxims, good for a country where life is nourished by the air and the light, and this delicate communism of a band of children of God reposing in confidence on the bosom of their Father, might suit a simple sect constantly persuaded that its Utopia was about to be realized. But it is clear that they could not satisfy the whole of society. Jesus understood very soon, in fact, that the official world of his time would by no means adopt his kingdom. He took his resolution with extreme boldness. …
Ernest Renan—The Life of Jesus

"Boast not Thyself of to Morrow, for Thou Knowest not what a Day May Bring Forth. "
Prov. xxvii. 1.--"Boast not thyself of to morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." As man is naturally given to boasting and gloriation in something (for the heart cannot want some object to rest upon and take complacency in, it is framed with such a capacity of employing other things), so there is a strong inclination in man towards the time to come, he hath an immortal appetite, and an appetite of immortality; and therefore his desires usually stretch farther than the present …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Wrath of God
What does every sin deserve? God's wrath and curse, both in this life, and in that which is to come. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.' Matt 25: 41. Man having sinned, is like a favourite turned out of the king's favour, and deserves the wrath and curse of God. He deserves God's curse. Gal 3: 10. As when Christ cursed the fig-tree, it withered; so, when God curses any, he withers in his soul. Matt 21: 19. God's curse blasts wherever it comes. He deserves also God's wrath, which is …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Unity of God
Q-5: ARE THERE MORE GODS THAN ONE? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. That there is a God has been proved; and those that will not believe the verity of his essence, shall feel the severity of his wrath. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' Deut 6:6. He is the only God.' Deut 4:49. Know therefore this day, and consider it in thy heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, there is none else.' A just God and a Saviour; there is none beside …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Man's Misery by the Fall
Q-19: WHAT IS THE MISERY OF THAT ESTATE WHEREINTO MAN FELL? A: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever. 'And were by nature children of wrath.' Eph 2:2. Adam left an unhappy portion to his posterity, Sin and Misery. Having considered the first of these, original sin, we shall now advert to the misery of that state. In the first, we have seen mankind offending; …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Ninth Commandment
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.' Exod 20: 16. THE tongue which at first was made to be an organ of God's praise, is now become an instrument of unrighteousness. This commandment binds the tongue to its good behaviour. God has set two natural fences to keep in the tongue, the teeth and lips; and this commandment is a third fence set about it, that it should not break forth into evil. It has a prohibitory and a mandatory part: the first is set down in plain words, the other …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Christian Meekness
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth Matthew 5:5 We are now got to the third step leading in the way to blessedness, Christian meekness. Blessed are the meek'. See how the Spirit of God adorns the hidden man of the heart, with multiplicity of graces! The workmanship of the Holy Ghost is not only curious, but various. It makes the heart meek, pure, peaceable etc. The graces therefore are compared to needlework, which is different and various in its flowers and colours (Psalm 45:14). …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Third Commandment
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' Exod 20: 7. This commandment has two parts: 1. A negative expressed, that we must not take God's name in vain; that is, cast any reflections and dishonour on his name. 2. An affirmative implied. That we should take care to reverence and honour his name. Of this latter I shall speak more fully, under the first petition in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be thy name.' I shall …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Proverbs
Many specimens of the so-called Wisdom Literature are preserved for us in the book of Proverbs, for its contents are by no means confined to what we call proverbs. The first nine chapters constitute a continuous discourse, almost in the manner of a sermon; and of the last two chapters, ch. xxx. is largely made up of enigmas, and xxxi. is in part a description of the good housewife. All, however, are rightly subsumed under the idea of wisdom, which to the Hebrew had always moral relations. The Hebrew …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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