1. My son, if you receive my words,

And treasure my commands within you,

2      So that you incline your ear to wisdom,

And apply your heart to understanding;

3      Yes, if you cry out for discernment,

And lift up your voice for understanding,

4      If you seek her as silver,

And search for her as for hidden treasures;

5      Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,

And find the knowledge of God.

6      For the Lord gives wisdom;

From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

7      He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;

He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;

8      He guards the paths of justice,

And preserves the way of His saints.

9      Then you will understand righteousness and justice,

Equity and every good path.

10     for wisdom will come into your heart,

        and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

I live in the gold rich part of Arizona.  When hiking near old gold mines you can often find people, using high-tech metal detectors, searching for gold nuggets buried near the surface.  I knew a person that spent the week preparing and planning and nearly every weekend searching.  He had a decent nugget collection as a result of his efforts.  His treasure was gold, he valued that above all else.

The wisest person ever born, King Solomon (1 Kings 4:30), had asked God for wisdom rather than riches.   He knew that wisdom should be valued above all else.  In return the Lord granted him vast wisdom and much more.  Solomon did not value gold, but the reverence and knowledge of God.

The Lord gives wisdom to those who search thoughtfully and meticulously, like when searching for a hidden treasure, just like the gold hunters methodically combing the hills.  The gold hunters are educated on where to look, are prepared with the proper equipment, and spend focused, dedicated time searching.  It is their passion. 

We are instructed to treasure wisdom like fine treasure, infinitely more valuable than gold.  Solomon, via the Holy Spirit, gives us some information on how:

  1. Inclining, or making our ears listen – searching out the word diligently.
  2. Applying our hearts – valuing wisdom, putting it in a place that captivates our hearts.
  3. Crying out for discernment – passionately searching like a lost child for their mother.  We cry out, lifting up our voices, for wisdom.  It’s our only care and intent. 
  4. Searching as for a hidden treasure.  Wisdom can be found if we comb the hills for it relentlessly.  It becomes our focus, our thought life.  What you spend your time thinking about is what you care about.

The result of these actions is Wisdom, given to us by the Lord.  From His mouth will come knowledge and understanding.  We will understand the fear of the Lord, and gleefully find knowledge of God.  He stores it up for the seeker and gives us a shield for life.  We don’t fear the unknown, we have the His shield in front of us.  His knowledge is sweet to our soul.