The book of Psalms is intended to be a collection of spiritual songs, usually meant for praising and thanking God for his deliverance and grace. Some are expressed with a heavy heart longing for the Lord’s deliverance or to express one’s repentance, while others are expressed with a heart of joy. In a modern context, however, writers of songs usually carry our thoughts away to visions of romance rather than to serious matters like judgment or the perils of war. Nevertheless, in ancient Israel songs of note were composed to express one’s exhilaration over victory in battle. In doing so they expressed one’s praise and thanksgiving to the hero, who may be a brave man in battle (1Samuel 18:6-7) or to God, himself, for bringing his people to victory over a national enemy (Exodus 15:1-3). Therefore, when we consider the Teacher’s use of the song in Ecclesiastes 7:5, we need to keep this in mind. He isn’t speaking of romance or a silly barroom ditty, but praising a man for his great accomplishments.
The context of Ecclesiastes 7:5 is a man’s good name (verse-1), so the rebuke was due him for wrongdoing, which would tarnish his good name, if the circumstances of his deed had become known. However, there are also those who would praise this same person for the same deed, and this is the intended meaning of the song (Ecclesiastes 7:5). In other words, the Teacher is telling his reader about a wise man, who uses his wisdom for evil purposes, and in such circumstances, it is much better to hear the rebuke of another wise person over the song or the praise of a fool. The praise of the foolish is for the moment, and it accomplishes very little. It is like the popping of thorn bushes in an autumn fire.[1] While the heat of the fire is intense, it lasts such a short while that the pot is never brought to a boil (Ecclesiastes 7:6). In other words, the praise of fools will never give the man the good name (Ecclesiastes 7:1) he desires.
What the man should have done was labor in his own name rather than joining his name with that of another (Proverbs 5:15-18; Ecclesiastes 7:1). Nevertheless, by entering into a relationship with fools, he has become ravaged or enslaved by the enticements of deceivers (Proverbs 5:20, 22). According to the Teacher, when this occurs, a wise man is made mad through unjust gain. That is, he doesn’t act according to his own heart, but, instead according to the heart of another.
Earlier in this study, we discovered that wisdom has her own house and folly or the fool has hers (Proverbs 9:1, 13-14). Moreover, according to the Teacher, wisdom dwells in the house of mourning, or the house of serious contemplation (Ecclesiastes 7:4a). Such a man is wise, because he will accept correction and rebuke, but a fool will despise instruction (Ecclesiastes 7:5; cp. Proverbs 9:8;12:15). In the context of our present study, a gift, or more accurately a bribe, given to a wise man corrupts his heart. The gift (the bribe), taken for good, deceives the wise, whose own heart is now set aside or worse, destroyed, thus, making him mad or causing him to act in ways opposed to what he knows is right (Ecclesiastes 7:7). The song of the fool calls to the simpleminded, inviting him to come in to her and partake of her feasts, and to the wise she sings: “Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant…” (Proverbs 9:13-18). Nevertheless, those who are taken in by her become enslaved to the ways of death, and, unless repentance is made, they will perish in the addiction to their folly (Proverbs 5:23; 9:18).
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[1] There is a word play in the text concerning the Hebrew word sir (H5518). The same word used for thorns (sirim – plural) is used for pot (sir – singular). Thus, “the crackling of sirim under a sir (Ecclesiastes 7:6).
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