Proverbs 31, verses 28 to 31, call her blessed

 

Proverbs 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.

To call someone blessed here is synonymous with praising them as you can see by the context and the parallel phrasing. Blessed also carries with it from its very first mention God’s gift of being fruitful and multiplying as Genesis reveals.

Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

To be sanctified, or set apart for God’s purpose;

Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

For others to be blessed as well through the person who is blessed;

Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

And, among other things, as here, to praise and honour someone;

Daniel 4:34b …and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:

The church’s children are those who have been saved through her ministry.

1Corinthians 4:15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

And Christ is her husband who will also praise her if she be found doing His will as in the first part of this verse;

Matthew 25:21a His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant:

Perhaps the rising up refers to the translation of the church when all of the church, living and dead, are removed to heaven for the marriage supper of the Lamb before Christ returns with her to take over the world.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Revelation 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Revelation 19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

There is something to rejoice about.

Proverbs 31:29 Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. 30 Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. 31 Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Taking these last three verses of Proverbs we can easily see the literal statements in favor of the virtuous woman, the excellent wife. As for the church, the meaning is clear. What it means to fear the Lord has been talked about several times in the past time of this study. Here, the woman that fears the Lord shall be praised.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 2:5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

This is the kind of reverence due God.

Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

2Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Ephesians 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Her own works will praise her in the gates, which represents judgment. So ends my commentary on Proverbs this go around. I hope you’ll write a commentary on a book of the Bible and post your thoughts and prayers about it. I want to thank the Holy Spirit from whom I prayerfully received a lot of ideas and the hunger to read and study the Bible and write about it, each day guiding me softly, Dr. Ruckman, Brother Donovan, Matthew Henry, John Gill and many others but last and not least my wife, Beth, who reads her Bible every morning to a great extent and gave me some terrific ideas for my commentary, who really got me thinking about the church in this last part of Proverbs most importantly.