5/1/2024
Elijah McSwain, Sr.
Proverbs 15:3 NKJV — The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Many people are of the persuasion that God is blind to the events that unfold in the day-to-day affairs of life. The basis of such a position rest on the lack of comprehension that God is aware of everything that persists in the universe. Millions of people feel as though God is not attentive to what is happening in the world based on the mass corruption, violence, evil, hatred, disorder, and upheaval that is presence across the globe.
Other individuals that hold a different view from the so called “absence of God” in the world affirm that the Lord is actively present and involved in human affairs despite every form of vile activity in the cosmos. God is very observant in our human affairs based on His perception of our human activity, conduct, thinking capacity, and our speech. Everything that humanity does is under the surveillance of the all-seeing and all-knowing God of heaven and earth. As we embark upon the idea of the watchful eyes of the Lord, let us take note of the watchfulness of God.
The Eyes of the Lord
In the beginning of verse three, King Solomon inscribed that the eyes of the Lord are in every place. The fact that the Lord sees all speaks to His omniscience.
God has unlimited awareness as He perceives all things in the universe.
God has all-seeing eyes that survey every detail of every individual's life that has ever lived upon the face of the earth or will ever live upon the face of the earth. John Gill stressed that the eyes of the Lord are in every place is an expressive description of His omniscience. The Lord has perfect knowledge as well as full, clear, and distinct sight of all creatures and things; so that nothing is hid from Him, but all things are open to Him. 1 There is nothing that is concealed from the eyesight of the Lord. Psalm 33:13-15 (NKJV) is informative that “the LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.” The psalmist makes it clear that God is constantly taking note of what we do, and this includes the things that we say.
God takes into consideration all of our deeds whether good or bad. He sees what we think nobody else sees. His penetrating eyes capture what is done in the dark and what is done in the light. There is no human activity that goes unnoticed.
In every place God sees. In every continent God sees. In every country God sees. In every state God sees. In every metropolitan area God sees. In every city God sees. In every town God sees. In every village God sees.
Everything is captured by His ever-watching eyes. When we go to sleep to rest our eyes, God is still on full alert as He neither sleeps nor slumbers (cf. Psalm 121:4). He takes into account every moment of our lives whether we are awake or asleep. Proverbs 5:21 (NKJV) further helps us to understand the watchfulness of the Lord. “For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his paths.” Everything that we partake in on an individual basis God knows and God sees the path that we choose to walk on, the pathway of righteousness or the pathway of unrighteousness.
There is nothing that escapes His line of sight.
Jeremiah 23:24 (NKJV) states “can anyone hide himself in secret places, so I shall not see him?” says the LORD; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.” Psalm 139:7-12 (ESV) helps us to understand this truth by its written declaration “where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You.”
What is impenetrable before the eyes of mankind does not hinder the penetrable sight of God.
Every inch of creation belongs to God and there is no place that is restricted to His vision. There are many places that we are unauthorized to see with our eyes as we are forbidden to enter the premise of certain locations. However, God has authorization to behold every corner, every crevice, and every measurable or immeasurable space of the macrocosm. David affirmed in Psalm 24:1 (NKJV) "the earth is the LORD’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein."
John Calvin commented that “the psalmist pronounces God to be the King of the whole world, to let all men know that, even by the law of nature, they are bound to Him.” 2
As God oversees the affairs of the world through His government of it, mankind is under the surveillance of the Lord in every respect of life in action, word, thought, motive and intent. Hebrews 4:13 (NKJV) makes this parallelism clear by recording “and there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” All of our sinful impulses, harsh words, rationale, hidden thoughts, private conversations, public conversations, and agendas are ever open before the Lord and accountability must be given for every act performed and every nonverbal as well as verbal communication spoken.
“Each individual is judged not only by the Word of God (cf. John 12:48), but by God Himself. We are accountable to the living, written Word (cf. John 6:63, 68; Acts 7:38) and to the living God who is its Author.” 3
The Surveillance of the Lord
In the final portion of verse three, Solomon wrote that the Lord keeps watch on the evil and the good. God keeps a close watch on the involvement of mankind individually and collectively under two categories, good and evil. Anything that a person does in his or her body will either be labeled as good or bad in the eyesight of the Lord. There is no middle ground for our human activity. There is no such thing as almost good or almost bad. There is no straddling the fence. Either we are deemed righteous or unrighteous in our conduct and speech.
God is very vigilant and observant in His awareness of the immorality that is happening within the world. As aforementioned in the opening of this discussion, many people will disagree that the Lord sees all the evil in the world because evil is still actively present. Since God is deemed as good, all-powerful, all-knowing, and His presence is everywhere, they pose the question, how can the elements of evil exist in light of the nature of God? Scholars refer to this as theodicy.
Theodicy, by many people is considered to be a branch of philosophy that involves the problematic issue and existence of evil in view of the goodness and existence of God. Since God is known as being kind, good, loving, just and holy, the question arises, how does wickedness, hatred, violence, injustice, marginalization, and suffering exist?
This frame of thought is kind of indicative to what the Prophet Habakkuk wrote in Habakkuk 1:12-13 (ESV), “are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?” He inquired about the idleness of God to act on behalf of those oppressed by wicked men.
Other groups and individuals fall under a different persuasion about God and the universe called deism. Deism is a belief system that God is responsible for creating the known universe but does not intervene or interact with the universe after creating it. The Lord is depicted as being indifferent to what He created. The idea centered around such thinking supposes that the universe is self-sufficient and runs own its own. Therefore, theoretically suggesting that God does not keep watch over anything that happens among our human affairs. Both forms of thinking are debunked by Scripture as the Bible clearly proclaims that God keeps a watch on evil. Jeremiah 16:17 (NKJV) implies “for My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.
Observing a few biblical accounts will helps us to comprehend the watchfulness of God.
God saw the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He elected to search for them in the Garden of Eden to address the matter of their disobedience and provide resolve (cf. Genesis 3:1-24).
God saw the murder of Cain when he killed his brother Abel. The Lord asked where his brother was and told him that his brother’s blood cries from the ground (cf. Genesis 4:8-12).
God saw the oppression of His people, the Israelites, in Egyptian bondage and sent Moses to instruct Pharaoh to let the people of God go. He afflicted 10 plagues upon Egypt for the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus Ch. 1 to Ch. 13).
God saw the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and elected to destroy its providence (Genesis Ch. 19).
The Lord saw the wicked of mankind and regretted that He ever made man and elected to destroy them, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:5-8).
The Lord laughs at the vain plots of governing authorities who set themselves against Him. He sees their schemes and is humored by it (cf. Psalm 2:1-4).
It is evident from these few passages that God sees the evil that occurs within the world and the storyline of human history.
He still sees murderous activity. He still sees disobedient acts. He still sees acts of fornication and adultery. He still sees wicked plans and plots through the delusion and derision of evil men. He still sees those who are oppressed and ousted. He still sees it all and stands in opposition to their behavior.
Psalm 34:16 (NKJV) sets the focus on “the face of the LORD being against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." In the context of Proverbs 15:1-7 that deals with the tongue and mouth of an individual, many people give little to no regard to the things that they speak. Most would even dare to think of simply shrugging off some of the things that come out of their mouths in public or private. Some have the mentality to think that since no one saw their action in public or private then it is fine because it is concealed. However, it is not concealed because God sees it all.
The Life Application Study Bible explains it this way, small children think that if they can’t see you, then you can’t see them. Some people wish that hiding from God was as simple as closing their eyes. Although they closed their eyes to their sinful ways, their sins certainly are not hidden from God. He who sees everything cannot be deceived. Do you have a sinful attitude or action that you hope God won’t notice? He knows about it. The first step of repentance is to acknowledge that God knows about your sins. 4
Nothing is hidden from God. Therefore, if we use inappropriate language and speech or act foolish and irrational, we need to ask for forgiveness for the things that we have committed before the face of God. Psalm 139:2-4 (NKJV) reveals the reality that the Lord “knows my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.” God knows the corruptive, disruptive and disrespectful things that proceed from our lips that first generates in our mind. He is keen on the outward action of evil as well as the inward thoughts of mankind. Therefore, we need to be mindful of what we say and even what we think.
Job 34:21-22 (NKJV) declares “for His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." There is no place for evil to hide from the watchful eyes of the Lord. Every evil deed that has ever been performed was seen by God and is rewarded negatively for such behavior. Jeremiah 32:19 NKJV is written “for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.”
Also, in the latter part of Proverbs 15:3, God keeps His eyes on those associated with the good that is in the world. Psalm 34:15 (NKJV) declares that “the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous” and Psalm 33:18 (NKJV) adds that “the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him.” This emphasizes that those who model their lives after the order of God are under His watchful care.
Biblical accounts reveal that God sees good within the world as well.
God saw the faith of Abraham and counted it as righteousness (cf. Romans 4:3).
God saw the faith of the three Hebrew boys as they stood on the pillar of truth and did not compromise to the order of the king relating to his demand for idol worship. When repercussions came about for not giving in to the king's demand, God was with the Hebrew boys when they were thrown into the fiery furnace.
God saw the steadfastness of Daniel’s prayer life that even though he was forbidden to pray unto the God of heaven and earth, he elected to pray anyway. For that reason, he was thrown into a den of lions, but God kept him and delivered him for his faith.
By our faith in relation to every spoken word or deed performed, God sees those as well. He sees all that we do for His glory both horizontally and vertically. The praise that we render to God through the fruit of our lips, He takes note of. The kind words that we speak to others, He is observant of. The service that we give unto Him, He sees. The charitable deeds shown toward others, He sees.
In keeping in context with the layout of Proverbs 15:1-7 that focuses primarily on the use of our speech, every gracious, loving, uplifting, and kind word that we speak is perceived and taken into account by the Lord. David understood this thereby he wrote in Psalm 19:14 (NKJV) “let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”
The Holman KJV Study Bible records that “the ‘psalmist’s speech and thinking reflect what is acceptable to God. The language of sacrifice is used to show that life should be lived as an offering to God.” 5
Is our communication being used as an offering to God? Are we concerned if our speech is acceptable to God? If not, we should be concerned as a result of God's watchful eyes surveying everything that we say as well as do. God will reward us accordingly for the righteous acts that He works through us or reward us negatively for the unrighteous acts performed in and of ourselves. The use of our speech and lifestyle matters to God as His piercing eyes behold the good and the evil. Let us use our lips and our entire body for the glory of God.
References
John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible
John Calvin. Commentary on the Book of Psalm.
The MacArthur Study Bible
The Life Application Study Bible
The Holman KJV Study is