Proverbs: Stories of Wisdom and Folly

by David P. Murray

A Daily Devotional through the Book of Proverbs from the StoryChanger Devotional Series If you want to change your story, you need to know God’s story. This devotional, part of the StoryChanger Devotional series, is a friendly, practical guide to understanding the book of Proverbs and how it shapes your story.  Stories of Wisdom and Folly  includes 50 devotionals written by David Murray, author of  The StoryChanger . This book features daily readings designed to help you learn, love, and live according to the whole Bible. Murray walks you through a broad range of texts throughout the book of Proverbs, offering thoughtful comments on the book’s message, reflection questions, and a personal daily prayer. This devotional can help reorient your mind and transform your life with God’s better story.

Genres: Devotional

226 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 17, 2023

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

David P. Murray is Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and worked for five years in financial services before being converted to Christ. He studied for the ministry at Glasgow University and the Free Church of Scotland College (Edinburgh). He was a pastor for 12 years, first at Lochcarron Free Church of Scotland and then at Stornoway Free Church of Scotland (Continuing). From 2002 to 2007, he was Lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament at the Free Church Seminary in Inverness. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Reformation International Theological Seminary for his work relating Old Testament Introduction studies to the pastoral ministry. He and his wife, Shona, have four children: Allan, Angus, Joni, and Amy. He also blogs at Head Heart Hand.

Reviews

[Ryan Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been going through proverbs in my private worship recently and found this to be a nice practical compliment to my scripture reading.

[Jeanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Envy eats away at us, but peace feeds us.

Proverbs is all about seeing the reality of our emotions, decisions, what we believe. There are many books about the book of Proverbs and I have read a few but this text has raised the bar. It goes thru the book of Proverbs with God character being the center. Truth, love, humility, holiness are just a few of the character traits that is of God. Proverbs is not about doing but being. Being produces the doing and the doing grows the being. Becoming the air that we breath. It addresses how we think, prepare, what we gravitate towards and what we avoid. This is not a book that you read once and are done but read continuously.

To me Proverbs embodies what it means that scripture is the living word. It reveals our need and our saviour. It is easy to read with questions to engage and prayer to apply. Highly recommend.

A special thank you to Crossway Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

[Nicole Murray · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars - this devotional book on the Proverbs was full of short, easy to read devotions on different Proverbs. I was hoping for a resources that might help take me a step further in engaging well with the Proverbs, but I found this to be largely reductionistic and overly simple. Although the proverbs themselves can be like this at times, the devotions didn’t account for this and I think at times over applied the text without accounting for context/literary styles/the personification of wisdom throughout the book. I also just found the start a bit corny with the “wisdom university” analogy, and the summary style at the end of each devotion a bit unhelpfully written. However I am thankful for something that helped slow me down and pay attention to the Proverbs more, even if that was by disagreeing with the reflections at points!

[Lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin Murray's endeavor to make Proverbs accessible to young people is so needed today. Many churches attempt to win young men and women to Christ with every gimmick under the sun; but Murray reminds us that the only way to win the next generation is by giving them the truth of Scripture clearly. Murray succeeds in achieving this. The specific challenge for young people when learning about the Proverbs is the poetic style of Solomon. The highly stylized language may appear cryptic and uncertain. Seeking to understand, love, and apply the book with the confidence of authorial intent can be an uphill battle. Murray's devotional is thus a wonderful tool to help elucidate the Proverbs helping the young fall in love with the very wisdom of their God.

Many thanks to Crossway and NetGalley for graciously providing me an advanced readers copy for review.

[Kevin Driskill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good insight and study of a biblical classic. Not every proverb but a nice overview. Easily worth the time.

[Travis Daggett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author’s attempts at cleverness often fall short.

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This new devotional book wrote by David Murray on the book of Proverbs – Stories of Wisdom and Folly, is helpful introduction to Proverbs. He wrote 50 short devotionals that can be read in a few minutes. However, you will want to plan more time to read the Scripture that goes with the reading and then take the time to ponder and pray on it. I have been reading two – three a day, and each time I come away with something new that I have learned about what God’s Word has to say and can use.

The book is part of The Story Changer Devotional series, so if you like this one, which I did, there are others on different books of the Bible. This one covers Proverbs, about wisdom and folly, to help us become wise and story changers.

It is a solid devotional, short and meaty! This is one I plan on adding to our homeschool morning time or evening family devotional in the future, as it will make for some great discussions and teaching. This is also great to read individually as I have been doing for teenagers to 100+ years of age!

Each chapter points to the Scripture to read that goes with the chapter, along with a short summary, application, a question to help you ponder on it more, and a prayer to help you talk to God.

Here are a few things I have highlighted from the first third of the book:

A right relationship with God comes before a right relationship with people.
Blessed can be objective or subjective. Objectively, blessed means “approved by God.” Subjectively, it means “happy.”
We need to get God’s relationship to the world right if we’re going to get our relationships to the world right.
Social justice, from God’s perspective, therefore, begins with repenting of personal sin.
You cannot guard your heart for God, unless you’ve given your heart to God.
Jesus is the perfect lover, but he is also the perfect hater. He is gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He is also jealous reformer, driving sin out of God’s house with a whip. Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness so much that He was blessed with happiness more than anyone else.
The world hunts us, but God’s word sets us free.