"He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be reckoned a curse to him"
There is an appropriate time to be loud and outgoing and boisterous and there is a time to keep that to yourself. Early in the morning would be one of the times.
It is hard for a person who is wired to wake up wide-eyed and ready to go to understand that not everyone is wired that way. God has all kinds of different people in order to make the world go around.
This observation is not incredibly acute, but it is important that Solomon makes it and that it is included in Holy Scriptures. This is one of the characteristics of temperament that Solomon is saying needs to be throttled back. You have control over how much you let the natural impulses within you out. This is very important. Some people will say you just have to be who you are, but this is not the truth. You need to be yourself within a context of relationships – seeking to bless others through who you are and not just expressing yourself and hoping that others get out of the way.
There is too much, "That is just the way I am thinking in our day and age." "I've just got to be me." Yes, we want you to be you but not to the exclusion, offense, or harm of the people and community around you.
Our society so values the individual that they fail to see the needs of the community. We have almost completely forgotten sins against the community.
Now notice what the person is trying to do in this proverb. He is trying to bless his friend and add something positive to him that day and that instant. Solomon points out that what would always be a blessing to some people will not always be a blessing to everyone early in the morning.
A significant part of growing up is realizing that what we think should work will not always work. We don't always make people feel blessed when we are loud and affirming with them early in the morning. We won't always get our way through bullying and anger. We won't always get the goods we want by wanting it and pursuing it. We must come to understand the universe that God has created for us to dwell in. It was built for those who would understand it. The shortest distance between two points in not always a straight line. If you want to bless someone, then find the appropriate way to do that. It may not be the way you think.
If you want to have a great life, you can't have it by wandering the pathways of sin. Get back to the lifestyles of the righteous.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz