"The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old"
at the beginning of His way
This is a very interesting statement, and it reminds us that one of God's attributes is wisdom. He has infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom. He can and does search through all of the possibilities and implements the best scenario given the goals that He has in mind.
This verse reminds us that before God ever began the creation, He was prepared with wisdom. We would call it doing advanced planning. Now God did not need to sit down with a piece of paper and lay out all the different possibilities of worlds and materials and choices but, in essence, on a much larger scale this is what God did. He did it in an instant of our time. He planned and explored all the various possibilities before He ever created anything.
Solomon is wanting us to understand that this trait of wisdom that he wants us to develop is a part of the way that God is. We have to learn to develop wisdom, but God is wise. He contains and has a natural part of His nature, this thing we call wisdom. Everything He thinks and evaluates must come through this ability to see where the win is for everyone. We must gain this way of mental action, but God automatically has it.
Solomon is using God as an example that we should emulate. In order to bring this world in which we live into being, God had to use applied knowledge in precise ways, and so do you need to apply knowledge in the maximum win-win-win ways to navigate the various choices that you will face.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz