Seven times down, seven up

Read the arithmetic carefully: the just man falls seven times. Seven — the Bible’s number for completeness — meaning plenty, meaning again and again, meaning this is a man whose falls are not occasional anomalies. And Scripture calls him just anyway. Whatever righteousness means in this proverb, it does not mean staying upright.

The difference between the just man and the other kind is one verb: riseth up again. Not gracefully, necessarily. Not quickly, always. But repeatedly — the stubborn vertical habit of a man who refuses to make the ground his address. Every man carries some fall he is tempted to define himself by: the failed venture, the lost temper, the relapse, the year he is not proud of. This proverb refuses the definition. Falls are events; rising is the identity.

So this morning, whichever number you are on — third fall, fifth, seventh — the righteous move is the same as it has always been. Get up. Confess what needs confessing, repair what can be repaired, and stand. The LORD, says the psalmist elsewhere, upholdeth the man with His hand. Rising is not done alone.