In Hebrew, it here uses the name of God, Elohim,
which especially emphasizes God’s power over all his creation and all creatures. Bildad, one of the friends who was visiting Job when he was afflicted, expresses the same when he says: Can you find out the deep things of God?
(Job 11:7–9). God’s actions are far beyond our understanding. Moses, at the end of his life, emphasizes this for the people of Israel by telling them once again:
Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?The secret things belong to the LORD our God
(Deuteronomy 29:29a).
It is wise to acknowledge this. We must acquiesce with the mysteries of our life. It is fitting that the prophet Isaiah was to say, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts
(Isaiah 55:8–9).
And yet, it befits the honour of the king to search out things. That is what he should apply himself to. It is his task to provide clarity in what is placed before him (compare Solomon in 1 Kings 3:16–28, when two women were arguing about who was the mother of the baby).
The people prosper with this.
This also applies to today. Pure justice is a great asset for society as a whole. Thus, evil is curbed. It is the honour of the leaders of a people to exert themselves to this end as far as they can.
2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.