16 I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge." 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
Who ruled over Jerusalem before Solomon? Saul did not; it was captured by David from the Jebusites. But Solomon might also be talking about a men like Melchizedek (Genesis 14:18) and the Amorite king Adoni-Zedek (Joshua 10:5). Solomon even says that he pursued the understanding of "madness and folly," quickly learning that no enlightenment lies along that path. Luther thought that Solomon meant that he tried to keep "madness and folly" away from his kingdom by promoting other qualities, which could certainly be the case. But either way, he found that this was "a useless anxiety," (I'm quoting Luther now), "therefore the wisest thing is compose oneself in such a way that one can stand anything" (LW 21).
Such things led Solomon to express himself once again in poetry:
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief. (NIV)
If spend our whole lives worrying, we will waste them. Knowledge itself is a blessing, but knowledge without faith is useless. It would be the same with anything--even a pair of shoes. Without faith, our shoes keep our feet dry and healthy and preserve our feet from wounds and infections and keep us alive, but if they do all this for someone without faith, what good have they done? Better to be a shoeless cripple who will have eternal life through faith than to wear the best shoes that money can buy without any faith at all.
We thank God for everything we have--teaching, tennies, and even troubles that lead us back to God. Everything we have is a gift, but the greatest gift is the Son of God himself, who gave himself to rescue us from the madness and folly of sin, and to bring us to eternal life.
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