Judgement and Discernment

I promise I won't blog too many times a week, but I recently received the ESV Study Bible and really dug into Proverbs 20 today- I learned so much and am so excited to share so I'm going to start into it!!!
Proverbs 20:5 tells that one has to be discerning to really understand a person's true intentions and continues on to the next few verses to say that people's pretenses are often wrong. Meaning, when we first assume something about another person or anything, we're often wrong. This happens a lot for me, especially with first impressions, and I have to remind myself, I don't know any one person's entire background except my own (Almost like in the book, The Secret Life of Bees), so I can't assume or judge them on anything- only God can do and know that.
In Proverbs 20:6, it asks, "Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?" This is questioning who can find an honest man, who can find true goodness? I think the next verse could be interpereted as a sort of answer, "The righteous who walks in his integrity- blessed are his children after him!" This pretty much means that behavior shows who some one truly is. It's probably where the phrase about talking the talk then walking the walk really comes from. It doesn't really matter what you say, because people will believe and can't deny what you do. So to find, or become, an honest man and true goodness, a basic rule of discrenment from Proverbs 21:8 comes in handy, "The way of the guilty is crooked, but the conduct of the pure is upright." Meaning, the crooked do evil and the upright do good.
The next couple verses, Proverbs 20:8-12 and 20:22-25 all seem to have a common theme- judgement. The first set of verses speak of a king's purpose- to seperate good from evil through judgement, and that he needs to recognize his own guilt and sin to be able to judge others. His scales of judgement should be equal, impartial, fair, and balanced, or else any acts of judgement by him are a shame to the Lord. He would most likely possess discernment, and know its basic principle: that a person's actions show his true intentions (mentioned before- Proverbs 21:8), not his words. This rule is used to evaluate children, as said in Proverbs 20:17. However, for God, I don't think he needs that rule since created our eyes and ears- He could probably use it, but He knows how to assess us for good. However He judges us will be final because He knows our true intentions inside and out. Although we, God's people, need to hold back from judging, we should not be unwilling to find balance and discern good and evil in others. The later verses, Proverbs 20:22-25, teach that God is the true judge, not any people- He uses the equalled scales and knows our inmost beings (Psalm 139). Proverbs 20:24 shows how He is the top authority, He directs our steps even if we make our own choices and are responsible for them. In Psalms 37:23, it says that "If the Lord delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm;" and in Jerimiah 10:23, "I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps." These verses basically back up Proverbs 20:24 in that our lives are Christ's even if we make our own desicions. I think that is so cool, but I can't really understand it- so if any one has an analogy or insight that'd be awesome!
Anyways, that was sort of an awkward way to wrap up but it's all I have left to say :]
Also, if you ever have the chance to read, or purchase a good study bible, I really reccomend it. If I had read this chapter with only my teen study bible, I wouldn't have understood it nearly the way I did with all the cross references and explainations! So I guess that's it- God bless everyone

By the way, some small phrases I didn't know how to explain in my own words of this were copied from the "ESV Study Bible"