"God's Wisdom and Ours" chapter 10 in JI Packer's Knowing God

This chapter is a meditation on wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes.  The common error we make is assuming that wisdom means being able to understand and explain why God does the things he does in our world ("Why did I lose my job?", "Why did my loved one get cancer?").  The author of Ecclesiastes encourages God's people to take an honest look at the world and admit that our lives are full of events that we cannot make sense of: a good man works hard and then leaves his wealth to a wasteful son.  Bad people prosper while the good die young.  Frankly, if we assumed that God always "blessed" good people with protection and punished evil people immediately, we would be undone.  The author tried this view and found it to be naive.  "I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out" (Ecclesiastes 8:17).  In sum: we cannot examine God's works in providence and analyze them to find out His reasons.  They are hidden from us.  Rather, true wisdom is living in line with God's revealed purposes, namely: enjoying the things he's given to us ("Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun..." Ecclesiastes 9:7-9) and obeying what he's told us to do (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Wisdom means trusting God, even when (or perhaps, especially when) we don't understand the events around us.  We would not call someone wise who "gets angry at God" when things don't go their way.  This is the highest form of self-trust and an inherent rejection of trusting God.  The attempt to find out the reason behind every circumstance is vanity.  It is hidden from us.  Ecclesiastes warns us from seeking that kind of wisdom.