Proverbs 10:24 - Meaning and Application

It is here said, and said again, that it will go well with the righteous and badly with the wicked, and these two are set against each other for clearer understanding.

The wicked will face as much trouble as they can fear, and the righteous will enjoy as much good as they can desire. The wicked sometimes lift themselves up in sin with empty hopes that will fail them. At other times, they cannot escape real fears, and those fears will come true. The God they anger will prove just as terrible as they have feared him to be, especially when they are at their lowest point. As your fear is, so is your wrath (Psalm 90:11). Wicked people fear punishment for sin, but they do not use that fear wisely to turn away from it. So what they dread comes on them, and their present fears are a warning of their future misery.

The righteous also have fears at times, but what they truly desire is God’s favor and joy in him, and that desire will be granted. It will go to them according to their faith, not according to their fear (Psalm 37:4).

The prosperity of the wicked will soon come to an end, but the happiness of the righteous will never end (Proverbs 10:25). The wicked make a great noise and stir up confusion like a whirlwind, which seems ready to sweep everything away. But, like a whirlwind, they quickly vanish, and they are gone for good. Then everything around them is quiet and glad that the storm has passed (Psalm 37:10, Psalm 37:36; Job 20:5).

The righteous are the opposite. They make little show. They are like a foundation, low and out of sight, but strong and steady. They are fixed in their choice to hold fast to God and made firm in goodness. They will be an everlasting foundation, firmly good and unshaken. The one who is holy will keep on being holy, and unshaken happiness will belong to him. His hope is built on a rock, so the storm cannot shake it (Matthew 7:24). Some understand this to mean that the righteous are like the pillar of the world, the support of it. The world stands because of them, and the holy people are what give it substance.