Proverbs 10:29 - Meaning and Application

These verses say the same thing as the ones before them. They show the happiness of the godly and the misery of the wicked. We need this repeated, because we are slow to believe it and slow to think about it.

Strength and stability belong to a life of integrity. The way of the Lord can mean God’s providence, his way of dealing with us. In that sense, it strengthens the upright and keeps them steady in doing right. God’s merciful actions and his painful ones both serve to wake them up to duty and help them face discouragement.

The way of the Lord can also mean the path of godliness, the life God calls us to walk. The closer we stay to that path, the more our hearts are opened to keep going in it. We are also better prepared for both service and suffering. A clear conscience, kept free from sin, gives courage in danger, and steady faithfulness makes work easier in busy times.

The more we do for God, the more we are able to do for him, as Job 17:9 says. The joy of the Lord, found only in the Lord’s way, becomes our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). For that reason, the righteous will never be shaken. A life built on settled virtue brings settled peace and happiness, and nothing can take that away. It rests on an everlasting foundation (Proverbs 10:25).

Wickedness, by contrast, always leads to ruin. The wicked will not only fail to inherit the earth, even if they store up treasures in it, but they will not even remain in it. God’s judgments will root them out. Destruction, swift and sure destruction, will come to those who do evil, destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.

Even the way of the Lord, which is strength to the upright, becomes ruin and terror to evildoers. The same gospel, which brings life to one person, brings death to another. The same providence, like the same sun, softens one heart and hardens another (Hosea 14:9).