Proverbs 10:29

Pro 10:29 The way of the LORD [is] strength to the upright: but destruction [shall be] to the workers of iniquity.

Ver. 29. The way of the Lord is strength.] "The joy of the Lord," that joy of hope, spoken of in the preceding verse, "is their strength." {Neh 8:10} The peace of God within them, and the power of God without them, bears up their spirits under whatsoever pressures; such can boldly say, It is well with me for the present, and it will be better hereafter.

But destruction.] Such as they shall never be able either to avoid or to abide.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro_10:29

The way of the Lord is strength to the upright.

The two-fold aspect of the Divine working

The words shall be in the second clause are supplementary and unnecessary. They destroy the completeness of the antithesis between the two halves of the verse. It is the same way which is strength to one man and ruin to another, and the moral nature of the man determines which it shall be to him.

I. Put clearly the meaning and bearing of these words. The way of the Lord means religion, considered as the way in which God desires a man to walk. But here it means the road in which God walks Himself, the solemn footsteps of God through creation, providence and history. To many modem thinkers the whole drift and tendency of human affairs affords no sign of a person directing these. This ancient teacher had keener ears. But not only does the expression point to the operation of a personal Divine will in human affairs, but it conceives of that operation as one, a uniform and consistent whole. It is the way. It is a grand unity. A man can know about this way, though it may be hard to understand. It is all on the side of the good; it is all against every form of evil. Gods actions do not change, but a mans character determines which aspect of them he sees, and has to experience. The word strength is used in a somewhat archaic signification, that of a stronghold. Hebrew is fortress. This way of the Lord is like a castle for the shelter of the shelterless good man; but a castle is a frowning menace to besiegers or enemies.

II. Illustrate and apply the principles taught here.

1. The order of the universe is such that righteousness is life, and sin is death. On the whole, things do work so that goodness is blessedness, and badness is ruin. What modem phraseology calls laws of nature, the Bible calls the way of the Lord, and the manner in which these help a man who conforms to them, and hurt or kill him if he does not, is an illustration on a lower level of the principle of our text.

2. In our physical life, as a rule, virtue makes strength, sin brings punishment.

3. In higher regions, on the whole, goodness makes blessedness, and evil brings ruin. All the power of Gods universe, and all the tenderness of Gods heart, are on the side of the man who does right. All things serve the soul that serves God, and all war against him who wars against his Maker.

4. This will be made more evident in the future. It is possible that the one manifestation of God in a future life may be in substance the same, and yet that it may produce opposite effects upon oppositely disposed souls. People speak of rewards and punishments as if they were given and inflicted by simple Divine volition, and did not stand in any necessary connection with holiness on the one hand, or with sin on the other.

5. The very crown of the ways of God, the work of Christ, and the record of it in the gospel, have most eminently this double aspect. God meant nothing but salvation for the whole world when He sent us this gospel. We may make of that gospel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro 10:29-30. The way of the Lord — Either, 1st, The course of his providence in the government of the world: or rather, 2d, The way of God’s precepts, commonly meant by that expression in the Scriptures; is strength to the upright — Gives them strength, support, and protection. But destruction — Hebrew, מחתה, terror, or consternation, and destruction consequent thereupon; shall be to the workers of iniquity — They shall not only not inherit the earth, though they lay up treasure in it; but they shall not so much as inhabit it, Pro 10:30; God’s judgments will root them out. The design of these two verses is to show that piety is the only true policy.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Pro_10:29. “Jehovah’s way is a fortress to the upright, but it is destruction to the workers of iniquity.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Pro_10:29

GOD’S WAY DESTRUCTION AND SALVATION

I. In common with all His intellectual and moral creatures, God has a way, or plan of action. A skilful artificer has a way by which he brings forth a certain result in a work of skill. His way is the out-come of his previous thought and purpose; he does not go about his work in uncertainty as to what he is going to do, or how he is going to do it. The architect proceeds to erect his building in accordance with a certain plan, in a certain way before determined on. The public instructor has ways of teaching which are the out-come of previous thought; he would otherwise work at random. Those who are leaders of others must think and teach within the limits of certain rules, in pursuance of some definite end, otherwise there could be no result from their teaching. God, the skilful Artificer and wise Architect of the material universe, the Great Instructor of men, is no exception to this rule.

1. He works in nature according to a definite and pre-ordained rule or law. All that we see around us reveals Divine forethought and intention, proclaims that the Creator works for a definite end, that He walks in a pre-arranged way. He has a way, or method, of producing day and night, summer and winter, of developing the seed-corn into the full ear, of watering the earth by clouds, and so fitting it for the habitation of man.

2. He has a way in Providence, and though here it is far more difficult than even in nature to trace His working or unravel His purposes, we know that He works in accordance with a definite plan for the accomplishment of a certain purpose, and that there is nothing of chance in the mysteries of life. A child may look on while his father is putting together the works of a watch, he cannot judge of the adaptation of certain processes and actions, but he knows that his father has made many watches before, and he judges from what has been, of what is, and what shall be. And so with God’s way of providence, we cannot trace the why of His operations, we cannot see the issue of His actions while He is at work. The workings are too complicated for us to trace the adaptation of the means to the end. But from past results we conclude what will be the issue of His present dealings, from what has been we know what shall be, viz., that all will be seen to be part of a great plan or way of action, and that the verdict of the universe at last will be, “just and true are Thy ways, Thou king of saints” (Rev_15:3). Clouds and darkness have been around God’s working in the past, but righteousness and justice have come out of the darkness, and so we know it ever shall be.

3. God has a way of grace. Here His way is a way of forgiveness through a Divine Atoner, and of sanctification through a Divine Spirit, meeting human need if that human need is felt and confessed. The need of a man who has broken God’s law must be felt and acknowledged before the way of forgiveness and restoration is brought into operation. This is the law by which men are loosed from the bonds of sin, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2Co_5:19). This is Jehovah’s “way of salvation.”

II. The opposite effects of the Divine way upon opposite characters. “The way of the Lord is strength to the upright, but destruction to the workers of iniquity” (see Critical Notes). All men who are not numbered with the “upright,” whose moral nature has not been lifted up by contact with the Divine, are “workers of iniquity.” Dr. David Thomas says of iniquity, “The word is negative—the want of equity. Men will be damned not merely for doing wrong, but for not doing the right” (see “The Practical Philosopher,” p. 132). We take the words therefore to signify the two great classes into which Christ divides the world, “He that believeth and he that believeth not” (Joh_3:18), and consider the different effect upon these two opposite characters of—

1. Jehovah’s way of nature. To the upright there comes strength from the contemplation of God as revealed in His material works. He feels that God is a necessity to account for what he sees around him. All created things speak to him of the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of their Maker and Up-holder, and his faith is strengthened by this manifestation of “the way of the Lord.” He obeys the injunction of the prophet, “Lift up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power, not one faileth.” And thence he draws the prophet’s argument, “That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary” that “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength,” and in thus “waiting upon the Lord” he “renews his strength,” he “runs and is not weary, he walks and does not faint” (Isa_40:26-31). But how different is the effect of the works of nature, when the God of nature is not acknowledged. They harden men in materialism, God’s own laws are used to bow Him out of His own universe, and their working becomes so many forces of destruction because they drive men further from their only hope and help. As Paul tells us, such men “hold (back) the truth in (or, by) unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in (or to) them; for God hath showed it to them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His Eternal Power and Godhead. But, “professing themselves wise, they became fools, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (see Rom_1:18-32). This is destruction to any man.

2. Of Jehovah’s way of providence. Faith in a personal God, in a Divine Saviour, makes this “way” also “strength to the upright.” If a seaman has faith in his captain, this gives him strength for his duty even in the roughest weather. He feels that he is not altogether left to the mercy of the blind elements, but that there is a strong and wise will guiding the ship. So confidence in an All-wise Father, in a King who “can do no wrong,” is the stronghold of the upright amidst all the apparent contradictions and mysteries of life. He knows who is at the wheel of all human affairs, that

“When He folds the cloud about Him,

Firm within it stands His throne;”

and the knowledge that “God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all,” makes what would otherwise overwhelm him in doubt, and consequently in weakness, a source of strength, a power of life. But where God is not known, this confidence is absent, and nothing but chance, or an arbitrary Judge, sits upon the throne of the Universe. The terrible perplexities of life are like the rings of the wheels in Ezekiel’s vision, “so high that they are dreadful,” and, as such a man does not discern above them the “man upon the throne” (Eze_1:18-20), they are to him only mighty and resistless engines of destruction.

3. Of Jehovah’s way of grace. The upright man has gained his strength to be upright from the way of Divine forgiveness. Even a child feels stronger when assured of his father’s restored favour, and the forgiveness of God sets a man upon his feet and gives him that “joy of the Lord” which is “strength” (Neh_8:10). Unforgiven sin breaks the bones of the soul. “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old,” but “I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.” “Make me to hear joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities” (Psa_32:3-5; Psa_51:8-9). And he gains strength to continue in the way of uprightness by communion with an unseen Saviour, by the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost. Christ is “the power of an endless life” to all who believe in Him (Heb_7:16). This is the “way” or law of the kingdom of grace. “To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (Joh_1:12). But to those who reject this way of grace, this “righteousness of God” (Rom_3:22), this “way of salvation,” becomes a power of destruction; that which was ordained to be a “savour of life” becomes a “savour of death.” Christ crucified is a stumbling-block and foolishness to such (1Co_1:23). “Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” (Mat_21:44). The way of Jehovah is in no instance the cause of the destruction of the wicked but it must be the occasion. The words and works of Christ were the occasion but not the cause of the great national sin of the Jewish nation. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father” (Joh_15:22-24). The knife in the hand of the surgeon is an instrument to save life, but the patient may use it to kill himself if he be so minded. A candle may be used to give light and comfort to all in the house—this is its use with regard to honest men—but the same light may be the means of the discovery and punishment of a thief. The light and heat of the sun, falling upon a bed of flowers fills the air with fragrance and the spirit of man with delight, but if it fall upon a noisome stagnant pool, or a dead body, it will hasten decomposition and spread the seeds of disease and death. It is not the nature of sunlight to destroy, but the objects upon which it falls turns the blessing into a curse. So with “the grace of God which bringeth salvation” (Tit_2:11). “Is it not true,” says Maclaren, “that every man that rejects Christ does in verity reject Him, and not merely neglect Him; that there is always an effort, that there is a struggle, feeble, perhaps, but real, which ends in the turning away? It is not that you stand there, and simply let him go past. That were bad enough; but it is more than that. It is that you turn your back npon Him! It is not that His hand is laid on yours, and yours remains dead and cold, and does not open to clasp it; but it is that His hand being laid on yours, you, clench yours the tighter, and will not have it. And so every man (I believe) that ever rejects Christ does these things thereby—wounds his own conscience, hardens his own heart, makes himself a worse man, just because he has had a glimpse, and has willingly, almost consciously, “loved darkness rather than light.” The message of love can never come into a human soul, and pass away from it unreceived, without leaving that spirit worse, with all its lowest characteristics strengthened, and all its best ones depressed, by the fact of rejection.… If there were no judgment at all, the natural result of the simple rejection of the Gospel is that, bit by bit, all the lingering remains of nobleness that hover about the man, like scent about a broken vase, shall pass away; and that, step by step, through the simple process of saying, “I will not have Christ to rule over me,” the whole being shall degenerate, until manhood becomes devilhood, and the soul is lost by its own want of faith” (See Sermons, Vol. I. p. 7). And so it is all with man, and in no degree with God, that “His way,” which He intends to be the fortress, the strength of every human soul, becomes a destruction to “the workers of iniquity.”

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS

This promise implies help for our work, and not rest from our labour. We shall have strength for the conflict. But “there is no discharge from the war.” There is supply for real, not for imaginary, wants; for present, not for future, need. The healthful energy of the man of God is also supposed. He is alive in the way; his heart is set in it. This makes it practicable. What before was drudgery is now meat and drink. Indeed, the more godly we are, the more godly we shall be. The habit of grace increases by exercise. One step helps on the next. Thus was the way of the Lord strength to the upright Nicodemus. His first step was feebleness and fear. Walking onwards, he waxed stronger; standing up in the ungodly council, and ultimately the bold confessor of his Saviour when his self-confident disciples slunk back (Joh_3:2; Joh_7:50; Joh_19:39).… Thus “the righteous shall hold on their way, going from strength to strength,” strengthened in the Lord, and walking up and down in His name (Job_17:9; Psa_84:5-7; Zec_10:12).… No such resources support the workers of iniquity. Captives instead of soldiers, they know no conflicts; they realise no need of strength.—Bridges.

The way of the earth doth weary them that walk in it, and doth take away their strength: but the way of the Lord is strength to the upright, so that the more they go in it, the more able are they to go on in it. Or else because he that walketh uprightly walketh in the ways of God’s most gracious providence over him, and that must needs be a strength unto him. A strong staff, that is, to support him, a strong bulwark to defend him, a strong arm to fight for him. The angel, therefore, might well say to Gideon, “Thou mighty man of valour” when he had first said, “The Lord is with thee.” But as the way of the Lord is to the upright the way of His gracious providence over them, so He hath another way for the workers of iniquity, and that is the way of judgment.—Jermin.

Sin is man’s destruction.

1. Sin brings many evils upon man, from which, if he were virtuous, he would be totally free, such as a decayed body, a wounded conscience, a discontented heart, vexation in the present, fear for the future.

2. Sin puts man out of condition to render tolerable those evils which he cannot avoid. He feels the burden of them in all their pressure because he is destitute of the supports of reliance and hope. He cannot perceive in his afflictions the hand of a father, but is forced to confess them the punishment of an offended sovereign.

3. Sin prevents man from the full enjoyment of the good which outweighs the evil in the world. The Christian finds pleasure in the works of creation, the methods of providence, in beneficence, in friendship, in domestic happiness. Sin deprives us of a taste for these pleasures by enervating the mind, by selfishness, by pride.

4. Sin incapacitates us for the state of pure and perfect happiness in the world to come.—Zollikofer.

Sometimes, by the way of the Lord, the observing of God’s law, sometimes the course of God’s providence is meant in Scripture, as here in this place. It is said to strengthen the upright, not only for that it fortifieth their hearts, but because it preserveth them by sundry means from destruction. The manner of the Lord’s dealing with the wicked is quite contrary; for the Lord plagueth them and crosseth them for their iniquities, and in their evil doing, even throughout the whole course of their life, which is unfortunate and full of many miseries.—Muffet.

The “way” Jehovah personally walks in (as, for example, His way of justice) “is a fortress.” To Gabriel, for instance, it is the arch that shelters him for ever; to the poor saint it is a sworn certainty of defence; but to the wicked it is an eternal vengeance. The way of mercy—that is, in the cross of Christ—is life unto life to the saint, and death unto death to the rebellious sinner. Elihu pictures this in the outward creation (Job_36:31): “For by them” (that is, by the same elements of Nature) “judgeth He the people; He giveth meat in abundance.” The same showers fertilise the earth, or tear to pieces with a deluge.—Miller.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Proverbs

THE TWO-FOLD ASPECT OF THE DIVINE WORKING

Pro 10:29.

You observe that the words ‘shall be,’ in the last clause, are a supplement. They are quite unnecessary, and in fact they rather hinder the sense. They destroy the completeness of the antithesis between the two halves of the verse. If you leave them out, and suppose that the ‘way of the Lord’ is what is spoken of in both clauses, you get a far deeper and fuller meaning. ‘The way of the Lord is strength to the upright; but destruction to the workers of iniquity.’ It is the same way which is strength to one man and ruin to another, and the moral nature of the man determines which it shall be to him. That is a penetrating word, which goes deep down. The unknown thinkers, to whose keen insight into the facts of human life we are indebted for this Book of Proverbs, had pondered for many an hour over the perplexed and complicated fates of men, and they crystallised their reflections at last in this thought. They have in it struck upon a principle which explains a great many things, and teaches us a great many solemn lessons. Let us try to get a hold of what is meant, and then to look at some applications and illustrations of the principle.

I. First, then, let me just try to put clearly the meaning and bearing of these words. ‘The way of the Lord’ means, sometimes in the Old Testament and sometimes in the New, religion, considered as the way in which God desires a man to walk. So we read in the New Testament of ‘the way’ as the designation of the profession and practice of Christianity; and ‘the way of the Lord’ is often used in the Psalms for the path which He traces for man by His sovereign will.

But that, of course, is not the meaning here. Here it means, not the road in which God prescribes that we should walk, but that road in which He Himself walks; or, in other words, the sum of the divine action, the solemn footsteps of God through creation, providence, and history. ‘His goings forth are from everlasting.’ ‘His way is in the sea.’ ‘His way is in the sanctuary.’ Modern language has a whole set of phrases which mean the same thing as the Jew meant by ‘the way of the Lord,’ only that God is left out. They talk about the ‘current of events,’ ‘the general tendency of things,’ ‘the laws of human affairs,’ and so on. I, for my part, prefer the old-fashioned ‘Hebraism.’ To many modern thinkers the whole drift and tendency of human affairs affords no sign of a person directing these. They hear the clashing and grinding of opposing forces, the thunder as of falling avalanches, and the moaning as of a homeless wind, but they hear the sounds of no footfalls echoing down the ages. This ancient teacher had keener ears. Well for us if we share his faith, and see in all the else distracting mysteries of life and history, ‘the way of the Lord!’

But not only does the expression point to the operation of a personal divine Will in human affairs, but it conceives of that operation as one, a uniform and consistent whole. However complicated, and sometimes apparently contradictory, the individual events were, there was a unity in them, and they all converged on one result. The writer does not speak of ‘ways,’ but of ‘the way,’ as a grand unity. It is all one continuous, connected, consistent mode of operation from beginning to end.

The author of this proverb believed something more about the way of the Lord. He believed that although it is higher than our way, still, a man can know something about it; and that whatever may be enigmatical, and sometimes almost heart-breaking, in it, one thing is sure-that as we have been taught of late years in another dialect, it ‘makes for righteousness.’ ‘Clouds and darkness are round about Him,’ but the Old Testament writers never falter in the conviction, which was the soul of all their heroism and the life blood of their religion, that in the hearts of the clouds and darkness, ‘Justice and judgment are the foundations of His throne.’ The way of the Lord, says this old thinker, is hard to understand, very complicated, full of all manner of perplexities and difficulties, and yet on the whole the clear drift and tendency of the whole thing is discernible, and it is this: it is all on the side of good. Everything that is good, and everything that does good, is an ally of God’ s, and may be sure of the divine favour and of the divine blessing resting upon it.

And just because that is so clear, the other side is as true; the same way, the same set of facts, the same continuous stream of tendency, which is all with and for every form of good, is all against every form of evil. Or, as one of the Psalmists puts the same idea, ‘The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.’ The same eye that beams in lambent love on ‘the righteous’ burns terribly to the evil doer. ‘The face of the Lord’ means the side of the divine nature which is turned to us, and is manifested by His self-revealing activity, so that the expression comes near in meaning to ‘the way of the Lord,’ and the thought in both cases is the same, that by the eternal law of His being, God’s actions must all be for the good and against the evil.

They do not change, but a man’s character determines which aspect of them he sees and has to experience. God’s way has a bright side and a dark. You may take which you like. You can lay hold of the thing by whichever handle you choose. On the one side it is convex, on the other concave. You can approach it from either side, as you please. ‘The way of the Lord’ must touch your ‘way.’ Your cannot alter that necessity. Your path must either run parallel in the same direction with His, and then all His power will be an impulse to bear you onward; or it must run in the opposite direction, and then all His power will be for your ruin, and the collision with it will crush you as a ship is crushed like an egg-shell, when it strikes an iceberg. You can choose which of these shall befall you.

And there is a still more striking beauty about the saying, if we give the full literal meaning to the word ‘strength.’ It is used by our translators, I suppose, in a somewhat archaic and peculiar signification, namely, that of a stronghold. At all events the Hebrew means a fortress, a place where men may live safe and secure; and if we take that meaning, the passage gains greatly in force and beauty. This ‘way of the Lord’ is like a castle for the shelter of the shelterless good man, and behind those strong bulwarks he dwells impregnable and safe. Just as a fortress is a security to the garrison, and a frowning menace to the besiegers or enemies, so the ‘name of the Lord is a strong tower,’ and the ‘way of the Lord’ is a fortress. If you choose to take shelter within it, its massive walls are your security and your joy. If you do not, they frown down grimly upon you, a menace and a terror. How differently, eight hundred years ago, Normans and Saxons looked at the square towers that were built all over England to bridle the inhabitants! To the one they were the sign of the security of their dominion; to the other they were the sign of their slavery and submission. Torture and prison-houses they might become; frowning portents they necessarily were. ‘The way of the Lord’ is a castle fortress to the man that does good, and to the man that does evil it is a threatening prison, which may become a hell of torture. It is ‘ruin to the workers of iniquity.’ I pray you, settle for yourself which of these it is to be to you.

II. And now let me say a word or two by way of application, or illustration, of these principles that are here.

First, let me remind you how the order of the universe is such that righteousness is life and sin is death. This universe and the fortunes of men are complicated and strange. It is hard to trace any laws, except purely physical ones, at work. Still, on the whole, things do work so that goodness is blessedness, and badness is ruin. That is, of course, not always true in regard of outward things, but even about them it is more often and obviously true than we sometimes recognise. Hence all nations have their proverbs, embodying the generalised experience of centuries, and asserting that, on the whole, ‘honesty is the best policy,’ and that it is always a blunder to do wrong. What modern phraseology calls ‘laws of nature,’ the Bible calls ‘the way of the Lord’; and the manner in which these help a man who conforms to them, and hurt or kill him if he does not, is an illustration on a lower level of the principle of our text. This tremendous congeries of powers in the midst of which we live does not care whether we go with it or against it, only if we do the one we shall prosper, and if we do the other we shall very likely be made an end of. Try to stop a train, and it will run over you and murder you; get into it, and it will carry you smoothly along. Our lives are surrounded with powers, which will carry our messages and be our slaves if we know how to command nature by obeying it, or will impassively strike us dead if we do not.

Again, in our physical life, as a rule, virtue makes strength, sin brings punishment. ‘Riotous living’ makes diseased bodies. Sins in the flesh are avenged in the flesh, and there is no need for a miracle to bring it about that he who sows to the flesh shall ‘of the flesh reap corruption.’ God entrusts the punishment of the breach of the laws of temperance and morality in the body to the ‘natural’ operation of such breach. The inevitable connection between sins against the body and disease in the body, is an instance of the way of the Lord-the same set of principles and facts-being strength to one man and destruction to another. Hundreds of young men in Manchester-some of whom are listening to me now, no doubt-are killing themselves, or at least are ruining their health, by flying in the face of the plain laws of purity and self-control. They think that they must ‘have their fling,’ and ‘obey their instincts,’ and so on. Well, if they must, then another ‘must’ will insist upon coming into play-and they must reap as they have sown, and drink as they have brewed, and the grim saying of this book about profligate young men will be fulfilled in many of them. ‘His bones are full of the iniquity of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the grave.’ Be not deceived, God is not mocked, and His way avenges bodily transgressions by bodily sufferings.

And then, in higher regions, on the whole, goodness makes blessedness, and evil brings ruin. All the powers of God’s universe, and all the tenderness of God’s heart are on the side of the man that does right. The stars in their courses fight against the man that fights against Him; and on the other side, in yielding thyself to the will of God and following the dictates of His commandments, ‘Thou shalt make a league with the beasts of the field, and the stones of the field shall be at peace with thee.’ All things serve the soul that serves God, and all war against him who wars against his Maker. The way of the Lord cannot but further and help all who love and serve Him. For them all things must work together for good. By the very laws of God’s own being, which necessarily shape all His actions, the whole ‘stream of tendency without us makes for righteousness.’ In the one course of life we go with the stream of divine activity which pours from the throne of God. In the other we are like men trying to row a boat up Niagara. All the rush of the mighty torrent will batter us back. Our work will be doomed to destruction, and ourselves to shame. For ever and ever to be good is to be well. An eternal truth lies in the facts that the same word ‘good’ means pleasant and right, and that sin and sorrow are both called ‘evil.’ All sin is self-inflicted sorrow, and every ‘rogue is a roundabout fool.’ So ask yourselves the question: ‘Is my life in harmony with, or opposed to, these omnipotent laws which rule the whole field of life?’ Still further, this same fact of the two-fold aspect and operation of the one way of the Lord will be made yet more evident in the future. It becomes us to speak very reverently and reticently about the matter, but I can conceive it possible that the one manifestation of God in a future life may be in substance the same, and yet that it may produce opposite effects upon oppositely disposed souls. According to the old mystical illustration, the same heat that melts wax hardens clay, and the same apocalypse of the divine nature in another world may to one man be life and joy, and to another man may be terror and despair. I do not dwell upon that; it is far too awful a thing for us to speak about to one another, but it is worth your taking to heart when you are indulging in easy anticipations that of course God is merciful and will bless and save everybody after he dies. Perhaps-I do not go any further than a perhaps-perhaps God cannot, and perhaps if a man has got himself into such a condition as it is possible for a man to get into, perhaps, like light upon a diseased eye, the purest beam may be the most exquisite pain, and the natural instinct may be to ‘call upon the rocks and the hills to fall upon them’ and cover them up in a more genial darkness from that Face, to see which should be life and blessedness.

People speak of future rewards and punishments as if they were given and inflicted by simple and divine volition, and did not stand in any necessary connection with holiness on the one hand or with sin on the other. I do not deny that some portion of both bliss and sorrow may be of such a character. But there is a very important and wide region in which our actions here must automatically bring consequences hereafter of joy or sorrow, without any special retributive action of God’ s.

We have only to keep in view one or two things about the future which we know to be true, and we shall see this. Suppose a man with his memory of all his past life perfect, and his conscience stimulated to greater sensitiveness and clearer judgment, and all opportunities ended of gratifying tastes and appetites, whose food is in this world, while yet the soul has become dependent on them for ease and comfort, What more is needed to make a hell? And the supposition is but the statement of a fact. We seem to forget much; but when the waters are drained off all the lost things will be found at the bottom. Conscience gets dulled and sophisticated here. But the icy cold of death will wake it up, and the new position will give new insight into the true character of our actions. You see how often a man at the end of life has his eyes cleared to see his faults. But how much more will that be the case hereafter! When the rush of passion is past, and you are far enough from your life to view it as a whole, holding it at arm’s length, you will see better what it looks like. There is nothing improbable in supposing that inclinations and tastes which have been nourished for a lifetime may survive the possibility of indulging them in another life, as they often do in this; and what can be worse than such a thirst for one drop of water, which never can be tasted more? These things are certain, and no more is needed to make sin produce, by necessary consequence, misery, and ruin; while similarly, goodness brings joy, peace, and blessing.

But again, the self-revelation of God has this same double aspect.

‘The way of the Lord’ may mean His process by which He reveals His character. Every truth concerning Him may be either a joy or a terror to men. All His ‘attributes’ are builded into ‘a strong tower, into which the righteous runneth, and is safe,’ or else they are builded into a prison and torture-house. So the thought of God may either be a happy and strengthening one, or an unwelcome one. ‘I remembered God, and was troubled’ says one Psalmist. What an awful confession-that the thought of God disturbed him! The thought of God to some of us is a very unwelcome one, as unwelcome as the thought of a detective to a company of thieves. Is not that dreadful? Music is a torture to some ears: and there are people who have so alienated their hearts and wills from God that the Name which should be ‘their dearest faith’ is not only their ‘ghastliest doubt,’ but their greatest pain. O brethren, the thought of God and all that wonderful complex of mighty attributes and beauties which make His Name should be our delight, the key to all treasures, the end of all sorrows, our light in darkness, our life in death, our all in all. It is either that to us, or it is something that we would fain forget. Which is it to you?

Especially the Gospel has this double aspect. Our text speaks of the distinction between the righteous and evil doers; but how to pass from the one class to the other, it does not tell us. The Gospel is the answer to that question. It tells us that though we are all ‘workers of iniquity,’ and must, therefore, if such a text as this were the last word to be spoken on the matter, share in the ruin which smites the opponent of the divine will, we may pass from that class; and by simple faith in Him who died on the Cross for all workers of iniquity, may become of those righteous on whose side God works in all His way, who have all His attributes drawn up like an embattled army in their defence, and have His mighty name for their refuge.

As the very crown of the ways of God, the work of Christ and the record of it in the Gospel have most eminently this double aspect. God meant nothing but the salvation of the whole world when He sent us this Gospel. His ‘way’ therein was pure, unmingled, universal love. We can make that great message untroubled blessing by simply accepting it. Nothing more is needed but to take God at His word, and to close with His sincere and earnest invitation. Then Christ’s work becomes the fortress in which we are guarded from sin and guilt, from the arrows of conscience, and the fiery darts of temptation. But if not accepted, then it is not passive, it is not nothing. If rejected, it does more harm to a man than anything else can, just because, if accepted, it would have done him more good. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. The pillar which symbolised the presence of God sent down influences on either side; to the trembling crowd of the Israelites on the one hand, to the pursuing ranks of the Egyptians on the other; and though the pillar was one, opposite effects streamed from it, and it was ‘a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these.’ Everything depends on which side of the pillar you choose to see. The ark of God, which brought dismay and death among false gods and their worshippers, brought blessing into the humble house of Obed Edom, the man of Gath, with whom it rested for three months before it was set in its place in the city of David. That which is meant to be the savour of life unto life must either be that or the savour of death unto death.

Jesus Christ is something to each of us. For you who have heard His name ever since you were children, your relation to Him settles your condition and your prospects, and moulds your character. Either He is for you the tried corner-stone, the sure foundation, on which whosoever builds will not be confounded, or He is the stone of stumbling, against which whosoever stumbles will be broken, and which will crush to powder whomsoever it falls upon, ‘This Child is set for the rise’ or for the fall of all who hear His name. He leaves no man at the level at which He found him, but either lifts him up nearer to God, and purity and joy, or sinks him into an ever-descending pit of darkening separation from all these. Which is He to you? Something He must be-your strength or your ruin. If you commit your souls to Him in humble faith, He will be your peace, your life, your Heaven. If you turn from His offered grace, He will be your pain, your death, your torture. ‘What maketh Heaven, that maketh hell.’ Which do you choose Him to be?

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These two verses are to the same purport with those next before, intimating the happiness of the godly and the misery of the wicked; it is necessary that this be inculcated upon us, so loth are we to believe and consider it. 1. Strength and stability are entailed upon integrity: The way of the Lord (the providence of God, the way in which he walks towards us) is strength to the upright, confirms him in his uprightness. All God's dealings with him, merciful and afflictive, serve to quicken him to his duty and animate him against his discouragements. Or the way of the Lord (the way of godliness, in which he appoints us to walk) is strength to the upright; the closer we keep to that way, the more our hearts are enlarged to proceed in it, the better fitted we are both for services and sufferings. A good conscience, kept pure from sin, gives a man boldness in a dangerous time, and constant diligence in duty makes a man's work easy in a busy time. The more we do for God the more we may do, Job 17:9. That joy of the Lord which is to be found only in the way of the Lord will be our strength (Neh 8:10), and therefore the righteous shall never be removed. Those that have an established virtue have an established peace and happiness which nothing can rob them of; they have an everlasting foundation, Pro 10:25. 2. Ruin and destruction are the certain consequences of wickedness. The wicked shall not only not inherit the earth, though they lay up their treasure in it, but they shall not so much as inhabit the earth; God's judgments will root them out. Destruction, swift and sure destruction, shall be to the workers of iniquity, destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. Nay, that way of the Lord which is the strength of the upright is consumption and terror to the workers of iniquity; the same gospel which to the one is a savour of life unto life to the other is a savour of death unto death; the same providence, like the same sun, softens the one and hardens the other, Hos 14:9.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The way, &c.--that is, God's providence sustains the righteous and overthrows the wicked (Hos 14:9).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 29. The way of the Lord is strength] In the path of obedience the upright man ever finds his strength renewed; the more he labours the stronger he grows. The same sentiment as that in Isa 40:31.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(29) The way of the Lord—i.e., in which He has directed men to walk. (Comp. Psa_25:12; Mat_22:16; Act_9:2.) It is a strong protection to the righteous, for no harm can happen to them while they follow it (1Pe_3:13); but it is destruction (not, there is destruction) to the workers of iniquity, because the fact of their having rejected the teaching of God will be their condemnation. (Comp. 2Co_2:15-16.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. shall be] These words should not be introduced. “The way of the Lord” is the subject of both clauses of the verse: it is at once a “stronghold” and a “destruction,” or “ruin” (see Pro_10:15, note: the Heb. word is the same) to the two opposite classes of men. So R.V.:

The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright;

But it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

“The way of the Lord” may mean either His way of dealing with men (comp. Psa_18:30, [Heb. 31]), or the way which He has prescribed for men to walk in (Psa_27:11). In the latter case, it may be the destruction of those who do not keep it, because to have known and not kept it is their condemnation. Comp. Joh_3:19. See also Hos_14:9.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The way of the Lord is strength to the upright,.... Who are upright in heart and life; who have the uprightness or righteousness of Christ imputed to them, and right spirits renewed in them; in consequence of which they walk uprightly, Pro 10:9. To these "the way of the Lord is strength"; both the way which he himself takes, and the way which he prescribes and directs his people to walk in: the way in which he walks in providence towards them is the strength of them; he is their shade on their right hand; he shows himself strong on their behalf; he is their fortress and strong tower, as the God of providence, even a wall of fire round about them: and the way he takes in the discoveries of his love; in the communications of his grace; in the application of precious promises; by granting the influences of his Spirit; and by leading to his Son, the than of his right hand, made strong for himself and them, is very strengthening unto them: so likewise the way in which he leads his people, the way of his word and ordinances; which, as it is pleasant, so strengthening; the more they walk in them, the stronger they are; they go from strength to strength, they grow stronger and stronger by them; while they are waiting on the Lord in them, their spiritual strength is renewed: moreover, walking in the way of the Lord gives them spirit and courage, and makes them bold and intrepid; so that they fear no enemy, nor any dangers and difficulties, but go on their way cheerfully and pleasantly;

but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity; not to all that do iniquity, for no man lives without sin; but to those who give up themselves to it, make a trade of it; whose course of life is sinful, and do nothing else but sin; this their way leads to ruin; destruction and misery are now in all their ways, and will be the certain issue of them, even destruction of both soul and body; which will be swift and sudden, come upon them before they are aware, and will be everlasting; it will continue for ever, and there will be no deliverance from it. The Word (x) signifies terror and consternation; and such seize on a wicked man at death, to whom death is the king of terrors; and which will still more strongly possess him when in hell he lifts up his eyes; and also at the day of judgment, when he shall see the Judge coming in the clouds of heaven, sitting on a fiery throne, and shall hear him pronounce him cursed. The clause may be rendered, but the way of the Lord is "terror to the workers of iniquity" (y); the way of the Lord in his works of providence, in which he oftentimes does terrible things in righteousness; and he is very terrible to men in his judgments here, and will be more so in his awful procedure at the last judgment.

(x) "pavor", V. L. Pagninus, Tigurine version, Mercerus, Gejerus; "consternatio", Vatablus, Cocceius, Michaelis. (y) So Mercerus, Gejerus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Omit “shall be.” The meaning is: “The Way of Yahweh,” i. e., the Divine Order of the world, has its two sides. It is “strength to the upright, destruction to the workers of iniquity.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Evil. conscience upbraids them, and punishment is before their eyes. (Haydock) Magna vis est conscientiæ. (Cicero, pro Mil.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

The way of the Lord; either,

1. The way or course of God’s providence in the government of the world. Or rather,

2. The way of God’s precepts, as God’s way or ways are most commonly understood in Scripture, or walking in God’s ways; for this is opposed to working iniquity in the next clause.

Is strength; gives strength, i.e. either courage and confidence, or support and protection from that destruction here following.

Destruction, or terror, or

consternation, as the word properly signifies, and many render it. The design of this verse is to show that piety is the only true policy.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Way of the Lord — The divine order, or providence.

Is strength — A bulwark, or defence, or fortress, to the upright; לתם, lattom, to the perfect.

But destruction… workers of iniquity — It destroys them.

Thus, “the Lord’s way” has two sides — it defends the righteous, but visits the incorrigibly wicked with destruction. Compare Psa_18:30; Deu_32:4; Hos_14:9; Pro_21:15; Psalm 17:30.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The way of the Lord; i.e. the way in which he has commanded, men to walk the way of his commandments, (Psa_25:12 Psa_119:27) that which the Pharisees confessed that Christ taught. (Mat_22:16) The Septuagint renders, "the fear of the Lord," which practically gives the meaning. Or "the Lord"s way" may be his moral government of the world. Strength; better a fortress (Ver. 15). Doing his simple duty, a good man is safe; for, as St. Peter says, "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous of that which is good?" (1Pe_3:13) But destruction shall be; better, but it (the way of Jehovah) is destruction. The two effects of the Law of God are contrasted, according as it is obeyed or neglected. While it is protection to the righteous, it is condemnation and ruin to sinners (see on Pro_21:15) So Christ at one time calls himself "the Way"; (Joh_14:6) at another says, "For judgment I am come into this world"; (Joh_9:39) and Simeon declares of him, (Luk_2:34) "This Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel". (comp. 2Co_2:15, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The way - The way of God's precepts. Strength - Gives strength, support, and protection.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

21 The lips of the righteous edify many;

But fools die through want of understanding.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Observe how the gladness of the righteous is "their strength." (Neh 8:10 .) In the roughness of the way — "Go in this thy might" — is the cheering voice — "Have not I sent thee?" (Jdg 6:14 .) "He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." (Isa 40:29 .) This promise, however, implies help for our work, not rest from our labour. We shall have strength for the conflict. But "there is no discharge from the war." There is supply for real, not for imaginary, wants; for present, not for future, need. The healthful energy of the man of God is also supposed. He is alive in the way. His heart is set in it. This makes it practicable. What before was drudgery is now meat and drink. Indeed, the more godly we are, the more godly we shall be. The habit of grace increases by exercise. One step helps on the next.

Thus was the way of the LORD strength to the upright Nicodemus. His first step was feebleness and fear. Walking onwards, he waxed stronger (Job 17:9 ); standing up in the ungodly council, and ultimately the bold confessor of his Savior, when his self-confident disciples slunk back. (Joh 3:2 ; Joh 7:50-51 ; Joh 19:39 .) Innate sufficiency we have none. The strongest in their own strength shall "faint and be weary." The weakest in the Lord’s strength shall "march on, and not faint."†1 Thus, in the hour of temptation, the upright will find their way to be strength. (2Ch 15:2 .) Joseph in Potiphar’s house (Gen 39:10 ); Obadiah in Ahab’s house (1Ki 18:3 ); Daniel in the Persian court (Dan 6:10 ), held on a fiery trial, sustained from on high. Thus — thus alone — "the righteous shall hold on their way; going from strength to strength; strengthened in the LORD, and walking up and down in his name." (Job 17:9 . Psa 84:5-7 . Zec 10:12 .) When we look at our own resources, we might ’as well despair of moving sin from our hearts, as of casting down the mountains with our fingers.’†2 Yet none of us need to shrink from the confession — "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Php 4:13 .)

No such resources support the workers of iniquity. Captives instead of soldiers, they know no conflicts; they realize no need of strength. Even now "destruction is in their ways" (Isa 59:7 . Rom 3:16 . Isa 50:11 ), and the "voice of the Judge will fearfully seal their doom. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity." (Luk 13:27 . Pro 21:15 . Job 31:3 . Psa 36:12 .)

Footnotes:

†1 Isa 40:31. Bishop Lowth’s Version.

†2 Bishop Reynolds.

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs (1846) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

v. 29. The way of the Lord is strength to the upright, a bulwark for the innocent or pious; for as long as they follow it, they are safe; but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity, that is their final lot.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The way of the Lord is a stronghold for the innocent, but ruin for those who work iniquity For they do not follow it, and it exacts retribution from them.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.