Tag: Hope in Gladness

Gladness

Commonplace –

“The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish” (Proverbs 10:28).

Throughout my Proverbs journey, so far, one theme I notice over and over is how much we have in common with Solomon. While our modern age seems so different from that of the ancients so much is still the same.

This morning as I was reading Proverbs 10:24, it reminded me of something I heard in a movie I watched last night,The Pursuit of Happyness. I have seen the movie before and remember liking it, but it has been many years since my first time watching it. One thing that really stuck with me on this viewing was the narrator’s comment on Thomas Jefferson, the writer of the Declaration of Independence, and his use of the words “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration. Along with life and liberty, the Declaration proclaims the pursuit of happiness is a right of all people. In a similar way, Solomon is pointing out in Proverbs 10:24 that the righteous place their hope in gladness. As our earthly government should secure our right to pursue happiness, so our heavenly government secures our right to hope in gladness. While our secular pursuit of happiness is dependent on what we consider would make us happy, our heavenly pursuit of gladness is universal, the pursuit of eternal life, where we will no longer be encumbered by our sins. That hope is the same today as it was in Solomon’s time and will continue to be the same in the future, our unchanging hope in gladness.

Matthew Henry provides the following beautiful summary in his Commentary:

“the hope of the righteous shall be gladness; they shall have what they hope for, to their unspeakable satisfaction. It is something future and unseen that they place their happiness in (Rom. 8:24, 25), not what they have in hand, but what the have in hope, and their hope will be shortly swallowed in fruition, and it will be their everlasting gladness. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. “Proverbs 10:28.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

© 2025 Angela Hormberg