Tag: Proverbs 10:29

Strength

Commonplace –

“The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity” (Proverbs 10:29).

In Proverbs 10:29, Solomon tells us that our strength is rooted in the Lord’s way. What is the way of the Lord? Righteousness. Each time we choose the right, the good way, our strength to do so increases. It begins by choosing the right way in the small things: choosing to be kind, choosing to tell the truth, choosing to be peaceful and practice self-control. These are not always easy things to do, but our strength grows in the doing, in the over and over and over, again. As Matthew Henry words it in his Commentary,

“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 are hearts are enlarged to fit 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” (695).

In contrast, constantly choosing to be mean, to lie, to lose our self-control only leads to destruction. These things don’t only hurt others but hurts the person doing them, too.

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. “Proverbs .” 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