The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be short.
– Proverbs 10:27
Oh, that’s a really good Proverb. Let that soak in. Let me say it one more time, “The fear of the Lord prolongs a life, but the years of the wicked will be short.”
Proverbs 10:27 shows the long-term wisdom of living in reverence before God.
Now, this is where we have to remember that Proverbs are not guarantees. They’re not intended to be interpreted that way. In other words, this doesn’t mean that if you fear God you’re going to live the longest life possible and if you’re wicked you’re going to live a short life. I mean, we know from experience, we know from the Bible that’s not true. There are faithful God-fearing people who die young, and there are wicked God-hating people who live long. So this is not like a guarantee for all of life.
But this is where I find, well, two things so helpful about this verse. One, we know this is true in the long term, that the fear of the Lord leads to eternal life. Those who fear God, who trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives will experience life forever and ever. And those who do not, those who don’t trust in Jesus, who die in their sin will experience eternal death. So we know that’s true in the long term.
But even here in this world, this is where I love D.A. Carson’s comments on Proverbs 10:27, he said, “The fear of the Lord really does add years to one’s life. On the whole, a life lived in this way will adopt fewer bad habits, will learn to trust and therefore reduce stress, will honor work offered up to the Lord, will cherish family and friends, and so forth. And in God’s universe, all of these things have effects”. Oh, that’s such a good word from D.A. Carson. How the fear of the Lord is actually good for your life in this world.
Proverbs 10:27 challenges us to exchange fear of the world for fear of the Lord.
And that one phrase that he points out, and it’s really where I want to hone in on us praying for each other as one of the examples D.A. Carson uses, is that the one who fears God will learn to trust and therefore reduce stress, which will lead to a longer, healthier life. And so I want us to pray for each other that we would trust the Lord, that we would fear God in a way that leads us to trust him and not have stress in this world. Obviously, knowing we’re all facing and will face circumstances that can be stressful, but the fear of the Lord is the healthy way to respond to the stressful circumstances of the world. Reduce stress by trusting in the Lord.
So God, we praise you for life in you, for the promise of eternal life with you, with all who fear you. God, we could just sit here for hours at this moment and just praise you and thank you for making eternal life possible for us far beyond the grave. We will praise you forever for that. And at the same time, God, we pray that you would prolong the quality of our lives here through trust in you and fear of you and reduction, we pray of stress.
This verse contrasts the life that grows through fear of God with the loss that comes from ignoring him.
God, I pray that over my own life. I pray that over every single person that’s listening to this right now, that you would help us all to fear you, to trust you, to know that all things are in your hands and you’re infinitely trustworthy. Therefore, we have no reason to worry or be anxious about anything, to be stressed about anything because we can trust in you, because we fear you.
God, we pray for the prolonging of life that you’re talking about here. And we pray that you would keep us from not trusting you and not fearing you in a way that actually takes away life from us. And God, we pray that you’d help us to spread eternal life in you to others, to others around us, and to a world of stress, to others around the world.
Prayer for the Juhaynah People
God, we pray for the Juhaynah Hazara people of Sudan. For 400,000 of these Muslim men, women, and children. They don’t know, have not even heard the good news of eternal life in Jesus through faith in Jesus. Not through work for you, but through faith in your grace, mercy, and love. God, we pray that the gospel would spread to the Juhaynah Hazara people of Sudan. That they might be reached with your grace, and they might have their lives prolonged forever. We pray all this according to your Word, which we love, in Proverbs 10:27. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
