Albert Barnes Commentary Proverbs 3

Three words carry on the chain of blessings:

1. Length of days (see the Psalms 91:16 note);
2. Years of life, that is, of a life worth living (Psalms 42:8);
3. Peace, tranquility inward and outward, the serenity of life continuing through old age until death. Compare 1 Timothy 4:8.

The two elements of a morally perfect character:

1. “Mercy,” shutting out all forms of selfishness and hate.

2. “Truth,” shutting out all deliberate falsehood, all hypocrisy, conscious or unconscious.

The words that follow possibly refer to the Eastern custom of writing sacred names on pieces of papyrus or parchment and wearing them around the neck as charms and talismans against evil. Compare, however, 1 Peter 3:3–4.

Compare Luke 2:52. These are the two conditions of true human growth.

In preaching trust in God the moralist anticipates the teaching that man is justified by faith. To confide in God’s will, the secret of all true greatness, is to rise out of all our anxieties and plans and fears when we think of ourselves as the arbiters of our own fortunes, and so lean to our own understanding.

Not in acts of solemn worship or great crises only, but in all thy ways; and then God will make the path straight and even.