Proverbs 10:3

The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish.

The Lord and the righteous

I. God has bountifully provided even for the ungodly. Has He shown such concern for the wicked as to provide for them in the gospel “a feast of fat things full of marrow,” and will He disregard the righteous?

II. God is peculiarly interested in the welfare of the righteous. The righteous are God’s “peculiar treasure above all people.”

III. God has pledged His word that they shall never want anything that is good. Exceeding numerous, great and precious are the promises which God has given to His people. He may seem to leave His people in straits, but it shall be only for the more signal manifestation of His love and mercy towards them.

1. A word of reproof. Many do not make their profiting to appear as they ought.

2. A word of consolation. Some may put away from them this promise under the idea that they are not of the character to whom it belongs. (Skeletons of Sermons.)

The famishing of the soul

It is of temporal supplies the wise man is here speaking. The “famishing of the soul” might be understood, with great truth, of the proper and peculiar life of the soul. But the connection demands a different interpretation. Soul is often used to signify the “person” and the “animal life.” It may have reference to that weakness and fainting of spirit which is the result of the corporeal exhaustion produced by the extremity of want. (R. Wardlaw.)