Proverbs 11:23

The desire of the righteous [is] only good: [but] the expectation of the wicked [is] wrath.

Ver. 23. The desire of the righteous is only good,] i.e., So far as he is righteous, or spiritual, he "delights in the law of God after the inward man," Rom 7:22 "willing in all things to live honestly." Heb 13:18 Evil motions haunt his mind otherwhiles, but there they inhabit not. Lust was a stranger to David, as Peter Martyr observes out of Nathan's parable; - "There came a traveller to this rich man." 2Sa 12:4 The main stream of his desires, the course and current of his heart ran upon God and godliness. Psalms 119:4,5 ; Psalms 39:1 ; Psa 39:3 He resolved to do better than he did. "The spirit ever lusteth against the flesh"; howbeit when the flesh gets the wind and hill of the spirit, all is not so well carried. As the ferryman plies the oar, and eyes the shore homeward, where he would be, yet there comes a gust of wind that carries him back again, so it is oft with a Christian. But every man is with God so good as he desires to be. In vitae libro scribuntur qui quod possunt faciunt, etsi quod debent non possunt. a They are written in the book of life that do what good they can, though they cannot do as they would.

But the expectation of the wicked is wrath,] i.e., The good they expect proves to be "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," Rom 2:8-9 woeful perplexities and convulsions of soul, which will be so great and so grievous, as will make them rave and rage with madness and fury, especially because they looked for a better state.

a Bernard.