(7) The wicked are overthrown.—By the righteous judgments of God (Psalm 37:35-36), or by the storms of temptation and trouble, which, when they come, overwhelm the house built on the sand of earthly hopes, and not on the “Rock of ages.” (Isaiah 26:4; Matthew 7:24, sqq.)

12:1 Those who have grace, will delight in the instructions given them. Those that stifle their convictions, are like brutes. 2. The man who covers selfish and vicious designs under a profession of religion or friendship, will be condemned. 3. Though men may advance themselves by sinful arts, they cannot settle and secure themselves. But those who by faith are rooted in Christ, are firmly fixed. 4. A wife who is pious, prudent, and looks well to the ways of her household, who makes conscience of her duty, and can bear crosses; such a one is an honour and comfort to her husband. She that is the reverse of this, preys upon him, and consumes him. 5. Thoughts are not free; they are under the Divine knowledge, therefore under the Divine command. It is a man's shame to act with deceit, with trick and design. 6. Wicked people speak mischief to their neighbours. A man may sometimes do a good work with one good word. 7. God's blessing is often continued to the families of godly men, while the wicked are overthrown. 8. The apostles showed wisdom by glorying in shame for the name of Christ. 9. He that lives in a humble state, who has no one to wait upon him, but gets bread by his own labour, is happier than he that glories in high birth or gay attire, and wants necessaries.Shall deliver them - i. e., The righteous themselves. 7. Such conduct brings a proper return, by the destruction of the wicked and well-being of the righteous and his family. Are not; both they and their families shall suddenly perish. The house; the family or posterity.

The wicked are overthrown, and are not,.... With such an overthrow as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. The kingdom of the beast shall not only be full of darkness, as at the pouring of the fifth vial, and be in the utmost confusion, but it shall be brought to ruin and destruction; which stands opposed to "the house of the righteous", in the next clause: the ten kings, the supporters of antichrist, shall be overcome by the Lamb, with whom they will make war; the beast, and the false prophet, shall be taken by him, and destroyed; and Babylon shall sink like a millstone into the sea, and be no more; the wicked shall be consumed out of the earth; these Heathens shall be no more in the land; the man of sin shall never revive again;

but the house of the righteous shall stand; not his material dwelling house; nor the earthly house of his tabernacle, his body; nor his family, as the generality of interpreters, for the family of the righteous may be extinct, and especially not continue as righteous; but the church of God, as the gloss upon the text, the house of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth; the church which is built on the Rock, Christ; the mountain of the Lord's house, which shall be established upon the top of the mountains in the latter day, when the kingdom of antichrist shall be overthrown, and be no more. This is the same with the household of faith, and the household of God, and here called "the house of the righteous"; because they dwell in it, have a place and a name in it better than sons and daughters; and indeed none but they ought to be in it, that have on the wedding garment, the robe of Christ's righteousness; and who walk uprightly, and work righteousness. Now this house shall stand; its foundation, which is Christ, is sure, an everlasting one; its pillars are firm and stable, the ministers of the word, who will be to the end of the world; the ordinances of it will continue till Christ's second coming; the doctrines of it are the word of God, which standeth for ever, when all flesh is as grass. This house stands, notwithstanding all the persecutions of men; it has stood against all the fury of Rome, Pagan and Papal, and still will continue, notwithstanding the craft of false teachers to undermine it; and though it may sometimes be in a waste and ruinous condition seemingly, yet the Lord will raise it up again, and glorify this house of his glory, and make it beautiful and honourable: it shall stand, because it is the Lord's house, of his building, and where he delights to dwell in; because it is the house of Christ, which he, Wisdom, has built; and where he presides as a Son, as a Prophet, Priest, and King; and because it is the house where his people are born and brought up, and therefore shall continue tilt everyone are brought in; and because it is built on a rock, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail, Matthew 16:18; compare with this Matthew 7:24.

The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of the righteous shall stand.