We have seen this proverb before in Proverbs 22:3. There it is in a section on integrity, but here Solomon is considering the subject of comfort, consolation and contentment.
The result of this is that man’s approach to many problems is flawed, whether it be the bringing up of children, the punishments administered by the criminal justice system, or an approach to society’s myriad troubles which assumes basic human honesty. Society bans smacking by parents, as if it had a right to intrude into the home and take away the authority which God has given to every parent. On account of the rare case of extreme and unnatural parents who lack proper restraints, and who cause harm to their children, government intervenes, failing to understand what is in the heart of a child and what are the proper means to deal with the child’s fallen nature. Criminal reform also suffers from a deliberate naïvety in dealing with people as if wayward human being cans be reprogrammed by human intervention. The result is that society is endangered, by naïve social reform programs. The libertarian wants free access of all to the internet and hates the idea of any censorship as interfering moralising. As a result the world reaps a terrible reward, but the prudent, although they are surrounded by these things, are many falls and able to find comfort in the way that God teaches them to live.