Open in the app
Mid-century illustration of a tree planted by a pool of water on a path

Proverbs 15:29 · World English Bible

Proverbs 15:29 Meaning Yahweh Is Far From the Wicked

Yahweh is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.

Read it in the app

What does Proverbs 15:29 mean?

Love never withdraws; it is the mind that hides. When a mind is committed to attack and judgment, it has built a wall of guilt between itself and the peace it fears, and from behind that wall love seems distant and unhearing.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 15:29 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

Love never withdraws; it is the mind that hides. When a mind is committed to attack and judgment, it has built a wall of guilt between itself and the peace it fears, and from behind that wall love seems distant and unhearing. The distance is entirely the mind's own making, the shadow its guilt throws to keep separation feeling real.

Prayer is not a message sent across that gap but the laying down of the wall itself. The mind that has forgiven, that no longer needs to accuse, discovers it was never separated at all; love was always near, and only the wish to condemn had made it seem far. To be heard is simply to stop hiding.

The LORD: the presence of love, always near, that a mind's guilt alone makes seem distant and deaf.

Christian Psychology lensGo deeper in the app

Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 15:29 today

  1. Instead of asking for something today, try just dropping one grudge you are holding. See how much closer everything feels afterward.
  2. Reach out first to the person you have gone quiet with. The wall was mostly yours and you can take it down from your side.
  3. When you feel completely alone in something, at your desk, in the car, at 11pm, say honestly where you are instead of performing fine. Being heard starts with stopping the hiding.

Who or what feels far from me right now, and did I build that distance myself?

The same truth in other traditions

Sufism · Rumi

The one you are searching for has been beside you the whole time. It was your own veil, not their distance, that hid them.

Advaita Vedanta

You were never separated from what you are looking for. The seeking itself is the only distance there is.

Tao Te Ching

The way is not far off. It is close, and only effort and resistance make it seem unreachable.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

Free · No account needed

Read all of Proverbs 15 through 17 lenses

Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.

Get Lensightful on the App Store