Safety Belongs to the Lord

"The horse is prepared against the day of battle," writes Solomon, "but safety is of the Lord" (Prov 21.31, KJV). The ESV translates it: "but victory belongs to the Lord." The Hebrew word can mean "salvation, rescue, deliverance," so it can mean either of the two translations, or more likely, both.

God's providence, as worked out in the Scriptures, is responsible for both victory and safety. This does not mean that we do not prepare, that we just sit back and expect God to win the victory with us doing nothing, "the horse is prepared against the day of battle." It means that ultimate victory and safety in any situation is firmly in the hands of God and of his providential care and conduct of history.

Here is what the New American Commentary says about these verses. "Verse 31 gives a concrete example, from a military setting, of what v. 30 describes abstractly. Readying a horse for battle is the application of technical skills in pursuit of a goal (in this case, military victory). Just as a trained, prepared army can be defeated if God wills it, so also all efforts at success in life (the goal of wisdom) without God are vain. The text does not demean practical skills (e.g., horsemanship), for that also is part of wisdom; but it says that all knowledge is hollow without God."