Do the righteous flourish, or perish with no one taking it to heart?

The two passages describe different things, and each explains itself. Psalm 92 sets two kinds of flourishing side by side. The wicked flourish “as the grass” (92:7), quickly and briefly, and are destroyed for ever. The righteous flourish like the palm and the cedar, trees that live long and stand firm, because they are “planted in the house of the Lord” (92:13) and still bear fruit in old age (92:14). It is a picture in poetry of a life rooted in God and secure in the end. It does not promise that no good person will ever suffer or die young.

Isaiah 57 laments a corrupt age in which good people die, perhaps violently, and no one cares. Many have thought of the reign of Manasseh, who “shed innocent blood very much” (2 Kings 21:16). But Isaiah goes on to say what this death means for the righteous man: he “is taken away from the evil to come” and “shall enter into peace” (57:1-2). God spares him the calamity that is coming, as he promised King Josiah that he would be “gathered into thy grave in peace” before the disaster fell (2 Kings 22:20). So the righteous may perish in the eyes of the world while flourishing in God’s keeping, and the wicked may flourish for a season while heading for ruin. The psalm and the prophet agree.