This verse picks up where Proverbs 28:28 left off and concludes with another look at the downside when the wicked take power. People rejoice when they have fair, gracious, and loving people in authority over them; they groan when an unpredictable, greedy, hateful tyrant rules over them. In this fallen world we all experience cycles of rising and falling rulers, both righteous and wicked. Yet above them all is our righteous Lord, whose blessed rule will never end, and who here and now uses the cycles of righteous and wicked rulers for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).
2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.