How do [the wicked] flee when no one pursues? He has that within which drives him on—an accuser in his conscience, and this he carries about everywhere. Just as it would be impossible to flee from himself, so neither can he escape the persecutor within; but wherever he goes, he is scourged and has an incurable wound! But not such is the righteous.
[The righteous] will fear none of the things here enumerated, as it is written, “The righteous man is bold as a lion,” daring all things through faith, not as one who tempts the Lord but as one who has confidence in Him, and as one who is armed and arrayed in the power of the Holy Spirit. And because God is his constant concern, God will also say concerning him, “I am with him in affliction, and I will rescue him, and glorify him.”
The wicked flee when no one pursues. He who is not strong in faith sometimes deserts faith of his own accord, even if no persecutor pursues him, when he renders himself similar to the infidel by thefts, perjuries, fornications, poisonings, and other such crimes.
But the righteous are as confident as a lion, etc. The lion does not tremble in the face of beasts because he knows he prevails over all. Thus, the security of righteous men is rightly compared to a lion, because when he sees anyone rising against him, he returns to the confidence of his mind, knowing that he surpasses all adversaries, for he loves only Him whom he cannot lose being invincible.
[AD 407] John Chrysostom on Proverbs 28:1