Proverbs 10:28 The hope of the righteous shall be gladness; but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.
The sharp, black-and-white, contrast between the righteous (the believers) and the wicked (the unbelievers) regards the eternal future of each group. The hope of the one will be gladness; the expectation of the other will perish. All people have at least some kind of glimmer of hope that the future will be brighter and better than the present. That hope will either be fulfilled or be dashed.
One cannot overemphasize the huge gulf between eternal life and eternal death. Earthly experiences cannot come close to describing the difference. The best description of the difference is in Jesus’ words in Matthew 25: “Enter thou into the joy of the Lord,” and “Come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you,” over against “Outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and “Depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for the devil.” And finally Jesus says, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.”
The promise of hope realized becomes even more wonderful when we see the difference between that and expectations crushed. A part of that realized hope will be eternal joy and gladness.
So no matter how dark the present may feel or how bleak the future may appear, nothing and no one can take away the hope of the righteous, which is gladness.