Rashi: This is like "Serafim Omedim mi'Ma'al Lo" (Yeshayah 6:2). I.e. in front of the Chacham, the path of life is adorned and ready.

R. Yonah: One who lives in a city, he will not agree to abandon that city and make it secondary, until he chooses another city, Then, he will not settle in his current city, to prepare Kelim for his house and build houses and buy fields and vineyards. I explained this in Sha'arei Teshuvah ¹ .

Malbim: A Maskil notes that the way of life is above, and the way of death is below. Even if it is hard to ascend and very easy to descend, for the intrinsic weight of bodies pulls down, and ascending is against gravity, when one knows that descent is to the grave, he will make all attempts to ascend and not descend. Similarly, he understands with his Sechel that above is the way of life, i.e. going in the way of the Nefesh and Sechel, whose root is above. There, he will attain eternal life.

Malbim: He will invigorate himself to ascend the ladder of Sechel, to avoid descending in the way of the body and its desires, whose root is below. There is the grave and eternal destruction.