Any person who is favored, it is known that he has fear of heaven, as was said, “And the mercy of the Lord from the world onto the world is upon those who fear Him” (Sukkah 49). We should ask, for we see that there are many righteous ones who people hate. And vise-versa, there are many secular people and transgressors who are liked.
We can interpret this through ethics. Our sages teach a person how to measure so he will know if he has fear of heaven or not, as it is written, “One should know in one’s soul whether or not he is a complete righteous” (Berachot 61b).
Therefore, he was given a sign: If the Creator favors him, it is certain that he, too, favors the Creator. It is as Baal HaSulam said about what Moses said, “If I am favored in Your eyes.” He asked how Moses knew that the Creator favored him, and he replied that since Moses saw that he favored the Creator, it must be that the Creator favored Moses.
There is a rule from the Baal Shem Tov, “The Lord is your shade,” meaning however a person walks with the Creator, so the Creator walks with man. This is the meaning of “The mercy of the Lord is upon those who fear Him.”