“Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked will be broken but the Lord sustains the righteous.
The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their inheritance will be forever.
They will not be ashamed in the time of evil, and in the days of famine they will
have plenty.  But the wicked will perish, and the enemies of the Lord will be like
the glory of the pastures.  They vanish – like smoke, they vanish. 
The wicked borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous is gracious and gives. 
For those blessed by Him will inherit the land, but those cursed by Him will be eliminated.” 
~~Psalm 37:16-22~~

Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked.  

PAUSE TO PONDER that!!  “Little” being more than “abundance”.  In our economy this makes zero sense.  But not so in God’s economy!  Why is that?  

Because “the Lord sustains the righteous”.  

• The word “sustains” is an “-ing” word.  The Lord keeps on sustain-ING the righteous.  Sustains (samak) means to prop, literally or figuratively; reflexively it means to lean upon or take hold of. 

God is support-ING
God is sustain-ING
God is uphold-ING the righteous.  

PAUSE TO PONDER.  A facet of (samak) that needs to be noted is the “reflexive” aspect.  God is propping us up as we are leaning into Him.  This brings to mind the principle found in  James 4:8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you”.  God will hold us up, but we have to acknowledge we need Him and choose to lean into Him.  That requires humility.  Ditch the “me do!” attitude.  

THE CONTRAST in CONSEQUENCES

The Blameless (Righteous/Upright)

The Lord knows the days of the blameless.  God is in control.  He is Sovereign.  Knows (yada) is an “-ing” word.  There is not a day in our lives that is outside of God’s knowing.  What a comfort that is!!  He knows when we took our first breath.  He knows when we will take our last.  And He knows every breath in between.  

“Your eyes saw my unformed body; 
all the days ordained for me were written 
in your book before one of them came to be.” 
~~Psalm 139:16~~

Their inheritance will be forever.  When my dad passed away, there was money there for me, but it isn’t money that would last forever.  I could spend it and have it no more.  It could be stolen and I would have it no more.  But the inheritance from God will never be exhausted.  It cannot be stolen. It has been assigned by God and it is forever.  

• We have life in Christ.  It has no end.  
• We have God’s precious promises in His word to cling to.  They have no end.
• We have the opportunity to lay up treasures in heaven where moth and dust don’t corrupt and where thieves can’t break in and steal them (Matthew 6:20).  
• ALL of these inherited things last forever!! 

They will not be ashamed in the times of evil.  Ashamed (bûš) means to pale, to be ashamed, but can also mean to be disappointed or delayed.  

• In the “NOW” – Something can make the color drain from my face (pale) when I am shocked or grasped by fear.  When I think of being disappointed, I know that can’t apply to my God.  He will NEVER let me down.  When I think of something being delayed, I know that doesn’t apply to my God because “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise” (2 Peter 3:9).  We serve a God who is always on time.
• In “ETERNITY” – Our “inheritance” that will last forever.  In the worst of times (and that sounds a lot like the times we live in), we will be ok because our hope and confidence look toward our eternal inheritance.  We can endure the now (“times of evil”) because we have the promise of a blessed eternity with our God!  

They will have plenty in the days of famine.  I find comfort in this verse.  The time in which we live, with empty shelves in our stores and prices for food that is on the shelf escalating to outrageous highs, not to mention the consistent rise in the price of fuel, we can rest in the fact that God promises we will have plenty.  

This brings back a memory of being in a Saturday morning prayer group with an elderly lady named Grace.  My husband was still working in the field as an ironworker and there were times he would be laid off for 6 months or more.  Those were scary times for me.  I shared that with my prayer group and Grace encouraged me with a story.  She shared a time when her children were small.  Her husband was working out of town and he wasn’t able to come home due to the distance and time restraints. He would send money home, but it was not enough to feed 6 children because he had to pay his living expenses out of his pay before he could send money home.  Grace had been praying one morning because she had nothing to feed her children for supper that night.  As she was claiming Psalm 37:25, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread”, she heard a thump on her front porch.  When she was done praying, she got up to look and when she opened her door there were several bags of groceries sitting there.  She was able to feed her children for a solid week from what was given to her.  I claimed that promise as well, and that very next week, my hubby got a job in South Carolina, working overtime, and he made enough to pay our bills for a solid month!  In just 10 days!!  God’s promise was available to Grace who was in her 80s, and it was available to me when I was in my 30s.  God’s promises are timeless, y’all!!

The Wicked 

Their arms will be broken.  Arms here (zᵊrôaʿ) is used to refer to the seat of human strength.  Broken (šāḇar) means to be maimed, crippled, wrecked, or figuratively, to be crushed.  

• Maimed: to mutilate, disfigure, or wound seriously
• Crippled: one that is disabled or deficient in a specified manner : something flawed or imperfect
• Wrecked: to reduce to a ruinous state by or as if by violence
• Crushed: to squeeze or force by pressure so as to alter or destroy structure : to reduce to particles by pounding or grinding : to subdue completely

No matter how you slice that up, I don’t want that on my plate!  Haha

They will perish – <āḇaḏ> – means to wander away and lose oneself.  It also has the meaning of perishing by extermination.  As I consider this definition, I’m getting the feel that <āḇaḏ> is something the wicked brings on themselves.  If one is wicked, wandering from the truth and losing themselves in sin, their outcome is <āḇaḏ>.  It reminds me of how people will say, “I don’t believe a loving God would send someone to hell”.  And they are right.  God doesn’t send someone to hell.  Hell (a place created for Satan and his demons) is chosen by people who reject the offer of salvation.  

Rejection of salvation is choosing hell.  

They will vanish like smoke.  Vanish <kālâ> means to come to an end, cease, be finished, perish.  That’s pretty self-explanatory.  

They will be eliminated.  Eliminated <kāraṯ> to cut off, down, or asunder.  Think of this in light of the culture of the Old Testament.  In Leviticus it speaks of someone being <kāraṯ> from their people because they ate flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to the Lord. That person was unclean and was cut off from his people (excommunicated).  In Exodus 31:14, a person who defiles the sabbath by working is <kāraṯ> and “they shall be surely put to death”.  In Leviticus 20:17, a man commits incest with his sister, he shall be <kāraṯ>.  Considering that most of Leviticus 20:10ff describes sexual sins causing one to die childless, this could be another meaning of <kāraṯ>.  Any way you slice it, <kāraṯ> indicates a serious offense against God that has serious consequences.  

We are free to make our choices,
but we are not free 
of the consequences of those choices.

CHOOSE WISELY