Weight

Psalm 37: 16

Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;

This one seems easy. Even if it isn’t much, what I have in righteousness is greater than all the wealth of wickedness. We get so obsessed with quantity in this world that we often neglect the power of quality. I guess that is what a throwaway society does to us. I want more and I want it now. But a closer look at this verse seems to throw us a little quantitative curve. Not only is the little that the righteous have better than the wealth of the wicked; it is better than the wealth of MANY wicked. I think of the ancient Egyptian belief of one’s heart being measured against the feather to determine one’s fate in the afterlife. I imagine an army of wicked men one the scales, balanced on the other side against a single, lonely righteous man.

One who had lived a life of weight. The weight of God’s righteousness. A single life of great value in the kingdom of God. And I think, I want to be that type of man.