Lilac Ministries

Bible Study Lessons

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Scripture: Psalm 37:12-122

Topic: The Little of the Righteous

As we continued our Bible Study in Psalm 37 we came across verses that speak to how some people are inclined to inflict harm upon the suffering and upon the righteous. We asked ourselves why this sort of thing happens. Some of the answers we discussed were that people do this to build themselves up or that they are jealous for what other people have or that they have a different perspective of what is “right” and what is “wrong.”

Some other thoughts we discussed along this line included the idea that we might have too much of a presumption of “us vs them” in our thoughts. Jesus seems to try to blur this line by speaking to the idea that divisions of right and wrong a less with individuals within a group and more in the division of each of our hearts.

A little further along in the Psalm is the phrase “Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked.” The first part of our discussion centered on the challenges that having a lot of money can have. For instance, money changes family and friend relationships, it makes a person the focus of others who want to take the money from them and it can create an unhealthy desire to constantly want more of it or what it can buy.

We closed our thoughts with a spiritual perspective on “the little of the righteous.” We recognized that each of us do have a little righteousness and some wickedness in our hearts. We can choose to exercise the wicked part to kick someone we don’t like when they are down, or we can pray for their blessing. When we do the former, we damage our spirits with the poisons of hatred or unhealthy anger. When we do the latter, Jesus works a healing and strength within our hearts. We become the vessels of love that express Christ to others.

Better, indeed, is “the little of the righteous.”