Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. That's Psalm 37 16, one of the verses from today's text. It reminds us that earthly abundance, wealth, fame, power, will all come up short. After all, how could our souls ever be fully satisfied with anything other than the Maker for which they were made? We're continuing our Living by Faith series, focusing today on the satisfaction that comes from a confidence and surrender to the Savior.
Let's listen in. We are discovering what it looks like to live by faith, and Psalm 37 is painting that portrait for us. And the Lord is going to add a few more strokes to that portrait this morning from Psalm 37, verses 16 through 20.
I would invite you to turn there with me and your copy of the scriptures. Psalm 37, beginning at verse 16. Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the blameless and their heritage will remain forever. They are not put to shame in evil times. In the days of famine, they have abundance, but the wicked will perish. The enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures. They vanish like smoke.
They vanish away. It's God's word for God's people this morning. What the psalmist is telling us, the psalmist is David himself. He is contrasting two foundations for life. Two foundations. He says at the beginning of verse 16, better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.
So when he uses the word better, he's making a moral judgment. What is at the foundation of your life? Well, there are really two options. That which is created or the creator. At the foundation of your life is that which you build your life upon. That which supports you. That which upholds you. That which you trust. That in which you place your confidence. That in which you find your satisfaction. That which motivates you.
Ultimately, it is what you worship. And so he says, better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. What we find is that what David is saying, if we're looking to the abundance of things in this life to be the foundation for our life, David makes it plain that more is not necessarily better.
He says in Proverbs 15, 16, better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. The issue is not the treasure itself. The issue is what you make of that treasure.
The stuff under the sun. The created material, including people. The issue is not the wealth, but what you make of it and where you put it in your life. So he begins with the wicked. Let's begin with the wicked now. And who are the wicked?
We talked about that a little bit last week. The wicked are those who counter God. In verse 20, it calls them the enemies of God. But you can be countering God either actively or passively by simply marginalizing him. I don't need God. I can make it just fine in life, thank you very much, which is a delusional way of living.
And yet most people are in that category, aren't they? But the interesting thing is that though they're countering God, they seem to be making it just fine. How does the Scriptures refer to that? Look at the end of verse 16, the abundance of many wicked. That word abundance is an interesting word.
It is a word that means noise. It can be translated turmoil or crowd or hordes. Now, the word abundance appears there in verse 16, but contrast it now with verse 19. Look at the second half of verse 19 with me. This is verse 19 is speaking of the righteous. In the days of famine, they have abundance.
So there's a contrast here. The abundance of the wicked is the noise, the turmoil. Why? What's all the noise about? It's their preoccupation, their acquisition, their protection, and all the expectations that come with having a lot of stuff because you need all that stuff.
Why? Because it's the foundation of your life. It's what defines you. It's where you find your security. And that stuff might even include positions.
It might include accomplishments. But see, all of that is created stuff. It's not the creator. And so it can be very much a preoccupation to us. So what David is referring to here is those who have it all yet live in quiet desperation. And sometimes that desperation isn't so quiet. Sometimes it's frankly just a quiet loud. And sometimes it plays itself out in the music that we hear today. But let me give you an example of this. Jerry Oppenheimer's book is entitled Crazy Rich.
Now, I don't take that personally, okay, but I just want you to know that. Crazy Rich, power scandal and tragedy inside the Johnson and Johnson dynasty. You recognize the name, don't you? He recounts the story of the family made unimaginably wealthy by Band-Aids and baby powder. There are endless stories of at least four generations and there isn't one noble person in the lot.
Extravagances, we can't fathom, the worst of family relationships, runaway addictions, brutally raw power. They were and are rotting in their wealth. For example, he says when Robert Wood Jr., Johnson Jr. died, he left an immense fortune to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But his last words to one of his nurses before he died at the age of 74 were, and I quote, I have millions and I would give everything I have if someone could make me well.
Do you see that? Unimaginable wealth and yet here he's living in quiet desperation. What is the foundation of your life?
I don't want to just pick on the rich either of those unimaginably wealthy. William Falk was a magazine editor and he was vacationing in the Virgin Islands. He found himself longing for a simple life. He confessed this.
He says, I have no real wants. If anything, my life is too full. That's precisely the problem, says author Greg Easterbrook in his book, The Progress Paradox. Most Americans enjoy, this is fascinating. This is us.
Okay, you listening? Most Americans enjoy a higher standard of living than 99.4% of the 80 billion humans who have ever lived. Yet we're not content. Our lives are characterized by too much of a good thing, excess at every turn. We're surrounded by so much food. We're tempted by so much entertainment and information and stuff to buy that we sleep three hours a day less than our grandparents. At times it leaves you standing at the horizon wondering what it would be like to chuck it all. This is common.
I like what F.B. Meyer said about this. God has set eternity in our heart and man's infinite capacity cannot be filled or satisfied with the things of time and sense. That's exactly what Solomon said, isn't it? In Ecclesiastes, life under the sun is what?
What did he say? Vanity. It's meaningless. If all you have is under the sun, it's meaningless.
What is your foundation? That is one possible foundation of life, things that are created. But the righteous on the other hand, that's why he says in verse 16, better is the little that the righteous has.
So really the amount of wealth that you have really is not the point, is it? Because you can have little and yet if you have the right foundation to life, it can be a very satisfying life. The righteous in verse 18, it refers to them as the blameless. It is speaking of those whose lives are grounded in God. Your life is grounded in God.
It is not grounded in, in other words, it is not defined by or secured by the created stuff under the sun. Your life is grounded in God. And to put that in biblical terms, it is what the Apostle Paul says in Christ. You are in Christ because we need to look at this Old Testament text through the New Testament lens because God has given us that new revelation. If I am in Christ, it means that his righteousness has been credited to me. Therefore, I am what he calls righteous, not because I'm such a good person, but because I have the righteousness of God. I am in Christ, which means I am reconciled to God.
As Paul says, my life is hidden with Christ in God. That's a foundation. That is a different foundation than placing your trust in the stuff of this created life, including people. Now, this next statement, I want you to get it. Okay, write it down, please. I want you to know this because it's true. The foundation of your life is the fountain of your satisfaction. This series is on living by faith. What is at the foundation? Because faith is your confidence in an object of trust.
What is that object of trust? What is the foundation of your life? Because that foundation then becomes the fountain of your satisfaction. And if your foundation of life is the created thing or even created persons, it will pass away.
It is fleeting and you will be left wanting. But if the foundation of your life is infinite God, then your foundation and your satisfaction are sure and lasting. It is truth. Listen to what Oswald Chambers says. He says it well. The man or woman who does not know God demands an infinite satisfaction from other human beings, which they cannot give. And in the case of the man, he becomes a tyrannical and he becomes tyrannical and cruel. It springs from this one thing, the human heart must have satisfaction, but there is only one being who can satisfy the last abyss of the human heart and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
Whisper: medium.en / 2025-01-24 12:16:19 / 2025-01-24 12:20:59 / 5