Psalm 37:16 says: “Better is the little of the righteous than the abundance of many wicked.” Psalm 37 presents several contrasts of the righteous and the wicked, and enjoins God’s people not to envy the wicked. Verse 16 is a part of that instruction. As God’s people, we are not to envy the prosperity that rebels against God inexplicably seem so often to enjoy.

We are to be content without the bigger homes, newer cars, and never-ending “must have” devices that entrap so many. Envying the material blessings of the world can lead to evildoing on our part — either compromising what we know is right, or neglecting our families and kingdom service to achieve it. Instead we are to learn to be content without these things. This is one of the biggest challenges that Christians in a materialistic society face. We must not fall prey to the belief that we “deserve” all the things that we see others enjoy — or worse yet, construct a faulty theology that promises abundance for all of God’s people here and now. Instead we are to “fight the good fight of faith”, and learn to be content with “the little” of the righteous.