“One man among a thousand I have found, But a woman among all these I have not found.”
Solomon has looked and looked and sought and truth, and here is his conclusion about the upright man or woman. They are both extremely rare. As to why this is true, he is still unable to understand, but either way, what he does know is quite distressing.
Solomon really emphasizes the fact that he has sought out an answer because he uses the word “find” or “found” six times in these three verses. What did he find out about the habits of man? “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.”
It’s so hard to find a righteous person because our natural inclination is to go our own way, to seek anything and anyone but God.
Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way…” That’s exactly what Solomon found.
Knowing that my human desires are to follow after the world and my own desires, am I striving to combat my nature and seek after God? Romans 3:10,11 says that no one is righteous and that no one seeks God. I don’t want that passage to be true of me.
Focusing on God, I want to be that one-in-a-thousand righteous man. Or better yet, I pray that more men would seek after God, increasing the number of upright men out of a thousand.
The math has been done, it has been deduced,
The upright are rare, they are hard to find.
One in a thousand, the good are reduced,
For they seek their own, not as God designed.
