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"Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find"

Text: Ecclesiastes 7:28

A LIFE-LONG SEARCH

Solomon shared that he was looking for “something”. He did not disclose what he was exactly looking for outrightly though.

“‘Here is what I have found,’ says the Preacher,
‘Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,
Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:
One man among a thousand I have found,
But a woman among all these I have not found.
Truly, this only I have found:
That God made man upright,
But they have sought out many schemes.'”
Ecclesiastes 7:27- 29

1. “‘Here is what I have found,’ says the Preacher”

a) He was now ready to disclose what he had found.

b) He took time to explain the process he adopted in his search.

2. “Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason”

a) He searched high and low.

b) He added and tallied what he found out.

c) He added a new angle, “the reason”.

3. This becomes intriguing

a) He is looking for that “special something”.

b) He wanted to find out what “the reason” was beneath what he was looking for.

c) But he did not state what he was actually looking for.

4. “Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find”

a) He now adds that “his soul” was searching for that “special something”.

b) But he could not find it, though he had been adding things to his search.

5. “One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found”

a) He searched for that “special something”.

b) Among the men he found just one in a thousand.

c) Among the women he declared that he had not found this “special something” among them.

6. “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright”

a) This was what Solomon was looking for.

b) The truth that God had made man (mankind) upright.

7. “But they have sought out many schemes”

a) Both men and women had corrupted God’s original plan.

b) Perhaps one in a thousand men may be “upright”.

c) He had never come across a woman who was truly upright.

d) He had come across many who were evil and cunning.

e) Many have their own agenda (schemes).

i) Uprightness is an external expression of true righteousness.

ii) The truly upright person best fulfils what God designed him to be.

iii) Such a person (man or woman) is indeed hard to find.

iv) That upright person is “one in a thousand” indeed!