“The little / the righteous have / is better – than the abundant wealth / of the wicked persons – for the arms / of the wicked / shall be broken – but Yhwh / is watching over / the righteous.” This section is acrostic:

A The little the righteous have is better

B than the abundant wealth of the wicked.

B1 for the arms of the wicked shall be broken

    A1 but Yhwh is watching over the righteous.

The small word “for” is the crux of the section, the pivot for the acrostic (so to speak). And it emphasis, yet again, that this psalm is not attempting to inaugurate its student into detachment from worldly goods but, rather, that one should not envy the goods the wicked have because they will soon be destroyed. The reference to the arms being ‘broken’ should call to mind the fact that in the previous section the bows of the wicked will soon be ‘broken’. One should be wary of wanting to be in the wicked’s camp when their destruction is so close. Better to stay with ‘the little’ than the ‘abundance’ of the wicked. One important addition this section provides is that Yhwh is “watching over the righteous”. Interestingly, Yhwh is only described as ‘seeing’ two things in this psalm: that the end of the wicked is soon (vs. 13) and that he is ‘watching over the righteous’ (vs. 17). This is not by accident, as it points to the fact that Yhwh sees everything. However, the difference in the two is that whereas he sees the end of the wicked and does nothing, his ‘watching over the righteous’ is a protective gaze. He will shield them while the arms of the wicked are broken. Likewise, whereas when Yhwh sees the wicked they are subject to his derisive laughter, the righteous are portrayed as special objects of his affection.