NOTES for Pro 16:2

The image of God weighing a person's life ("soul"), as if on scales, has roots in deep prebiblical antiquity. This image became key for describing what in the pagan world was called the judgment of the gods, and in some biblical books it appears as an element in the description of the last Judgment.

It is quite natural that such weighing becomes a moment of truth for a person. Any of us is inclined in one way or another to justify ourselves and our actions; truly sober spiritual analysis of one's own life requires a special revelation, which not everyone receives. But for God all movements of our heart, all our motives and intentions, are transparent. At first glance He understands "how much we weigh," or, using images more familiar to us, what we are worth.

It would seem that sufficiently rich life experience and elementary honesty with oneself should free anyone from illusions about oneself. But the matter is not so simple: the real causes of one's own actions, those very motives and intentions that determine them, are usually truly hidden from the inner sight of fallen man. Life experience alone is not enough here, just as the ordinary honesty available to a person who does not want to deceive himself is not enough.

It is no accident that both Jewish and Christian prayer practice know a special kind of appeal to God asking Him to show the one who prays the real state of his soul, to let him understand the true causes of the actions he has committed and see the sins that hinder normal relationships with God. After all, it is better to get rid of everything that keeps one from living a full spiritual life now than to learn about it at the dread Judgment.