Bible Studies

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Our first step on the path gave examples of right and wrong action. The enlightenment we are seeking is not so much about the understanding of the nature of good and evil, but about knowing ourselves and the ability we have to choose one or the other. This is the work that our journey through life is all about: we must make choices and only we can determine the basis for making them. We can ask for help and look for guidance, we read and study and gain experience but in the end, no one else can decide for us what we make to be more or less important. In the end our decisions determine our actions and then we become what we do.




2. Responsibility

Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine themselves great? The officials of nations and leaders of people work to free themselves from all constraints. They wish to be able to break all the rules of right living with no consequences. The truth shall make fools of them all, exposing their folly to ridicule.

There is a real King who has all power, and his Son knows the truth that is set on the hill of Zion for all to see. I will declare the decree: the Lord has said to me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. We shall have the heathen for an inheritance and the whole earth We will possess. We shall make the earth clean.

Wake up you officials, learn the truth you judges. Search for the truth and be afraid; your responsibility is great and if you falter only a little you will be destroyed. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish. Trusting the truth is the path to understanding.





We have taken only two steps on the path through the Psalms and already we face a hard lesson. It is easy to blame our leaders for their mistakes and cry out for justice, but what are we doing with the power we have in our own lives? We have learned not to trust deceitful men but we need to see how our power does not make us wise either; it makes us more responsible. In the first lesson we saw a small child growing up: at first he is selfish and wants all things, then he learns how to get what he should not have, then cries and is angry when he cannot have his way.

Like growing up, the second lesson is about responsibility. Because we believe in the presence of higher truth, we have faith that the larger awareness does not forget our actions. We can take joy from knowing that nothing is hidden or forgotten and all actions have some influence and consequence. We are very small in the overall size and pattern of the universe and cannot hope to understand how it all works, but we can know that we were made a part of it and that it does work.

The lesson here is very simple and very sharp: we are accountable to the laws of the place where we live if we want to stay there. Our actions and our words create certain results; what we do causes other things to happen (Mt 12:36-37). Whether we bump cars in a traffic accident or do someone a favor; ourselves and others are influenced by what we do and we continue in the same direction until some force causes us to move in another direction.

We see the earth around us but we know we are members of God’s Kingdom at the same time, and the rules of the first do not always apply to the second. We face death in the world and we know human justice is imperfect. Many wrong deeds go unpunished and evil men can seem to prosper. The temptation is to fear death and acquire as much comfort as possible while trying to ignore the inevitable. More terrifying to me is the prospect of facing eternal life without any preparation.

In this psalm the three components of living: action, thinking and emotion, are used together and repeatedly to illustrate the meaning of this lesson. The act of rage, the thinking of imagine, and the emotion of greatness; acting in working to free themselves, thinking in breaking the rules, and the emotions of folly and ridicule; the truth set on the hill, declaring the decree, possessing inheritance; and finally the act of wake up and search, understanding responsibility, and being afraid and trusting.

Trusting the truth is the path to understanding. The truth for us is that we come into this day the person who is the result of all we have done. Today, we are what we we choose to be doing right now. Tomorrow, we will become whatever we have the desire and power to accomplish.

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