The Right Path

Fads and trends come and go, clothes go in and out of style quickly and along with these fickle seasons come buzzwords. These words hang around for a while and then after they have made their mark on our culture, they retire to a status quickly defined as retro. What was once groovy, became cool, then graduated to rad, and ended up being sick— Go figure?! Cell phones and the internet have brought us words and abbreviations that this soul needed help translating. I was probably the last person to figure out that fb was facebook and ty was thank you…lol…literally.

This caused me to take pause when I had advanced to the line in David’s 23rd Psalm in my study. It’s where David stated that God led him into paths of righteousness. Righteousness, it is a word that I like to refer to as a ‘church’ word. Even most of us who walk by faith and grew up in church aren’t quite sure of all of its implications, despite that we have used the word a lot. In some places it has been simplified to other words like goodness and straightness, and while righteousness does have characteristics of both goodness and straightness, those words don’t totally encompass David’s idea of what he tried to tell us.

Webster dictionary defines righteousness as “a moral uprightness, correct, justifiable.” Some translations of the bible in reference to David’s Psalm refer to it as being led in a good direction. This is also true, but I feel it lacks the wholeness of Davids’ thoughts. I believe righteousness and its meaning, is a word in my vocabulary that I have let my culture and my own ideas distort. If I am totally honest, it has almost become retro. I made it a point to acquaint myself with it. I made myself try to reabsorb what David proclaimed when he said, “He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name sake.” I wanted this word to be  examined from a perspective of what I refer to as ‘in the daily.’

In our culture, all you have to do is mention the phrase ‘credit score’ and folks’ mouths go dry and their armpits start to sweat. Due to the influence that money, materialism and the power to sell or buy, our credit scores can make us or break us. Recently my car insurance company sent out a letter notifying me that future changes (both increase and decreases) may be based on my credit scores. This means that overspending and  the accumulation of debt, even potential debt can impact the amount it costs me to drive a car. There are also a variety of companies and consultants who are out there to aide us with credit restoration, lest fail on our own. 

What does this mean regarding the path of righteousness that David spoke of? For David, since he proclaimed his followship and fellowship with the good Shepherd, He was able to be upright and was headed in a good direction! Because David had a personal relationship with God and trusted God to supply, lead and restore, Davids credit with God was good. Not because of what David did but because of  the character of God, Himself.

For me, it means my earthly credit score may take a hit now and then, but my spiritual credit score is perfect because of the righteousness that Christ has imparted to me. This means, I am in right standing, upright, justified. I am a righteous person and able to be led in a good direction.

Scripture declares it this way: Christ has paid all our debts and shared with us His own righteousness. (2 Corinthians 5:21) It means when the Lord judges me (which He does and will), God doesn’t see all my sins, mistakes, faults, bad choices and failures. Rather He sees the righteousness of Jesus. Because I have a relationship with Christ and accepted Jesus as the only sinless Son of God who came to earth to rescue me, and ransom me from my broken relationship with God, I share in the righteousness of Christ. Some folks are depending on their own spiritual credit to get them into heaven. Good deeds, morality, and religious practices can be reflections of a righteous person, but on their own —alone, do not make us righteous. Only the goodness of God imparted to us through Christ can give us this right standing with a Holy God. 

David would learn this lesson later in his own life, painfully but victoriously. After he drank deeply from the pool of his own desires during the middle of reign as King over Israel, he used his own limited arsenal to solve his bad credit with God. Adultery, Murder, and a cover up. I think we would use the term scandalous. It was after the death of his child with Bathsheba that he grievously repented and that his relationship to God was restored. Our simple take? God extended to him a new line of credit. David started over and got back on the right path he had once been led to by God. How do we know this? The scriptures reveal God called David a man after his own heart after this horrible array of choices. 

Does this mean that God takes these acts of moral failure lightly? Absolutely not! But God is the restorer by nature. He is motivated by love to forgive even the deepest of transgressions. We have this proof on the cross when Jesus Himself, forgave the thief who repented of a lifetime of criminal activity. Without Christ’s  forgiveness, I had to consider what was this thief’s’ spiritual credit score up to this point?  How do I think he made it to the promised paradise that came from Christ’s own lips? Righteousness— not his own, but the righteousness that Christ imparted to him when he repented. Now, had the thief lived, he would have had the chance to pursue a different path. Why? When an encounter of repentance results in forgiveness, earthly pursuits can change, and ultimately directs one’s soul towards a new path. The new path comes from the change inwardly in people, not the other way around. 

In these troubled chaotic days when there is moral failure saturating our culture, it is a good reminder that an outward change must be the result of a change of hearts. I am reminded that even the strongest will, the most morally determined person will fail without God’s righteousness. He alone is the author of all goodness, all morality, and all uprightness. The Lord is the only leader who knows where the good direction is. I am reminded daily, that the right path is obscure at times and it may include difficult terrain. Let’s be real for a moment: it’s the most unpopular route that no one wants to take. My father taught me that doing the right thing would always take longer, be more inconvenient and less comfortable and probably cost more money. He said he wanted us to have realistic expectations about good choices, but he said if we followed God it would be worth it. 

Righteousness is not just a word. It is not just a duty. It is not an institution, it is the gift of a way of life God promises to the sheep (people) who will follow Him. I am so thankful I have this restoring comfort in my life. I am not left with a command to live a moral life without being left with an example, and the strength to follow it. I am not left without direction and I do not have to aimlessly wander to find it. I laugh and tell my Life group “The Bible is God’s version of the Internet. It’s always connected, totally believable and truthful.  It is the quintessential map for anyone looking for the right path.”

Sharon