Walk with God in ‘paths of righteousness’

“Probation After Death,” the title of this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson, might set some readers to thinking and questioning: Why probation? and, Why after death?

As I see it, probation suggests a test of character. It implies a need for personal scrutiny of every aspect of our life-experience, including our choices along the way, our motives and actions. Life doesn’t end with the human experience of death; at some point our faults and shortcomings have to be faced and corrected.

But this week’s Golden Text comforts us with the thought that we are not alone in this task: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord” (Ps. 37:23). Here, steps can mean the way we live our lives. And the well-known Psalm 23, featured in the Responsive Reading that follows the Golden Text, elaborates on this. In realistic, profound examples, the provision God makes for His children is detailed—likening it to the care a faithful shepherd gives to his sheep. The psalm rings with conviction that God is providing everything essential to our well-being, never leaving us on our own.

The third verse of that psalm, “He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake,” specifically addresses the choices we make in life. Righteousness comes from the Hebrew word sedeq, and is concerned with keeping a right relationship with God and with one another. Another reading of this verse is “He renews my life; He guides me in right paths as befits His name” (Tanakh, the Jewish Bible). Not only this verse, but the whole psalm, which is a psalm of trust, leads right into other verses from Psalm 37, which begin Section I.

Psalm 37 is called a “wisdom” psalm because it has many of the characteristics found in what is called Wisdom Literature, which is intended to teach about divinity and about virtue—like, for example, the maxims in the book of Proverbs. Psalm 37 is really a collection of proverbs. In ancient Israel, proverbs were used primarily to give instruction. The purpose of “wisdom” was not so much to accumulate knowledge as to learn how to live wisely—to develop good attitudes toward life, and to practice good conduct in relation to God the Creator and to one another. In this way the probationary experience is marked by spiritual upliftment, even joy.

In this Lesson, words and phrases such as trust, do good, dwell, delight, commit, rest, wait patiently, and depart, instruct human action, and are followed by examples of how this action relates people to God’s goodness. Verses 17, 20, and 27 in Psalm 37 warn us about evil. Then verse 28 goes right back to God and to what He loves. The thrust of verse 3, “Trust in the Lord,” is the recurring theme that ties this psalm of 40 verses together and explains how one can “be perfect” and whole (Gen. 17:1, cit. 3) as one travels the probationary road.

The word perfect, and variations on it, appears several times in citations from Science and Health in the first section of the Lesson, and several times in other sections. To be perfect, whole, can seem like a tall order. But these words from Science and Health describe how it is possible: “When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much” (p. 254, cit. 3).

Accounts in each section of this Lesson illustrate the effects of trusting our lives to God, which ultimately eliminates death from human experience. Enoch peacefully “walked with God” (cit. 5), Elijah and a widow were saved from starvation (cit. 8), and Jesus restored Lazarus (cit. 12); after which we read of Jesus’ own resurrection and ascension (cits. 14 and 15).

Science and Health encourages us to aim in this direction, though we don’t need to do it all in a single leap, because “one moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity” (p. 598, cit. 8). And, later in the Lesson, we are assured that “we walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by following the example of our Master in the understanding of divine metaphysics” (p. 192, cit. 21).

This Lesson helps me see that probation in this context is timeless, and relates to the ongoing “spiritual understanding of Life and Love.” It’s an opportunity to prove to ourselves that trust in God is a key element of our relationship with Him, and well worth nurturing.

Virginia Stopfel teaches courses at Bible Study Seminars. She lives in Rockport, Massachusetts.

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