“For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalms 119:89). This citation is included in the opening verses of this week’s “Christian Science Quarterly” Bible Lesson, on the subject of “God.” The promise that God’s message is permanent can bring such comfort.
But we might wonder, what does God’s Word convey? An image of God as humanlike might come to mind – speaking with both love and anger, expressing both kindness and wrath. Yet a couple of lines later, the Lesson states, “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalms 119:103).
Sweetness. That’s what God offers. And this message is echoed in citations throughout the Lesson, bringing light to the varied ways that God communicates pure goodness to us.
Are we always listening to that tender voice of divine Truth? There seems to be a mixture of messages that come to thought. And it can feel difficult to distinguish between God’s voice and everything else.
Clarity comes through studying the Bible and its companion textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. For instance, a passage from Science and Health, some of which appears in the Lesson, contrasts the testimony of Spirit, God, with the claims of material sense. Material sense says, in part, “I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. … What a nice thing is sin! How sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness of matter” (p. 252).
Spirit, on the other hand, expresses the settled nature of truth, saying in part, “I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, imperishable glory, – all are Mine, for I am God” (pp. 252-253).
God is infinite good, and expresses infinite goodness in each of us, His completely spiritual creation. As we recognize the falsity of messages that would limit God or His children, we find we’re able to shut the door on them. This purifies our consciousness and enables us to accept God’s Word as our constant companion – illuming God and His offspring’s “imperishable glory.”
It’s heartening to know and experience how God’s Word isn’t ever theoretical – what God communicates is the actuality of being, through and through.
Christ Jesus showed us how listening to God delivers us from whatever isn’t entirely good. In one example featured in the Lesson, Jesus heals a man suffering from paralysis (see Matthew 9:2-8). Jesus tells him, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” A moment later, he encourages the man, who had been carried to him on a bed, to rise and go home.
These statements reflect God’s comforting truth of the perpetual holiness, health, and ability of His creation. And the man does get up and walk home, free of the condition.
In our own time, people are benefiting from that same efficacy of God’s Word, as experiences published in this very column confirm. And the last 100 pages of Science and Health record permanent healings that came from reading that book, which explains the laws of God underlying Jesus’ healing works.
As we love, accept, and hold to God’s Word, thoughts that aren’t settled in sweetness, or that suggest any inharmony or misalignment with God, are laid bare as false, without foundation … without a real speaker.
“Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence,” the Lesson quotes from Psalms 50:2, 3. God continuously speaks! How beautiful it is that nothing can ever hide or halt God’s communication with His children, and nothing can ever really come between us and our joyful listening to God’s sweet and forever settled Word.