Trust In The Way

I think I’ve figured something out. The latest clue was in Psalm 37—


³ Trust in Adonai, and do good;
settle in the land, and feed on faithfulness.
⁴ Then you will delight yourself in Adonai,
and he will give you your heart’s desire.



I’ve always had trouble with the Psalms’ insistence that if we are righteous we will be vindicated; that good things will come to us if we keep the way of the Lord; and that wicked people will get their comeuppance. The Psalms seem to be saying that if we are righteous, and do good, we will be safe and happy always. They repeat the theme over and over that God will destroy the wicked and give refuge to the ones who trust in God.

I don’t know why it took so long for the penny to drop— for me to realize what the Psalms are actually saying is that it’s apples and oranges. What wickedness cares about bears no relationship to what righteousness considers worthwhile.

Of course, the Zen context helped a great deal. If I put the Psalms’ comparison of the ‘righteous versus the wicked’ into other terms— such as ‘awakening versus delusion’ for example; or ‘grasping as opposed to patient presence’, then I might start to get the picture.

What the Psalms are saying is very clear. If our hearts are in the right place; if our whole being is engaged with compassion and right-mindfulness, then we are safe. If safety and security have lost all meaning for us; if ambition no longer calls to us; if power and prestige have become nothing more than empty words, then what effect can wickedness have on us? None. Those illusions literally have no power over us, because they bear no relationship to what it is that is truly worth loving. Chasing after such misconceptions makes us ignorant and deluded. What happens when it’s suddenly clear to us that the things we’re chasing after with such stubborn eagerness are just smoke and mirrors thrown up by our own minds?



²⁰ For the wicked will perish;
Adonai’s enemies will be like sheep fat,
ending up as smoke, finished.
²¹ The wicked borrows and doesn’t repay,
but the righteous is generous and gives.
²² For those blessed by [Adonai] will inherit the land,
but those cursed by him will be cut off.

²³ Adonai directs a person’s steps,
and he delights in his way.
²⁴ He may stumble, but he won’t fall headlong,
for Adonai holds him by the hand.

How is it then, that ‘evildoers’ will perish? Not as the victims of divine retribution, but as “ghosts clinging to bushes and grasses.” Not one of the things on which wickedness exhausts its passions is even the least bit real.

What is it, then, that the ‘enemies of God’ are borrowing? Not something that can be repaid, that’s for sure. Animosity doesn’t understand generosity, and it can’t see that it’s just scrounging from our own imaginations.

What “land” is it then, that ‘the righteous’ will inherit? Certainly not the kind of real-estate that requires a mortgage and property taxes; or one that needs to be insured against damage. This terrain is not the domain of cleverness; it does not resemble the world of ‘have’ and ‘have-not’.

What “delight” is it, then, that God takes in the way a person ‘directs their steps’? Certainly not the kind of glee that comes from ‘putting one over’ on some gullible victim of a confidence game. This enjoyment is not the kind that compares itself to the unhappiness of another; it doesn’t know how to gloat.



No, the means by which we understand these things is shown in the first verses I quoted from the Psalm, which I’m taking the risk of interpreting with a Buddhist sort of slant—







Trust in the Way, and act with compassion:

grounded in What Is; nourished by constancy—

you will savor the Great Truth

and your deepest yearnings will be satisfied.