Zero tolerance to liars is impressive, important and nowadays seems like an improbably and very high bar.
Our culture has embraced fake news and stunning fabrications while the virtue of honest truth is sometimes seen as suspect.
How did we get here?
Throughout time and in every culture the values and virtues of honesty hold the highest esteem and demand that people not only try to avoid falsehood but also go out of our way to prevent harmful speech that leads us away from being truthful with each other and establishing trust. In truth we must trust. Lies dismantle the fabric of ethical society.
Today’s psalm, attributed once again to David, is about the poet-king’s desire for a life inside the heart and home of the divine, a life of faith and justice. The way to get there is by sticking to the truth and not tolerating lies or liars:
לֹֽא־יֵשֵׁ֨ב ׀ בְּקֶ֥רֶב בֵּיתִי֮ עֹשֵׂ֢ה רְמִ֫יָּ֥ה דֹּבֵ֥ר שְׁקָרִ֑ים לֹֽא־יִ֝כּ֗וֹן לְנֶ֣גֶד עֵינָֽי׃
One who deals deceitfully
shall not live in my house;
one who speaks untruth
shall not stand before my eyes.
Ps. 101:8
David, of course, is famous for quite a few dishonest and immoral moments so pearhaps this psalm belong in the series of penitent poems, taking stock of where we all mess up and still aspire higher.
The Babylonian Talmud suggests that honesty is one of the four virtues that will determine people’s capacity’s to encounter - or not - sacred reality in their lives. In Tractate Sota, Rabbi Jeremiah claims:
“ Four classes of people will never greet the Divine Presence: The class of cynics, and the class of flatterers, and the class of liars, and the class of slanderers.”
What do these four forms of behavior have in common? Why are these the four to miss out on mystical union with Divinity?
All of them distort reality with words and attitudes that may flatten complexity, veer from truth or get negative instead of lifting what’s worthwhile. The truth has many facets and perhaps it’s best to feel it in the heart -- we know, deep inside, when someone is not quiet honest with us even if they may get away with it by convcining our minds. Or justice system.
When it comes to honest living, this psalm, like so many other chapters, calls on us to make it a priority and one that we welcome in the way we feel and act out in the world. Think what we may, with room for fantasy and fabrications -- it’s in the way we communicate with one another that the honest healing matters most.
Come what may politically and otherwise -- and for each of us on our own life journeys - David’s plea resonates: Distorted truth -- not in my home.
It’s as crucial to imagine not just David saying these words - as king and ruler - but also the divine source itself — no liars in my home? No rulers or leaders who embrace lies as strategy are welcome here.
Truth, the divine seal, is ours to fight for, prioritize, maintain, and uphold. In truth we trust. How can we focus on this critical life-hack - today?
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