IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON December 27, 2010 Issue

THE LORD IS GOOD!

GALEN GOLDSMITH

"PRAISE THE LORD for the Lord is good." This Golden Text and the Responsive Reading (from Psalms 135, 118, 84, and 27) in this Lesson titled "God" offer prayers of praise and trust, thanksgiving and confidence, to the only God, the only good. To the sufferer, these verses say, "Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart." To those who desire to see goodness on earth, "The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." The wisdom and mercy of the Lord are invariable.

The first section describes the Creator and His creation: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Rev. 1:8, citation 2). There is no evil in the beginning, and this Lesson shows that in the end evil cannot ever have been at all. As a result, we can all join in the chorus of praise for the Creator of heaven and earth. In Him is every good quality and ability; and all around us, His glory is manifested in infinite, identical variety: "These eternal verities reveal primeval existence as the radiant reality of God's creation ..." (Science and Health, p. 110, Section II, cit. 6).

Further on in this section, another passage from Science and Health invites us to consider how Spirit created men and women with a Word (as St. John said), and it confirms, "Everything good or worthy, God made" (p. 525, cit. 9). The greatness of God is held in the fact that Principle (a helpful synonym for God) is the immortal cause. So the men and women of God's creating don't have an organic, corruptible basis of being, but, as the image and likeness of God, are immortal, spiritual, and incorruptible.