Righteousness - Psalm 23
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
 1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
      he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul.
      He guides me in paths of righteousness
      for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk
      through the valley of the shadow of death, [a]
      I will fear no evil,
      for you are with me;
      your rod and your staff,
      they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me
      in the presence of my enemies.
      You anoint my head with oil;
      my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
      all the days of my life,
      and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
      forever.
This is the first psalm where see a reason why God even gives us a chance at righteousness, why he gives us words to believe and words to obey: for His name’s sake.
One harmful direction I have seen atheists take upon seeing this kind of verse is to say, “What an arrogant god, making everything all about him.” In fact some will even write “him” as “h*m” or even “it”. But they misunderstand. If it was about arrogance, then God would have made us all obedient believers, and everything he gave us to obey would have been centered on Him, and not on helping others. It if was about arrogance, then we would get no benefit from going to Heaven beyond avoiding Hell, but then there wouldn’t be a Hell, because there would be just that many fewer souls to lavish praise upon the arrogant God. No, such a view of verse 3 just will not do. Finally, the atheist might agree with the inconsistencies of their view of God, and so conclude that as proof there is no God… but in fact they only prove David’s point instead… that God guides people in righteousness for His name’s sake.
How does that work? Well, taking myself as an example, it is my sincere hope to glorify God. God knows that, and so He gives me things to believe and obey… and I sincerely believe them, and obey. By doing that with me (and other Christians like me), God’s name is honored. He could continue giving someone else words to believe and obey, and perhaps sometimes He does. But, after a while, when a person’s choices continue to be to discard His words, God stops giving them further words to believe and obey… He leaves them on their own… sometimes even further hardening their already hardened heart.
And what is accomplished here? The praising of God and His name by those who will do so… and a seeming discard of those who will not. In other words, God focuses His energy on those who will praise His name, not as a final end game, but as a logical criterion for acting upon the world. When Jesus said (and I paraphrase) that the healthy ones have no need of a doctor, but the sick and needy are the ones He has come for, well the sick and needy represent those who will receive God’s word… the ones who see themselves as healthy, and so having no need of care, will frankly receive no care, and hence no words from God. Basically, they wouldn’t praise His name if given something to believe or obey, and so they don’t receive any.
In the end, God will benefit, but perhaps not like He wants. He would prefer that non would perish, but then none would truly benefit either, for we’d all be in Heaven, but have no sincere love for God… we’d be bunch of robotic automatons, lavishing blind praise upon Him. Now, that would be arrogant.