After portraying the wicked person, whose type predominates in the world, the psalmist turns to the likeness of the one who is worthy to dwell...
After portraying the wicked person, whose type predominates in the world, the psalmist turns to the likeness of the one who is worthy to dwell near God. The very first mark of such a righteous person that the psalmist names is adherence to truth.
Truth is not merely the reliability of information, and it is even more than a moral quality. Truth is one of God's attributes; therefore adherence to truth in every human expression—in deeds and words, and even more deeply in the movements of the heart—attunes a person to openness before God and to standing in His presence.
Someone might say that there are more serious transgressions than slander and reproach of one's neighbor. How easily we become absorbed in these occupations, excusing ourselves by saying that they are “an everyday matter”! Yet these “trifles” are connected with the deepest layers of the person, and this means that other sins follow them. Even an oath made to an evil person must be kept, precisely because a false oath is a sin in every case, no matter to whom it was given.