O Lord, I have come to you for protection;
    don’t let me be disgraced.
    Save me, for you do what is right.
 Turn your ear to listen to me;
    rescue me quickly.
Be my rock of protection,
    a fortress where I will be safe.
 You are my rock and my fortress.
    For the honor of your name, lead me out of this danger.
 Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me,
    for I find protection in you alone.
 I entrust my spirit into your hand.
    Rescue me, Lord, for you are [El Emet].

Psalm 31:1-5

El Emet: God of Truth (or The Faithful God)

Truth. Like diamonds. Solid, reflective, eternal. Brilliant in every sense of the word – and unyielding. The thing about truth is that it is; it is what it is, and nothing can change it. Put pressure on a lie, and it will begin to crack; the more pressure you put on the truth, the stronger it gets, and the more obviously truth-like it appears. Someone once said, “Only lies are invented; truth exists.” There is something so secure about truth. Stand upon it, and you will have no fear. Possess it, and you will call it a beautiful thing.

The problem with truth is that it is like diamonds; solid, reflective, eternal – unyielding. Rest upon it for too long and you will find yourself without an ache-free inch of your soul. You will feel like you have slept on a rock – because you have. There is no give to truth; it does not bend, so we must. It will never yield to our strength. Abiding in it, then, can be – is – painful. For this reason, so many have abandoned it. We must not do so. We must abide in El Emet, the God of truth, the God we can rely on, the Faithful and Truthful God!

I cannot condemn those who have lost heart. I would condemn myself, for the times I have, and the times I have yearned to do so. I do not condemn us, but I implore us to hold on. Gentler places will beckon, places that will mold themselves around us and slowly envelope and entomb us, and we will have no desire to resist, but we must resist. Truth is painful. Lies are lethal. 

Some people say it is hard to know truth from lies. Sometimes I have found this to be so, but not because they look so much the same. No, the fault does not lie in the objects being viewed; it lies in the heart from which they are viewed. To speak truthfully, I have almost never not known the truth, but I have often not believed it. As I said, lies crack under pressure; truth does not. It is easy to tell the truth from a lie if I want to – but do I want to? Truth is painful. This is why we sometimes favor lies – even when we know what they are.

Why do we want the truth? As I said at first, truth is secure, and creatures love security. Truth is courage, and confidence, and strength. Truth is power and above all, freedom! – but truth is not enough. 

As I have said, rest on truth and you will find yourself sleeping on a rock. That rock needs a cushion! Love is truth’s cushion. Love absorbs when truth deflects. Truth is painful, but it is made bearable by love. Love cannot be trusted without truth beneath it, however; love is only as good as its foundation. Founded on truth, love is eternal, secure, strengthening. Founded on lies, love, too, is lethal.   

The lies of this world – however loving or hateful – are growing more aggressive, demanding I believe them, thrusting themselves in my face and insisting I judge them true. I have only one defense against them, and it is the rarest and most valuable thing in the world; I have El Emet, the God of Truth. Now more than ever, it is His judgment that I must choose, for it is the only reliable, the only true. Praise El Emet for not leaving me in this mucky mess of lies!!