The Lamp the Light the Path, Psalms 119:105-112

This week, we respond to a thoughtful listener question from Tumblr about whether progressive Christians can understand the Bible as uniquely authoritative, or whether it should be treated as inspired work alongside other great works of literature and poetry. We look at how different Christian traditions approach scripture, why “authority” depends on community and context, and how revelation can be understood without requiring inerrancy or literalism. We have to have a more nuanced engagement with scripture that challenges false dichotomies between taking the Bible seriously and reading it critically. In the second half of the episode, we queer Psalm 119:105-112, unpacking how poetry, song, and metaphor function within the Bible. We invite you to consider what it means for God’s word to be “a lamp to our feet and a light for our journey,” not as the path itself, but as something that illuminates the way as we navigate faith, queerness, relationships, and life.

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This transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors or omissions.

1 (9s):
Welcome to the Queer Theology Podcast. I’m Brian G Murphy.

2 (13s):
And I’m father Shannon, T l Kearns. We’re the co-founders of Queer Theology dot com and your hosts from

1 (17s):
Genesis, revelation. The Bible declares good news to LGBTQ plus people, and we want to show you how

2 (23s):
Tuning each week on Sunday for conversations about Christianity, queerness and transness, and how they can enrich one another. We’re glad you’re here.

1 (33s):
Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the Queer Theology of Podcast.

2 (36s):
This week we’ve got a listener question from Tumblr and they ask, are there progressive non literalist ways of talking about the Bible as uniquely authoritative and communicative of revelation? Or are the scriptures only inspired in a relativized sense alongside great works of literature, poetry, et cetera?

1 (57s):
Oh, I love this question. So this

2 (1m 1s):
Is a great

1 (1m 2s):
Question. Yeah, it get really gets at the heart of what we’re talking about on this podcast and in our work. I think it’s important to first name that there are gonna be a bunch of different answers to this question. Certainly if you survey all Christians, like conservative fundamentalist Christians are gonna have a different idea than other folks. Like there’s a whole range, like if you, if you survey fundamentalist Christians, if you survey Mormons, if you survey Catholics, if you survey progressive Christians, if you survey, you know, black preachers, if you survey whoever, we’re all gonna have different ideas about this. And also then, like, I think within each of those people are gonna have different ideas that there will probably be other L-G-B-T-Q, progressive Christians who think differently about this.

1 (1m 55s):
And Shay And I actually think slightly differently about this, you know, or we might not. So I just wanna name that. And there’s not, so it’s not about like trying to find like the objective truth of this is gonna be impossible, which I know is an unsatisfying or might be an unsatisfying answer, especially as someone who comes from a, from a tradition that taught that there was always one correct answer for everything about God and religion and faith. And as someone from just sort of like a secular perspective, like really math and science just like gets me going. And so like there’s a formula, like a squared plus B squared equals C squared, right? Like you can like add things up or divide things out and get, get like the answer.

1 (2m 37s):
And so figuring out like what the answer to this is is gonna be tricky. There’s always gonna be some nuance and some, some room for personal interpretation. Shay, where would you start? Yeah,

2 (2m 47s):
I think the phrase to me that is, there’s an interesting in this question is uniquely authoritative. And so my, my very first question would be to ask back, like, for whom? So I think that, like that to me is where we start this conversation of like, is the Bible uniquely authoritative? Like are you asking if it’s uniquely authoritative to everyone in the world? Is it uniquely authoritative to Christians, to progressive Christians? Like who are you asking about? And for? And so for me it’s like, I would say that because of the history of Christian tradition that has used this collection of scriptures as a text that has guided and whatever, that it is uniquely authoritative for the Christian community when understood in its proper context.

2 (3m 51s):
And I think when used well, and that also like that because so many people have used it because it’s been kind of a communal agreement that we are going to guide ourselves by this particular text that we can say it’s authoritative for those communities. But also, like, like you were saying, Brian, you know, the Catholics have like a bunch of extra books that are authoritative to them that Protestants don’t use or recognize. So like even within that question there is nuance. And then for me, I think it’s, it’s like there is also this sense of, of like, it is one of the great works of literature.

2 (4m 38s):
It has shaped culture and cultural traditions and norms for good and for ill over the centuries. And so like it also holds up in, in that respect and that avenue. But I think if we talk about it being uniquely authoritative for groups outside of the ones who have claimed it, then I think we’re in tricky, potentially problematic or colonialist territory.

1 (5m 15s):
I agree actually, like pretty, pretty to the t you know, as someone who has a, I wouldn’t say like a, I was gonna say like a lot of doubts about God, but I think at this point that’s like not even true. I just like don’t believe in God in the way that many religious folks seem to believe in God, whether they like, so, so maybe I am, maybe I have, I’m not as lonely as I think that I am, but, and so, so that, and also I definitely think that you like don’t need to be a Christian to be a good person to experience like an abundant life or salvation that like other religions are equally valid and being non-religious is also a great way to live your life.

1 (5m 56s):
And so and so all that said I do, but like you were saying, I do think that like for folks who claim Christianity, there is something uniquely authoritative about the Bible. Is it like the only source of authority in our lives? No, you know, we talk a lot about, this is like a very Wesley idea, but like scripture reason, experience, tradition, all being important. And so there’s many ways that we experience God, the movement of God, the people of God. The Bible is one of those ways. And then I think also like getting into this communicative of revelation, like what does revelation mean to you?

1 (6m 43s):
Is it there’s like a person in the sky with a Dictaphone that is dictating every, every jot and tittle, every word of the Bible to the authors? No, I definitely don’t, don’t think that, did the people who wrote and compiled the book experience something bigger than themselves that they like perhaps couldn’t quite put their figure on? And that seemed to be pointing towards a greater truth. Truth, yeah. Absolutely. And so is that also found in other scriptures, in other religious traditions, even in like literature and poetry, like Yes, absolutely.

1 (7m 26s):
And so I think like getting in on this like revelation thing is also tricky. It’s, it’s perhaps like more comforting to think like there’s a person or like an entity that has all of these answers and objective truth and like, they have given us this one thing, but that’s just like, not how I understand the world or revelation or scripture working. And then I think also this, this relativized sense alongside great works of literature, poetry, et cetera, is again, going back to your, to your question of like, who are we talking about and, and what is this for?

1 (8m 6s):
And so like in the scheme of all of humanity and all history, it’s, it’s one of many, for Christians, it might be a primary sense also, you know, literature, poetry, our experiences can help us understand God and even understand the Bible better. But like what poetry that really speaks to me isn’t necessarily going to really speak to you. Shea or parts of the Bible that speak to you aren’t necessarily gonna speak to me or vice versa. You know, there’s this quote by Carl Sagan’s wife that I like could be a bio passage for me that it just like really speaks to my heart and like helps me see God.

1 (8m 50s):
And like your shea is like, whenever I sent it Shea, he was like, I’m glad that like means something to you, but it doesn’t really do anything for me. And you know, like, but that’s just like the, the Bible is also a collection of stuff. And so like, we don’t all encounter even the Bible in the same way. And so like, I wanna challenge the notion that relativized, And I know that you are not saying this, but like that relative is like an inherently inferior position that like, even within the Bible, things have relative importance to each other. Both. Like, I think that Paul would be shocked and perhaps like mortified that many people hold his rambly letters on the same level as what was his, like sacred like Torah scripture.

1 (9m 45s):
And even within the Bible, some parts are given more or less relative importance, sort of like within the text itself. And then like all sort of Christians place more or less emphasis on different parts of the Bible. And so even the Bible itself is a collection of multiple texts that include literature and poetry that have relatively different importances to different people. And so I think that is also an important thing to remember

2 (10m 14s):
For sure. I think the key for me is like you’re setting up this false dichotomy. If you talk about like, scripture is only meaningful or important if it’s in errand and literal and like has primacy of place. And like, I I, I think that there are ways that you can take scripture really seriously, that it can be a guiding principle in your life that you can think of it as sacred without it needing to be anything more than what it is, right? Like, And I think, And I think that it’s, it’s, it can be a problem to like elevate scripture higher than it needs to be.

2 (11m 4s):
Or, or to say that like, if you don’t have it up on some kind of pedestal that you therefore don’t take it seriously. That’s something that I think gets thrown at liberal and progressive Christians all the time. And I, And I think that that’s like an unfair accusation.

1 (11m 22s):
Yeah, there’s so much more that we could say about this, both why we think this and then also how to go about the process of figuring this out for yourself and approaching the Bible in serious and faithful ways. And so we’re gonna put together an more extended workshop, online workshop about this. We don’t know exactly when it’s gonna drop.

2 (11m 47s):
Okay, let’s open up our Bibles and queer this text. Our text today is from Psalm 119 verses 1 0 5 through one 12. I’m gonna go ahead and read it for us. This is from the common English Bible. Your word is a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey. I have sworn And I fully mean it. I will keep your righteous rules. I have been suffering so much, Lord, make me live again according to your promise. Please Lord, accept my spontaneous gifts of praise. Teach me your rules though my life is constantly in danger. I won’t forget your instruction, though the wicked have set a trap for me.

2 (12m 28s):
I won’t stray from your precepts. Your laws are my possession forever because they are my heart’s joy. I have decided to keep your statutes forever. Every last one.

1 (12m 39s):
Hmm. When you started reading, I could just hear the song in my head. Yes. And I damn song, yo, what I’m gonna, I’m gonna wear you down and we’re gonna have music on this podcast eventually, but so I I love this text for This week, and one of the reasons why we picked it was because of the question earlier in the episode. And so this is an example of a part of scripture that is, you know, poetry or song depending on how you look at it or define those terms, right? And so like the Bible contains poetry and other types of literature. And I think that if you try and make the entire Bible a direct word for word revelation from God, that it cheapens it and distorts it.

1 (13m 34s):
And that when you read this passage, it’s like just not poss like clearly the author of this passage didn’t in that wasn’t this person’s experience of them writing this song, the author of this, of this psalm writing about God and about God’s word and what that means to this person. And so it’s like, it’s written almost to and about God rather than from God. And if you’re gonna like take the Bible seriously, just like a, a quick cursory reading of that, of this text, like shows that God is the, the subject of this piece, not the author of it.

1 (14m 17s):
So just wanna name that And I think that’s really beautiful thing to be included in the collection of, of sacred scripture. What about you Shay?

2 (14m 26s):
Yeah, I just, I remember so distinctly how I was taught about this passage and about the Bible growing up, right? That, that it was the iner infallible word of God that we, it could answer all of our questions. That anything we needed to know about God was in the Bible. That all of that, and like this passage in particular was often used in reference to like the whole, the whole of scripture. Even that even though when this passage was written like the Christian scriptures did not exist yet, and actually probably a lot of the Hebrew scriptures did not exist yet either.

2 (15m 8s):
And so this idea that, like your word is a lamp before my feet, the way that I was taught and a light unto my path was this, was this idea that we were supposed to memorize the Bible and use it to like guide everything in our lives. And, and so now reading back on this passage, I’m like, that is not what this is about. Like this poem is not about the Bible at all as a, as a whole. And it’s, it’s also more about like this poet reflecting upon the word that they’ve heard from their community, probably from their oral tradition, maybe from some of their sacred scriptures as like a guiding principle for their own lives.

2 (15m 53s):
And like I think we can look at this text then and say, okay, well what are the lights for our own journey? What are the words that point us to God, point us to community? But like to read this passage as if it’s about the Bible is, is really is not a good reading.

1 (16m 17s):
What I appreciate about this is your word is a lamp before my feet and a light for my journey. And I think about like, I imagine that image of a lamp and a light and what do lamps before your feet or lights for your journey do they illuminate the path. They aren’t the path itself. It’s not like the object. They help you see where you are and where you’re heading and like make sense of the world around you. But it isn’t like it helps you see things. It isn’t the thing at which you are looking. And that just like reminds me of the work that we do that we just wrapped up with this query in the Bible course, which we’re definitely gonna do.

1 (17m 2s):
Again, it was super popular. And even that we’ve done in the Faithful Sexuality course or the Christianity polyamory course, that the word of God can help us. It can like illuminate our journey through our queerness, through our relationships, through our polyamory. And when we bring like the word of God, the Bible Christian traditions, our sort of like experience of our faith community to bear on all of those parts of our life, our queerness, our sexuality, our bodies, even polyamory, that we can see all of that in a new and holy and sacred light and realize our inherent holiness and goodness.

1 (17m 46s):
And that also that as we illuminate that, those parts of us, those sort of like trees or bushes on the side of the road or the stepping stones across the creek, can then teach us about our faith. Also, it becomes this circle. And so we, we like need it all, we need like the lamp to guide us, but then we also need to look at the path outside of us to to see, to see where to go, and to notice that there’s a rocker that we’ve gotta step up, step over, or that if we keep going in this direction, we’re gonna hit a wall. And so we’ve gotta turn,

2 (18m 20s):
If you’re interested in going deeper into conversations like this, this is the type of stuff that we talk about all the time in Sanctuary Collective, our online community stuff about how our views of the Bible have changed over time. Stuff about how to read the Bible now from wrestling with relationships and coming out and churches and family and all that stuff. If you’re interested in learning more, you can go to Queer Theology dot com slash sanctuary collective and we would love to have you in the community.

1 (18m 48s):
The Queer Theology podcast is just one of many things that we do at Queer Theology dot com, which provides resources, community, and inspiration for LGBTQ Christians and straight cisgender supporters.

2 (18m 57s):
To dive

4 (18m 58s):
Into more of the action, visit us at Queer Theology dot com. You can also connect with us online on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

1 (19m 5s):
We’ll see you next week.

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