320 Global Ethics for Leadership
himself being exploited, is free of corruption and is incorruptible (“un-
shakable” in other translations).
The term “incorruptible” at the end of the psalm is an important
qualifier of the believer and of the truthful person: a truthful person rec-
ognizes temptation, but he resists to it. He faces uncertainty, but does
not ignore it, he faces doubt, but does not lose his faith. He shakes,
swings, and trembles but he does not fall, as is said in another Psalm.
The content of “keeping one’s promise” is equally important: keep-
ing one’s promise is easy if one gets more by doing it. But if one risks
losing by doing so (for instance, for not being re-elected to a position or
not earning a mandate), keeping one’s promise does have a price to pay.
This is where the psalm encourages us to do it even if there is a price to
pay for it.
In this psalm, the full description of integrity includes behaving to-
wards the people around us and the community, keeping the truth and
values and at the same time, saying no to corruption and financial ex-
ploitation which leads other people to become indebted as a conse-
quence of non-equitable pricing. An honest person lives in peace of
heart and in ethical safety: “Living in honesty, is living in safety.”
(Proverbs 10:9)
Ethics according to the New Testament may be part of the qualities
of an integral person as described in the Old Testament, but it goes one
step further. The ethical person avoids evil, but does not condemn the
villain. On the contrary, he seeks to put him back to the community and
the society. To love one’s enemy and seek for reconciliation is the great-
est act of integrity.