How I love your law - Aug 31
“How I love your law, O LORD!
It is my meditation all the day.” Ps 119:97
Psalm 119 is one of my favourite psalms. It is the longest psalm and an acrostic where the first word of each section begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is also the most repetitive psalm with each verse being very similar in theme and content to every other verse. They all extol the greatness of God’s law.
For many Christians, the language of the law and extoling the law is not part of our language. We tend to have a much more uncertain relationship with the law. We often pit Jesus against the law – “they have the law and we have Jesus.” “Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the Law or by believing what you heard?” (Gal 3:2) And just the idea of praising laws that control your life seems wrong to us free, independent, western folks.
And yet, Psalm 119 extols the law for 176 verses. The law to the author was not a set of arbitrary rules but instructions from God for how to live as a community in right relationship with each other, the world, and God.
For me, a New Testament synonym for the law would be God’s will. Both are about a rich life, ordered by God. The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples expressed “Your will be done.” (Mt 6:10)
When Paul wrote to the church in Corinth he told them, “we haven’t stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” (Col 1:9) While this verse lacks some of the structure of the verses in Psalm 119, it is fully within the spirit of that psalm.
Whether talking about the law, or God’s will, what is required of us is a listening and meditating heart and then the courage to obey.
“From your will I turn not away,
for you have instructed me.” (Ps 119:102 adapted)