O how I love Your law!

Psalm 119:97-112 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine.
I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word.
I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me.
How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
I have sworn and I will confirm it, That I will keep Your righteous ordinances.
I am exceedingly afflicted; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word.
O accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, And teach me Your ordinances.
My life is continually in my hand, Yet I do not forget Your law.
The wicked have laid a snare for me, Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts.
I have inherited Your testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart.
I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes Forever, even to the end.

Acts 13:22 says:  He(God) raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My will.’   Scripture is quite clear David did not lead a perfect sinless life. But it is the heart of a man that God seeks. Though his flesh sometimes failed, David loved the Lord his God with all his heart, soul and strength. In today’s text, the psalmist says:    O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.   We no longer live under the law. Jesus came to free us from the law. But let’s look at what else the psalmist, the one who is after the heart of God says about God’s word. He says:   Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies…I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.    David saw the benefits of the law and God’s commandments. Knowing God, having an intimate relationship with Him, founded in worship and meditation on the Lord, he understood that God’s commandments, His law was not meant to restrict or prohibit, it was for wisdom and insight.

The psalmist says: How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.     If we allow our freedom from the law to change how we view and respond to God’s word we miss out on the blessing of knowing and tasting the goodness, the sweetness of God. Because we are no longer under obligation to the law, does not mean God’s word, God’s commandments are no longer beneficial to us. Paul says:    All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.(1 Corinthians 10:23)    All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.(1 Corinthians 6:12) If there were no speed limit, it would not make it safe to drive 100 m.p.h. through town would it? It may be permissible but it would not be profitable. Just because we are no longer obligated to the law does not mean that it is no longer for our good.

The psalmist continues:   Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.  Many today will say that we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God within us to guide us and lead us and that surely is true. Why though should it be either/or. In Deuteronomy 19:15 it says:  A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.   Is it not better for us if we have both the witness and guidance of the Holy Spirit and of the Word?  The two will never disagree. God’s word does not restrict or prohibit us from going places, rather it illuminates our path so that as we walk we do not stumble.

Jesus Himself says:  “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”(Matthew 5:17-19) In Christ, we are free from the law of sin and death. We are no longer condemned by our sin, we are free in Christ, there is no longer any condemnation. Romans 8:1-6 says:  Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace      In Christ we are no longer condemned, yet: He condemned sin in the flesh. Sin is condemned. Why then would we continue to walk in something which has been condemned?
 

The psalmist says:   I have inherited Your testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart.
I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes Forever, even to the end.     If we too would have a heart after God, if we indeed would love Him with all our heart, soul and strength, we too would find joy in the testimonies of God, in the things He says. We too would incline our heart to perform His statutes, not because we have to, not out of obligation or requirement, but rather out of love, for joy.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You that Your witness, the witness of three is one. Thank You that because of the finished work of the cross I am no longer obligated to the law. I recognize though that Your commandments are good, they too, just like Jesus are meant to free me to live in Your righteousness. Through Christ there I am no longer under any condemnation. It is sin which has been condemned. Holy Spirit guide me so that I may walk in the light of God’s word.   Amen