Psalm 1:1-2–Blessing and Meditating on the Law

Psalm 1:1-2–"Blessed is the walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night."

I find this passage, which begins the book of the Psalms, to be one of the most wonderful expressions of what devotion looks like in the life of a believer.  It speaks of a contrast: that the blessed man delights in the law of the Lord and meditates upon it day and night versus the un-blessed man that would rather sit under the counsel of the wicked spend their time in the presence of sinners and scoffers.  The reality that this passage introduces the book of covenant praise is a sobering reminder to us as we read the psalms that God desires us to engage with His Word and to meditate on who He is, to delight in what He has said.  When we do these things, when we delight in the Lord, He has promised to make us blessed.

Praise be to God that He has made it so!

Psalm 119:165–Loving His Law

Psalm 119:165: "Great peace have those who love Your Law; nothing can make them stumble."

Loving the Law of the Lord is tantamount to loving God Himself.  If we love God, we will love His Law.  Moreover, not only will we love His Law, we will take to the task of abiding by that Law with joy and desire.  It is like the love between lovers: if they truly love one another they will be more than happy to abide by their requests.  This sort of affection is meant as a shadow of our devotion to the Holy Lord.  We would do well, then, to desire the good Law of God.  And if we do not love the Law of the Lord, we should pray that God would stir a passion for it!

The Law is Not Burdensome

For the past few centuries, since the Reformation of the the 16th century, the predominate theological understanding of the Bible as it pertains to the Old and New Testaments has been a distinction between law and grace.  Law begin the duty of the Old Covenant and grace being the joy of the New.

Essentially, this system of theology comes to dominate our interpretive lens and renders law, thought of as the commands of God, to be primarily an Old covenant thing but that it is no longer in effect because 'we are under grace.'  To be sure, this amputates the reality of the New covenant from its history and tragically severs the Scripture, cutting it up into law and grace.  But the text does not support this understanding of the history of redemption.

Consider this:

Israel had been enslaved for some 400 years at the hands of the Egyptians.  God hears the cries of the Israelites, whose forefather Abraham He had promised a land and a nation to, and determines to save the people.  He calls Moses to be the representative.  Some plagues ensue until finally the Egyptians release the Israelites to leave, giving them treasures and riches fro their journey away.  However, as the people approach the Red Sea, Pharaoh decides that this arrangement is unacceptable and sets out with his forces to kill Moses and claim Israel back for Egypt.

God tells Moses to strike the sea.  As Moses does, the sea parts and the Israelites walk through the sea floor on harmed.  Once on the other side, God tells them to turn back to watch as God releases His power over the waters and they come down upon the Egyptians.  God leads the people to valley below the Mount of Sinai, where He gives Moses the Law, the commandments for how the people of God are to live.

The Law does not redeem the people of Israel from the Israelites: God does.  The Law is not meritorious, as in, if a person is obedient they can merit God's grace.  No.  The Israelites understood that God had chosen them (Deut 7:7-11), and it was only by His grace that they had been saved.  The Law was the further expression of that grace.  God chose them and then He gave them His Law to teach them who He was and how they were to live as His chosen people.

The Law was never burdensome, because the Law was further evidence of God's hand of grace.  The commandments of God were the merciful commands of a gracious God revealing both His very character as well as what His choosing of the Israelites meant for how they were then to live.   This is to say that all of God's grace has encompassed within it God's commandments.  They run parallel.

As Christians, we speak a lot about the grace of God, but we often forget that God's grace has commandments to it.  Christians are to live a certain way with a particular ethic.  We should not forget that we are under covenant.  This means that God has chosen Christians and bestowed grace upon them.  But in that grace are promises, both of blessing and of curse.

If we are not obedient to the covenant commandments, we will receive the promised blessings.  And if we are disobedient to the covenant commandments, we will receive the promised curses.  This is covenant.  It is not meritorious blessings.  Rather, it is the way that God has chosen to relate to mankind.  If we forget that this situation is His idea, we will naturally neglect all of the parts that we would rather not do.

Remember, we are not saved from the Law, we are saved from the curse of the Law.  There is a new law for the New Covenant in Christ.  Christians need to learn what these commandments are and we need to consider that we are the chosen people of God, under His promises and in His covenant.  This means that we need to meet Him on His terms.

Just like Josiah

Imagine finding something earth-shatteringly important.  Like when looking through old paper work, you discover that years ago you inherited a mansion, or that you had a twin brother that was taken away at birth.  What would your reaction be?  Would you seek that thing out with every bit of energy you possess?  How far would you go to make sure that you had the information correct?  To what lengths would you go?

Something like this happened in ancient Israel.  For years, the kings of Israel had been drifting farther away from the Lord and towards syncretism, idolatry, and sin.  The kingdom that David had established had been divided after the death of Solomon and, while the northern kingdom had always been sinful, overtime, even the southern kingdom fell away from what God had desired of them.

In fact, the people had become so idolatrous and sinful that even the Torah, the Book of the Law, which was the foundation for all of their faith had been lost.  Not even the priests, the keepers of the Law, knew where the Book had gone.  Throughout the Book of the Kings (1 & 2 Kings), Israel and Judah become increasingly apathetic and apostasy, eventually being deported at the hands of the Assyrians, and later the Babylonians.  It is at this point in the nation's history when a young, God-fearing king ascends to the throne.  His name is Josiah and his story is told in 2 Kings, chapters 22 and 23.

Eight years old when he begins his thirty-one years reign in Jerusalem, the Word says that Josiah, "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left (2 Kings 22:2)."  He was a good, godly king.  In the eighteenth year of his reign, he decides to spend some money and for some much needed repair of the Temple.  It is at this time that while doing the repairs, the Book of the Law is found.

Although it is both shocking and appalling to think that the Israelites had become so idolatrous that they had actually "lost" the Book of the Law, what is remarkable about the story and about Josiah is his response to the Book's finding.  Josiah does two stunning things in reaction to discovering the Book of the Law that have immediate contemporary applications for us.

The first thing that Josiah did was to have the Book read in its entirety both to himself and to the whole nation.  Josiah understood immediately that the Law was God's Word for Israel and, though their forefathers had abandoned it, he intended to reinstitute it as the Book for Israel's faith.  He didn't do this half-heartedly.  No, he knew that God's Word demands full allegiance with no hint of turning.  Moreover, Josiah was excited and energetic to do this.  We should take a mind like this when we consider instituting God's Word in our lives.  And we should do so with as much fervent intent and energy as Josiah.

The second thing he did was to destroy all the idol worship that had pervaded Israel.  He destroyed altars, killed priests, and purged the nation of the sin of idolatry.  This is huge.  Think of the effect of such a decision.  Not only was his move bad for the economy, as idol worship was big business, but also it challenged all of the Israelite idol worshipers to get their act straight.  We should do this same thing, definitively purge the idolatry and sin both from within ourselves and from within our churches.  While we should do so with grace and gentleness, we are commanded to take seriously God's call to purity and holiness.

Again, the Old Testament should not be neglected for its antiquity but studied for its usefulness and worth.  All of Scripture speaks to the glory of God and Christ Jesus.  Therefore, we need to put on our miner's hats and interpreter's tool-belts to dig into the Scripture for the endless worth thereof, both practical and theological.  Let us then be like Josiah, exalting the Word of God and striving with all passion to live it out!

The Holy Standard of God

In 1992, the Rapid City, South Dakota police department arrested Dennis Lee Curtis, a known armed robber.  Curtis had been on a years-long robbery spree and the police were relieved to finally arrest him with relative ease. When the police were filing him at the station, they had Curtis empty his pocket. They were full of the usual stuff: wallet, gum, lint, etc.  But as the officers looked through his wallet they came across a piece of paper with a peculiar list on it:

1. I will not kill anyone unless I have to.
2. I will take cash and food stamps--no checks.
3. I will rob only at night.
4. I will not wear a mask.
5. I will not rob mini-marts or 7-Eleven stores.
6. If I get chased by cops on foot, I will get away.  If I get chased by vehicle, I will not put the lives of innocent civilians on the line.
7. I will rob only 7 months out of the year.
8. I will enjoy robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

Although Curtis was an armed robber, his list revealed that had developed and held to an ethic, a sense of morality that he lived by.  At Curtis's trial, the defense presented this list to the court in an attempt to show that, though Curtis had broken the law, he was not as bad as some other seemingly moral-less criminals.  Needless to say, the judge was not swayed and Curtis was sentenced to prison for his crimes.

The point is that no matter the moral code that we may create to make ourselves out to be "good enough," we are held to the higher, perfect law of God.  In reality, no matter what standard we set for ourselves, it is nowhere near the holy standard of God.  Scripture could not be more unified in this regard.  God is a perfect judge, His law is perfect, and man is unable to meet its requirements (Psa. 7:11; Isa. 64:6; Rom 3:10-23; 2 Cor. 15:10).

This reality should prompt us to humility and to faith in Christ, for only through Him may propitiation for our sins be made.  Recognizing our counterfeit-law is a necessary step in destroying it so as to strive for the highest, holy law of God, which is Christ Jesus crucified.  Let us then empty the wallets of our criminal selves and light our false-laws on fire!