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The Law

         Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. (Psalm 119:1)

 

I was reminded yesterday morning of a “homework assignment” to read and meditate on a verse of Psalm 119 per day. Gulp. I don’t know if I’m going to make you suffer through that. Maybe a verse or two, depending on the text itself. The Law is the theme of the chapter, so it would be wise to begin by defining it. What is The Law? For some, it’s the Ten Commandments. For others, it’s every single, itty, bitty, legal and cultural commandment ever mentioned in the Bible, taken out of context and slammed onto everyone. There are even some who have added hundreds of additional rules and regulations.

Whenever I think of the Law, I think of the episode from West Wing in which the president nails an egotistical conservative woman with minutiae from the Law. For instance, should we refuse to eat pork or ham? Should we not eat shrimp? Should we wear clothing that is only made from one sort of fiber? Should we stone kids who are disobedient to their parents? We could pick out lots of aspects of the Law that we don’t even think about not breaking. But Jesus claimed the summary of the Law was to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Acts 5 and Acts 10 make it clear that there are aspects of the law that are not to be imposed on Gentile believers.

So, what is The Law? My definition stems from the idea that natural law is the way that the universe works – how things properly relate to one another and themselves. The Law is the set of descriptions or directions about how we should relate to God, to other people, and to ourselves.

So, it is not “Blessed are those who…walk according to an arbitrary set of commands given by God as an excuse for His abuse of us.” Instead, it is “Blessed are those…who walk according to directions on how we should relate to God, to other people, and to ourselves.” Well, of course! How could it be otherwise?

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