Skip to main content

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?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more