Happy and Blessed - Pt. 13

Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. I am yours; save me, for I have sought your precepts. The wicked lie in wait to destroy me, but I consider your testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad. (Psalm 119:89-96 ESV).

 

Our society wouldn't function if there weren’t rules and guidelines in place. We need road rules to ensure people know when to stop and so we can reduce the injuries that happen when we get into car accidents. There are rules for how to treat people, when and where we can consume alcohol, and for the most part, these make sense.  However, not all rules make sense year after year and they can become outdated after a while as society changes, adapts, and grows. We can often still make sense of those outdated ones, but some make no sense at all, like why are pliers illegal in Texas? According to KTEN News pliers are illegal in Texas because of the practice some cowboys used years ago when they carried them to cut through barbed wire fences to move their herds to better pasture.

 

Almost everyone agrees that good laws promote good and restrain bad in human society. Because of the nature of our broken world, though, not all human laws are good. But God’s laws, or “words of instruction,” are good, and, they are also good for us. In our reading today from Psalm 119, the psalmist revels in the goodness of God’s laws. They are eternal. They are the deep roots of creation. God’s laws are just and consistent, valuable in every time and place and for all generations, in the past and present and into the future. God’s laws are good because God is good, and his laws reveal his goodness. In short, God’s laws are perfect.

 

The psalmist celebrates the perfection of God’s laws, but he also takes them to heart. God’s laws give comfort in times of anguish. They give hope in times of despair. They even preserved the psalmist’s life when he was surrounded by enemies. They provide a wisdom that leads to flourishing, which produces joy. No wonder the psalmist commits to meditating on and following God’s laws, his precepts, his instructions, his commands, his statutes.

 

With the psalmist, we too should celebrate the boundless perfection of God’s laws. And, like the psalmist, we should not stop there; we should let God’s Word speak to our hearts and guide our lives.