By Mark A. Taylor
Most of us obey most of the laws most of the time. But how often could we say the law delights us? How often is our obedience grudging (tax time is coming), or forced (radar detectors, anyone?), or incomplete? How often do we think about the law, any law, with gratitude and joy?
The news today is full of protests against bad law-keeping and unjust treatment of some citizens. But these exceptions underline the value of the law; without it there would be no recourse against those who violate it. Theft is forbidden, murder is punished, and 70 mph is the same standard for everyone on the highway, because it”s the law. We can be glad to live where laws make life predictable with a goal of justice for all. (A missionary to India once told me he would never call the police to an automobile accident, because the driver who paid the biggest bribe would avoid citation, regardless of who was at fault.)
But all of us know about at least one “bad law,” a regulation that does more harm than good. That factor, combined with an American mind-set of independence and self-mastery, may splash over into suspicion of God”s laws too. All of us have struggled to obey God in one area or another. Many of us at least once broke his law when we felt sure we wouldn”t get caught. Some of us feel God”s laws are an unreasonable burden. We sing of grace but give up on obedience.
This is what makes the psalmist”s attitude toward God”s law so instructive. The psalmist praises and thanks God for the law. The law gives him comfort when he”s afflicted, hope when he”s persecuted, stability when he”s confused. Indeed, he finds his salvation in God”s law.
Nowhere is this better seen than in Psalm 119, a testimony to the law we might miss because the psalm is so long. For the full impact of what I”m saying, read the whole Psalm. But for now, just a few quotes show what I mean:
“I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches” the psalmist claims (Psalm 119:14).
“Your statues are my delight; they are my counselors” (v. 24).
“I delight in your commands because I love them” (v. 47).
“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction” (v. 92).
“Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart” (v. 111).
“My flesh trembles in fear of you; I stand in awe of your laws” (v. 120).
How do you suppose our country would change if every proclaimed Christian adopted the psalmist”s attitude? How would awestruck delight in God”s laws affect marriages, businesses, schools, neighborhoods””and the church? How would non-Christians view the claims of Christians committed to obedience? What would children decide about God”s laws after living two decades with parents who revered them?
Last week The Wall Street Journal posted an interview with a young woman who had completed the eight-year process to become a nun. The writer described the “palpable jubilance” in the basilica where this woman, with seven others, was to take her final vows as a member of the order they”ve chosen.
“It is precisely the abandonment of self to Christ that sustains these women when perhaps they”d rather not obey,” he wrote. “In other words, the vows they take” are “not about “˜no,”” but “about a radical “˜yes.””
Nothing could better capture the psalmist”s response to God”s laws. “Yes!”
Nothing can offer us more help or hope today than this simple response to the beauty and goodness in God”s precepts. “Yes!”
Nothing could offer a more succinct challenge to headstrong Christians daring to wrestle with whether to obey. “Just say yes!”
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