Loving the Law: Psalm 19

It would seem that people have a love / hate relationship to law in general. Many folks love laws that protect or help them, but bristle when those laws restrict their interests. Everything from traffic lights and speed limits, to insider trading and investment fraud… we like the laws that serve us, and hate the ones that hinder us.

God’s Law is different from man’s law, though. When God speaks His Law, He speaks something about Himself—something that, like Him, doesn’t change. Men set up laws based on what they want, or what they understand, but God establishes Law as an expression of Himself. Part of how we know God, is through His Law.

And what does God’s Law reveal about Him? He is holy, pure, and righteous. As St. John would write, He is the Light of the World which no darkness can overcome—indeed, in Him there is no darkness at all. He is good, and has never compromised with evil. He has created all things according to His good will, and has placed them all into their order and place, to do what He has created them for. God is holy, and thus we find that His Law is holy, as well.

But we human beings, saddled as we are by sin and death, tend to react badly to God’s Law, particularly when it hampers our own interests and desires. When I want to do what the Law of God forbids, I look for a way around it. When I want to act outside the created order I have been placed in, I try to find ways to do so apart from God’s Law. When I want to pursue things that are not given to me, to leave my duties and God-given vocations behind, I seek for ways to abandon my responsibilities and take what I want. And when my rationalizing fails, or I get called to repent of my dodging of God’s Law, the first and most natural response that I feel is to rebel and curse the Law of God—which is really to curse God Himself. In dodging God’s Law, what I’m really saying to God is, “Who are you to curtail me? Who are you to bind me? Who are you to control me? Don’t you know that I am the master of my own fate—that I am my own god?”

Ah, and there it is. The Law shows me that I’m a sinner—and a sinner of the worst kind. I’m an idolater, a breaker of the very first commandment, to have no other gods but Him. I show myself to not love God above all things, but rather, that I love myself above all things—God and neighbor included. The Law shows me that I am condemned, because I condemn myself in things done and left undone, things spoken and left unspoken. The holy and righteous Law of God works like a mirror, to show me my frightful image of depravity, and the end I have earned. How can I love such a Law? How can I sing with David such words as he writes here? How can I love what justly condemns me to hell, for the sinful and wretched man that I am?

The answer, is the gift of God in Jesus Christ. Where the Law shows us our hopelessness before the righteousness of God, Jesus shows us the Love He has for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Knowing our self idolatry and evil, and knowing that we had no way to save ourselves, the Son of God took on flesh and dwelt among us, that we might behold His glory—the glory of the Only Begotten. Being found in our flesh, He took upon Himself the sin and evil of the whole world, that He might be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Having suffered and died on the bloody Cross, He satisfied the holy Law of God, bringing peace to men. What the Law could not accomplish because of our sinfulness, Christ Jesus accomplished through His own precious Blood, poured out as our ransom and propitiation. In Christ we are washed clean, so that if we have been united to Him in a death like His, we shall most certainly be united to Him in His life forevermore. Where the Law of God condemned us, Christ Jesus has saved us. In Jesus we are no longer slaves of sin, death, and the devil—but rather we have been set free by the Son who abides forever. O, what victory Christ has won for us, who could win nothing on our own!

And here we see in retrospect by faith, what blessed David foresaw by faith: the Law is no longer a terror to those who have died and live in Christ. The Law is our guide, our correction to the sinful flesh, a reflection both of the goodness of God and of our own depravity, just as it always has been. But now set free from the curse of the Law by the Blood of Christ, we can love that perfect and holy Law just as we can love that perfect and holy God. For our God is not against us, but for us—He has gone through hell and back to save us, taking upon Himself the judgment which was our due. Knowing the love of God in Christ Jesus, we can sing with David:

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.10 More to be desired are they than gold,Yea, than much fine gold;Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned,And in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can understand his errors?Cleanse me from secret faults.13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;Let them not have dominion over me.Then I shall be blameless,And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heartBe acceptable in Your sight,O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Amen.