“I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.” (Psalm 119:16 NKJV)
“My delight is found in all your laws, and I won’t forget to walk in your words.” (Psalm 119:16 TPT)
“I will delight in your decrees and not forget your word.” (Psalm 119:16 NLT)
“I will delight in Your statutes, I will not forget Your word.” (Psalm 119:16 AMP)
“I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.” (Psalm 119:16 HCSB)
“I meditated in your law that I would not forget Your words.” (Psalm 119:16 ABIPE)
I live in a nation that was founded on the “rule of law,” and yet so often I cringe at the thought of being controlled by external rules and regulations. As a child I rebelled against the laws of my parents. As an adult I rebel against the laws of the land. I’ll drive 80 if I feel like it. I’ll use my cell phone while driving if I think I need to. Nobody else is in charge of me! Nobody’s gonna tell me what to do!
The irony is that while I rebel against laws that are thrust upon me, I expect those around me to keep the laws that I feel help to keep me safe and secure. I am the first one to notice when someone’s blatant neglect of the speed limit puts me in danger. I notice immediately when someone else is distracted by their cell phone while driving. I seem to think that I am the only one who is able to live above the law without putting anyone else at jeopardy.
The writer of Psalm 119 took a different approach to the laws and statutes of his heavenly Father. He realized that the basic statutes originally put in place were necessary guidelines to lead him into the blessed life. He meditated on those decrees in order to allow the Holy Spirit to instruct him in the “spirit of the law” which set him free from the devastation of the fallen world around him.
Religion focuses on the “letter of the law” and turn people into “Pharisees.” Jesus demonstrated lavish love, and abounding grace, in His words and actions to everyone He met, except the religious leaders of the day (Pharisees). He was spreading the liberating love of the His Father. He was revealing the Father to His “lost” children in order to bring reconciliation and restoration to their broken relationship. Jesus was restoring relationships everywhere He went. The Pharisees on the other hand were spreading a religion of seperation and degradation.
In Matthew 23 Jesus tears them apart for their abusive use of the “law.” They sucked the “spirit” out of God’s statutes and decrees and turned them into a means to control and subjugate everyone around them. Seven times in this recorded account of Jesus’ confrontation with the Pharisees, He began an accusation with “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.” he bluntly reprimanded them for their misuse of the law. Listen to some of the things he said…
…”You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces…”
…”You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are…”
…”You blind guides…you blind fools…you strain at a gnat but swallow a camel…”
…”You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence…”
…”You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity…”
…”You appear to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness…”
…”You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?…”
I think it is obvious that something went terribly wrong between the time in which David wrote, “I will delight in Your statutes,” and Jesus came on the scene to confront a corrupt “religion” led by a “blind guides,” “sons of hell,” “broods of vipers,” “full of “hypocrisy and wickedness,” using religion to satisfy their own “greed and self-indulgence.”
The “letter of the law” brings death. However the “spirit of the law” brings life and blessing. This is the law that the Psalmist was referring to. The “law’ that I am to delight in is a life giving law that was best described by Jesus when He declared, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 BSB)
I am going to delight in my Daddy, and delight in following His ways, as I ponder…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 290: Clean Living (Psalm 119:9-16) – Part 9 – Verse 16