February 13: Psalm 19

Today's reading.

This psalm, while beautiful, seems a bit disjointed. It speaks in the first six verses of the magnificent glory of God's creation. Who hasn't looked up at the sky in wonder, seen a smoggy L.A. sunset or the vastness of a Midwestern sky and been astonished by its beauty? "The heavens declare the glory of God" (19:1); the sky cries out in a voice that resounds throughout creation: "God is glorious, good, beautiful, worthy. Worship him!"

Then the psalm takes a sudden, uninspiring turn in 19:7: "The law of the LORD is perfect." Wait. What happened to star-gazing? Why is he talking about the law all of a sudden?

We think of the law as a difficult, burdensome set of rules and regulations meant to spoil our fun or make us feel bad. Or we think of them as a way to be holy(-er than all those other people out there who don't keep them). When we think of God's law in that way, it makes no sense that the psalmist would saw that the law of the Lord revives the soul (7), rejoices the heart (8), or more to be desired than gold or honey (10). More fitting metaphors in our mind include a straitjacket, ball and chain, heavy load to be carried, etc.

The psalmist finds the law as inspiring as the most glorious of God's natural creations, because God's law was graciously given by God to teach his people how to live in relationship with him. When we love God, when we come to him in faith, trusting him as little children, we want to hear from him how we ought to live. God gives us his law to show us how to be close to him. He gives us his ways to teach us how we can imitate him, the One who made beauty itself. The law is the key to living as our Heavenly Father's children.

Of course, we can't keep God's law as he has told us we must. The psalmist loves God's law and wants to keep it, but he knows he can'd "discern his errors" (19:12). So he throws himself upon God's mercy: "Declare me innocent!" he pleads.

In Christ, God has answered that ancient prayer. In Christ, we are declared innocent, fully the recipients of God's perfect, fatherly mercy. Though Christ hadn't yet come, the psalmist knows God is merciful and will answer him; he calls the Lord "my rock and my redeemer" (19:14). If we are in Christ, that is who God is for us as well. In light of that, let us live in the power of the Spirit as those who desire desperately to be like our Father. May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in God's sight on account of Christ our rock and our redeemer.