In the Lord I Take Refuge: 31 Days in the PsalmsSample

This psalm celebrates the gift of God’s law, his Torah, his covenant instruction for his people. Having redeemed his people and brought us through grace into relationship with him, God now lovingly instructs us in the way to enjoy fullness of life.

Although no one keeps God’s law perfectly, and in fact, we abuse it through legalism and works righteousness, the psalmist reminds us throughout this lengthy psalm of the delight that the law should be for the child of God. The psalm uses different words to describe the law, such as statutes, rules, commandment, law, word, and other similar terms; this reflects the richness of the Torah and the flourishing life into which it brings us.

We tend to view God’s law as inhibiting human flourishing. C. S. Lewis helps us in his words to a friend in a 1933 letter: “God not only understands but shares the desire which is at the root of all my evil—the desire for complete and ecstatic happiness. He made me for no other purpose than to enjoy it. But He knows, and I do not, how such happiness can be really and permanently attained.” This is why God has given us his law—to guide us into full happiness as we trust and follow him. Lewis goes on to say:

I think we may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion (it raises its head in every temptation) that there is something else than God—some other country into which He forbids us to trespass—some kind of delight which He “doesn’t appreciate” or just chooses to forbid, but which would be real delight if only we were allowed to get it. The thing just isn’t there. Whatever we desire is either what God is trying to give us as quickly as He can, or else a false picture of what He is trying to give us—a false picture which would not attract us for a moment if we saw the real thing.