“Your Laws Are My Delight” Psalm 119:9–16
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?By following your word.10 With all my heart I have sought you;do not let me stray from your commandments.11 I have treasured your word in my heart,so that I may not sin against you.12 Blessed are you, O Yahweh;teach me your statutes.13 With my lips I recountall the judgments of your mouth.14 Following your teachings gives me joymore than all other riches.15 I meditate on your precepts;I contemplate your ways.16 Your laws are my delight;I will not forget your word.
We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. Amen!
“This is certainly true,” we can say with Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. And yet, if we stop there, we risk finding ourselves in a kind of cognitive dissonance. We open the Old Testament, and suddenly a psalm jumps out at us—the longest psalm in the entire book, and perhaps one of the longest chapters in the Bible—celebrating in no fewer than 176 verses how wonderful the commandments of God are. We open the book of Proverbs, and in almost every chapter we are confronted with the warning to follow God’s law, because by following God’s law we have life and prosperity, while if we disobey, we will die. Then we turn to the New Testament, and almost immediately the Beatitudes tell us how BLESSED ARE THE MEEK, BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL… The Bible promises salvation by grace, but it certainly has a lot to say about the commandments!
As good Lutherans, we have always struggled with this fact. And historically, our tradition has demonstrated this very “schizophrenia.” On the one hand, we have had movements such as the Pietists, who initially had good intentions, but eventually came to say that someone who wears makeup, has tattoos, smokes, or drinks a little alcohol is not a Christian—in effect, becoming Pharisees all over again! On the other hand, we have had those who tried to minimize God’s commandments, treating them almost as mere suggestions, with the intention of exalting grace.
In both cases, the underlying problem is treating God’s Law as a burden. God’s commandment is either a constant source of anxiety, or an annoying little voice that we can mostly ignore. Italy has never historically been Lutheran, but it has always had the same problem: either there is a priest who condemns you to the fires of hell for eating meat on Good Friday, or there is one who tries to “be nice,” without making too much fuss about Christian sexual ethics, abortion, or some other difficult subject.
But today’s texts tell us a very different story. FOLLOWING YOUR TEACHINGS GIVES ME JOY—the Psalm says—YOUR LAWS ARE MY DELIGHT. Scripture teaches us to sing about a Law that gives us joy, that makes us glad, that is beautiful and good. And in fact, when we look at the Ten Commandments, we discover that they are not simply ten condemnations, but ten good words that teach us how to live well and in peace.
The First Commandment, for example, commands us to love, fear, and trust in God above everything else; and while, on the one hand, it condemns us for the fact that we so often put various things above God, it also encourages us by reminding us that no circumstance in this life is stronger than the God who has sworn to be our God.
The Second Commandment teaches us not to misuse God’s name—and therefore it also shows us that God has given us His name so that we can use it to ask Him for help, call upon Him in times of need, and then thank Him when He saves us.
The Eighth Commandment forbids us from spreading gossip and rumors about our neighbor—because it reminds us that God Himself cares about our reputation.
And so it goes with all the commandments.
And following these commandments, dear brothers and sisters, is not simply a burden imposed upon us because there is a God. It is not that life would be better without commandments—these commandments are a genuine recipe for a good and happy life.
Take a commandment such as the Sixth: YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY. God is not telling us that physical pleasure is wrong—no! He is telling us that when a husband loves his wife, treats her well and with love, and does not go looking for other women, marital love finds its pure and natural expression.
Or take the Eighth Commandment again: YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOR. What happens if we stop gossiping about our neighbor? First of all, we ourselves avoid becoming bitter: the less you worry about the sins of your neighbor, the better you live. Secondly, our own reputation is protected. You know, people understand that if someone gossips about everyone in front of you… they will probably gossip about you in front of everyone else!
In short, the more we learn, study, and digest God’s Law in our hearts, the more our lives will be blessed by it. To our modern way of thinking, this almost sounds like a medieval idea, and more than a few Lutherans would tell you that it is not very Lutheran. Yet not only does Luther say this repeatedly in his Large Catechism—we also remember how Psalm 1 begins:
BLESSED IS THE MAN… WHO DELIGHTS IN THE LAW (TORAH) OF YAHWEH, AND ON HIS LAW HE MEDITATES DAY AND NIGHT. HE WILL BE LIKE A TREE PLANTED BY STREAMS OF WATER, THAT YIELDS ITS FRUIT IN ITS SEASON AND WHOSE LEAF DOES NOT WITHER. WHATEVER HE DOES WILL PROSPER!
But is that really how it works? History is full of people who obeyed God’s Law and do not seem to have benefited from it. Jesus Himself—the only perfect man—was put to death for obeying the Law! To say that the Lord blesses those who obey His laws seems, at best, like false hope, and at worst, an offense to those who have been disappointed by life!
Here, however, we must remember, dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, that sin surrounds us and penetrates us. God’s Law is indeed perfect, but we and this world are not. We are continually both perpetrators and victims of all kinds of sin.
Sometimes we get ourselves into trouble: there are people who have destroyed entire families, even multiple generations, because they did not observe the Sixth Commandment and betrayed their wives. And it may indeed be true that in those cases “it is our fault,” but the fact remains that we now find ourselves facing enormous problems.
And in other cases, it is not even our fault! If a husband destroys a family by betraying his wife—what fault does the wife have? And what fault do the children have? And yet they are the ones who end up damaged, burned, and wounded. And some wounds continue throughout an entire lifetime.
And this reminds us, dear brothers and sisters, that Scripture forces us to live within a paradox. The Law promises that if we obey the Sixth Commandment, we will be blessed in our married life, and that is true—but what happens if you or your spouse breaks it? What do we do with our own guilt? What do we do with those sins that, no matter how hard we try and try again, remain attached to us like a cancer? What do we do with those wounds left upon us by the sins of others?
“COME TO ME, ALL YOU WHO ARE WEARY AND BURDENED, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST.”
Look to Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters! The only way we can love God and His Law is by first looking to the One who loved us first. The only One who can help us carry the burdens that others have placed upon us is Jesus Christ.
Come to Christ. Entrust your sins to Him. Entrust your burdens to Him. And in His own beauty, you will see the beauty of God and of His Law.
Week after week, month after month, come here, into this church, carrying your sins, your anxieties, and the sins of others. And every week, what does Christ do? He comes to meet you in the person of the pastor, lifts up the bread and wine—the Testament of our redemption—before your eyes, and proclaims:
“The peace of the Lord be with you always!”
You come to Christ with your burdens, and He takes them upon Himself. He makes them His own, and in exchange He proclaims to you:
“PEACE BE WITH YOU.”
And then the Law is no longer a burden, but a joy.
A joy because we follow it knowing that Jesus gives us the strength to follow it.
A joy because when we fail to follow it, Jesus takes us by the hand, lifts us up, and says to us, “PEACE! It is all right,” and we begin walking again as before.
And it is within this tension, brothers and sisters, that we Christians live.
On the one hand, the Law shows us how good it is to do what is right. On the other hand, there is no joy or peace in the Law except that which comes from looking to Christ and His forgiveness.
It is only when we recognize that our sin reaches down to the very depths of our bones, when we recognize that it surrounds us completely, when we recognize in Christ the complete grace of God that covers every mistake and heals every wound—it is at that moment that we no longer fear the Law, but love it, because its Author loved us first.