Week 42: Psalms 119:129-176; 120

Questions: Psalms 119:129; 120

This final section of Psalm 119 starts by saying, “Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.” This tells us a fundamental truth: our love for God's law empowers us to obey it, so …

There are many ideas that can help in the verses here! Do you have things in your life that are causing you stress? Are you calling out to the Lord to deliver you? 

Devotion

Psalm 119 is a love letter. What is the object of the psalmist’s love? The Law of God. For Israelites living under the Law as revealed in Exodus through Deuteronomy, this kind of love and passion might have seemed unusual. When faced with an impossible standard such as this, the overwhelming feeling might perhaps have been that of inadequacy, of the futility of living up to the standard of the Law. These feelings would be reinforced while watching the endless stream of animals being sacrificed as payment for their failure to keep the Law. In the midst of this, the psalmist sees the beauty of the Law. In verse 130 the psalmist tells us that the Law gives light and understanding, allowing him to understand the nature of God and how to live his life in right fellowship with Him.

Certain portions of the law were ceremonial, given by God as a way for His people to separate themselves from the nations around them. However, the moral portions of the Law declare God’s nature. In the 10 commandments alone, we learn much about who God is. God alone is worthy of our worship. Life is sacred because man and woman are created in God’s image. God reveals His relationship with mankind as that of our Father to His children, so honoring our earthly parents is a vital step for us in honoring our heavenly Father.

Understanding God’s nature is vital because He designed His creation according to His nature and there are consequences to living outside of this design. Such rebellion not only damages our fellowship with God, it damages our lives. Living in a way that contradicts God’s design might give us momentary pleasure, but in the long run it can only cause harm. In verse 133 the psalmist indicates that giving in to this rebellion has potential to give it dominion in our lives, replacing the dominion of God. There is great benefit in living according to God’s design and great danger in living in rebellion to that design.

As Christians, we can delight with the psalmist in the Law, both in declaring God’s nature to us and in establishing a blueprint for living according to God’s design. At the same time, we also understand the impossibility of living by that standard. Unlike the psalmist, we have the added benefit of understanding how Christ came to live the life that we could not, in perfect conformity to the Law. We rejoice that Christ sacrificed Himself, once and for all time paying the price for our inability to keep that Law. Understanding the Law, how utterly we fail in keeping that Law, and how much we need redemption shines a glorious light on the atoning sacrifice of Christ. As Christians, we should delight in the Law of God viewed through the lens of Christ. 

- Dale Wiggins