1-31-2018

Good Morning All,

           Psalm 1:2, “but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

    We spend a lot of time with rules or laws.  We have traffic rules, school rules, sports rules and maybe some of us still have house rules that we live by.  Most of the time, we aren’t big fans of rules.  We tend to see them as restrictions or limitations on our lives.  Yet rules tell us so much more than what we are limited to; they also give us the understanding of the flow of the situation.  We often view this as the intent of the law and intent is important.

     I used to umpire baseball.  As you study the rules of baseball, you begin to see the reasons for the rule and how it applies to other situations.  One such rule is called a “balk” by the pitcher.  There are dozens of ways a pitcher can balk so it can be difficult to call.  It becomes easier when you realize that a “balk” is the pitcher trying to deceive a base runner.  If the pitcher’s actions are to deceive; it is a balk.  You can learn this by studying the rules of baseball and then going beyond just memorizing them but trying to understand them.  You see the intent of the rule. 

    Our verse for today is similar to this.  Psalm 1 tells us about a righteous man.  His (the righteous man) delight is in the law and he meditates on God’s law day and night.  Now when some people read this, they think of just repeating the Ten Commandments over and over.  This seems rather boring.  Add this to our usual thumbnail definition of the law “showing us our sin”; it really would be.  Yet we can go much farther than this.  The law of God really shows us the Will of God or what God desires or commands.

    When we see what God desires or commands, we see that we are indeed sinners.  We see that we do need a Savior to redeem us.  However, we are God’s redeemed children, forgiven of our sins.  The law shows us more than what we do wrong it also shows us how to live a God-pleasing life.  As we study God’s law, we begin to see what God desires.  The law instructs us as to what our creaturely goodness before God is to be.  The commandments can really be a guide to our relationships with God and with our fellow man.

    Some of the commandments are written in the positive as in “do this” and some are written in the negative as in “don’t do this.”   From these we must study and meditate (read the rest of Scriptures as well) to understand what God’s Will for us is.  This can be a daunting task sometimes.  Some of us have dealt with mistakes with companies and their computers.  Perhaps you got too many items or too much money back, when are you breaking the 7^th commandment and when aren’t you? 

    These and other questions can get difficult.  God’s law is perfect but we aren’t and there are times when we are put into situations which have no obvious answer to us.  This is why we meditate on the law; to help give us guidance and direction in living a God-pleasing life.   

Dear Father in heaven, we are often blind to your holy Will and even look away when we know it.  Turn our hearts to love you and your law.  Give us the wisdom to apply your law to those whom we meet and to show them your love and grace.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret