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 are not 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. Baseball has a lot
of rules, some rather strange. 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 like 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. So, the law shows us more than what we do
wrong it also shows us how to live a God-pleasing life. So, 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 seen as 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. For example, we are told not
to covet, that is to want something that our neighbor has. Suppose your neighbor is renting some land,
the landowner comes to you and asks you what you would pay for rent. When is it coveting and when isn’t it? This could apply to a job or a position on
the team or many other areas. 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 7th commandment and when
aren’t you?
These and other questions can get difficult. God’s law is perfect, but we are not 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. Forgive us when we sin. 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
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