A Thought For The Week Of November 24

"... his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." (Psalm 1:2) That's an important thought about the law of God, and as I think about it, it transcends the polar opposites that so many perceive between the Old and New Testaments, or between law and grace. What really interests me is that Gin Psalm 1 God's people are never instructed that they must follow the law, or threatened with punishment if they can't. Perhaps there's a recognition here that the law of God can't be fully obeyed no matter how hard we try. But if that's true, then what is the relationship of God's people to God's law? The Psalm tells us that we're to delight in the law and to meditate on it day and night. To paraphrase, we're to recognize that the law is something good and positive  and that it isn't to be feared. We're to pay attention to the law, study it and learn from it - presumably learning from it about God's nature and God's will. I'd say that was the example set by Jesus. He didn't just take the words on the page and apply them letter by letter. He understood that the words on the page had a deeper and richer meaning - what I sometimes refer to as the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. Focused on the law, what Jesus nevertheless taught about God was far from the image of a tyrannical God looking for disobedience as an excuse to punish. Jesus saw love in the law. Jesus saw mercy in the law. So love and mercy aren't simply Christian concepts. They have their origins in the Old Testament portrayal of God - and in the very law of God that can seem so harsh. That's what we learn as we meditate upon the law day and night, as Psalm 1 says - as we take the law seriously and study it, mining it for ever deeper revelations about God. Have a great week!