Law of Life

The appointed psalm for today, number 119, is an impressive 176 verses.  At its heart are these verses:

97 O how I love your law! All day long I meditate on it.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for I am always aware of them.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your rules.
100 I am more discerning than those older than I, for I observe your precepts.
101 I stay away from the evil path, so that I might keep your instructions.
102 I do not turn aside from your regulations, for you teach me.
103 Your words are sweeter in my mouth than honey!
104 Your precepts give me discernment. Therefore I hate all deceitful actions.

The psalmist saw clearly, passionately even, the law not as a set of obligations or requirements but as a life-giving treasure that enabled him to be in relationship with God.  The Christian church has had, and indeed still has, a complicated relationship to the law.  Though the rules of the Old Testament and their diligent observance have been critiqued, even castigated by many in the faith over the years, throughout the centuries Christianity has created its own rules and concomitant expectations that they would be followed.  The problem, to paraphrase Shakespeare, is not in the law, but in men (and women!).  Frameworks and precepts that are meant to draw us closer to our Creator are instead turned into obstacles that keep us away from him.  During this Lent, we have the opportunity to reconsider our observances and our rituals, not so that we must dispense with them but so that we may practice them in ways that will give us new life.

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