I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to read Psalm 119 looking for ways that it could tell me how to live life in Jesus’ Name. It has so many references to God’s law (and many synonyms for the Law or words similar to it) that I know God wants us to love His law and live rightly. So here goes…I will read each section of Psalm 119 and write about it in the coming days. If you did not know, the psalm is divided into 22 sections and is an acrostic…my knowledgable husband tells me. Each section’s first word (in the Hebrew) begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order from Aleph to Tav. Aleph means blessed. In my Bible, I have small subtitles written by each section that I got from somewhere and they must have been important to me at one time! They seem to be summing up each section according to the “first word” of the acrostic. This first section, then, is titled: “The Blessing of Obedience”. So I read the following verses with this title in mind:
How blessed are those whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the LORD.
How blessed are those who observe His testimonies,
Who seek Him with all their heart.
They also do no unrighteousness;
They walk in His ways.
You have ordained Your precepts,
That we should keep them diligently.
Oh that my ways may be established
To keep Your statutes!
Then I shall not be ashamed
When I look upon all Your commandments.
I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
I shall keep Your statutes;
Do not forsake me utterly!
Can you see the blessing for those who are obedient? My greatest wish and prayer for this blog is to be a blessing (hey…Aleph) to all those who read it. So, I seek to be as practical as I can. But when my mind wants to know what all the different words synonymous with law actually mean in the Hebrew (the bolded words above) and when I live in the same house as a Pastor, its hard for me not to get “theological” at times. So bear with me. 
Who is the blessing for? It is for those who walk in God’s law, observe His testimonies, seek God, walk in His ways, keep His precepts diligently, keep His statutes, not be ashamed of His commandments, be upright in heart….
Whoa…this is a TALL order! It boggles my mind and seems impossible to do especially when my Pastor husband tells me that each of the bold words above is a different Hebrew word and I want to look them all up! Be thankful I did not this time. I asked Kris: “Can I safely replace all these words with “God’s Word”? He told me no, I have to be careful of doing that. It seems that in my translation the word “law” is most always the Hebrew word Torah, which is the first 5 books of the Bible. So if I want to have this blessing mentioned above, do I need to follow all those specific laws in the first 5 books? If you have ever read the book of Leviticus, you know what is going through my head here! There is no way I can or even want to follow all those laws. God led me to remember what Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 8: 1-8
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
What this means for me: Christ is the fulfillment of the law and because I am born again, His Spirit sets me free from the law of sin and death. Christ’s death, His offering for sin, gives me the freedom to live/walk by the Spirit! It will not be a perfect walk, but I pray it will be a surrendered, obedient walk that will bring glory to God and reflect Jesus, His Son!
So, practically, what can Psalm 119 say to me? I can’t let it be a downer for me because I will never attain to it…it serves to remind me who God is and how wonderful His law and precepts are. It can inspire me, and point me to Christ and how I am to walk in the Spirit. That is how I will read the rest of the psalm. More in a few days…
