All About Love

The themes of Psalm 119 are so inter-woven, it is difficult to dissect one strand from the others.  Those familiar with Shutterfly or other digital scrapbooking tools will understand.  If the slot in the template is in portrait orientation, you can be sure the picture I want is in landscape.  No amount of cropping will provide an accurate account – I have to choose between the dog, the crepe myrtle, or my son Jacob.

 

With that caveat, we might as well start with the theme of love.  After all, “The earth is filled with your love, O Lord” (v. 64).  The Psalmist follows that powerful statement with the request:  “teach me your decrees.” (v. 64).  A non-sequitur?  Perhaps not.  Likewise verse 124:  “Deal with your servant according to your love and teach me your decrees.”  The implication is that God manifests his love to us – makes his love concrete to us – by teaching us his decrees. 

In fact, the Psalmist in several places uses the term “love” interchangeably with terms for God’s law.  For example:  “Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, O Lord, according to your laws.” (v. 149).  The “Resh” stanza repeats a similar theme: 

“preserve my life according to your promise” (v. 154); then,

“preserve my life according to your laws” (v. 156); and finally,

“preserve my life, O Lord, according to your love.”  (v. 159). 

Thus, God’s promises, his laws, his love, together, are the means by which God preserves our very lives.  “May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise.”  (v. 41).  God’s laws contain the promise of his love, as the Psalmist again says:  “May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant.”  (v. 76)

And what happens when God answers, and sends His unfailing love / law?  The Psalmist exclaims:  “Oh, how I love your law!” (v. 97) And again, “I delight in your commands because I love them.  I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love” (v. 47-48).  The Psalmist loves God’s commands above all else, “more than gold, more than pure gold” (127).  The Psalmist loves God’s law because God has loved him through that law.  And God breathing through the Psalmist creates a new work of love/law. 

This reminds me of my advanced computer science class in college.  At the time, we were learning a language called LISP, which is based on embedded parenthetical expressions and recursion.  It was the programming equivalent of Russian nesting dolls.  With the caveat that I changed my major far away from computer science, as a direct result of this class, I imagine the LISP equivalent of the love theme in Psalm 119 might be

(God (according to ((God’s law (love)) loved by the Psalmist)) sends unfailing love to the Psalmist)

Yes, I double-counted my parentheses.

And in response to the love of the Psalmist, who is responding to God’s love, God sends blessing.  “Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.” (163)

Cut!  Time for a reality check.  As an attorney, I know first-hand that laws can be frustratingly complex, they can be unfair, they can prevent people from doing what they want to do.  When I look at the California Labor Code, or the Wage Orders of the Department of Industrial Relations, I do not get the warm fuzzies.  What does it mean to love God’s law?

When God issues his love/law, the Psalmist responds with love/obedience.  He says, “Preserve my life according to your love, and I will obey the statutes of your mouth.” (v.  88)  And again, “I obey your statutes, for I love them greatly.”  (v. 167)  We show our love for God’s law by our obedience.  I am thinking about a child of mine, who likes to say “I love you” when he is in trouble.  To which I reply – not very kindly -- “Then do what I tell you to do!!”

There are many reasons to obey God’s law, which I would like to explore in more detail, “if I live and the Lord wills.”  But this is not obedience out of grudging obligation -- of which type I am intimately familiar, both as a parent and an attorney.   No, this obedience springs from the mutual love between God and the Psalmist.

May your unfailing love come to us, O Lord.