The Law Wins
Psalm 19
The commandments give light to the eyes
19:1 The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
19:3 There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard;
19:4 yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has set a tent for the sun,
19:5 which comes out like a bridegroom from his wedding canopy, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
19:6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them, and nothing is hid from its heat.
19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the LORD are sure, making wise the simple;
19:8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes;
19:9 the fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
19:10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
19:11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
19:12 But who can detect one's own errors? Clear me from hidden faults.
19:13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
While the 23rd Psalm is, overall, the most popular among the general population, Psalm 19 is the heart of the true believer desiring to love, serve, and praise God and God’s Word. One might call it a “love song to the law.” Several of its verses are oft quoted, and the final verse is employed by many of my clergy colleagues as a pre-sermon prayer, appealing to God for both guidance and humility in giving it. Evangelical Christianity—aided by the prejudices of many reformed thinkers—has beaten the “law of God” into submission, lasering in on Martin Luther and John Calvin’s emphasis on “salvation by faith.” But for most religious life, “the law” was not about soteriology, but praxis. God saved us through the Christ Event; we live a life glorifying to God by following God’s law. It behooves us to rediscover the “sweetness” of the law in our contemporary context.
At St. Paul’s, the church from which I retired in 2021, we had worked painstakingly to craft a new vision for our ministry, after having conversations—individually and in Appreciative Inquiry groups—with over 800 church members. The “finished product” stated our vision as: “St. Paul’s will be an inclusive, diverse church, loving others according to the teachings of Jesus, and working for justice and peace in our world.” This could be described as our “vision” of the Gospel, but it also could be inclusive of our understanding of how the “law of God” was to govern our earthly living. Jews were commanded by God to “welcome the stranger” and to treat the sojourner among them “like a citizen.” We would be an inclusive, diverse church, in order to “welcome the stranger.” “Loving others according to the teachings of Jesus” is the Christian summary of what the Hebrew Bible saw as living according to the law of God, especially when you amplify it with working for justice and peace!
As I have often expressed in earlier sermons, John Wesley really believed in encouraging his people to “obey the law of God” by living out their faith. His emphasis on Christians “doing good works,” which he called “acts of mercy” and living a life of humble, quiet piety, was central to his understanding of the faith. Again, it had nothing to do with “works righteousness,” with which he is often accused of preaching, but action-oriented discipleship. One could not just “get saved” and declare oneself a “disciple,” in Wesley’s world. Instead, we experienced God’s “prevenient grace,” which led us to WANT to become a Christian disciple, then God’s “justifying grace,” which was merely accepting God’s acceptance in us, granted as a gift through the Christ Event. Finally, we lived into God’s “sanctifying grace,” which led us on a daily journey of faith, learning and living out the teachings of Jesus, meeting the needs of our neighbors and the world, and glorifying God through our earthly life. I truly believe this is the Christian “capture” of the precepts of the 19th Psalm.
I am personally convinced that following the law of God was NEVER about salvation, or what we would more generally call “justification.” Even in the Hebrew Bible and in the long history of the people of God, I have come to believe that it was ALWAYS about God’s “pardon” or acceptance of God’s people, and then “the law” was about how God’s people could live in peace and harmony with each other in an inclusive manner, which was the highest way to honor our Creator God. Loving each other, genuinely, living in peace with each other, and “welcoming the stranger” or sojourner, was how God initially envisioned the human creation to “be.” The gift of freedom of thought and action God gave us led to an unfortunate history of eschewing healthy “community” in favor of personal wealth creation and individual autonomy. For God’s people, the Jews, life became a pulsing, undulating history of yielding to the law and then ignoring or “forgetting” its observance.
I have also long advocated that the decalogue (the “ten commandments”) were given by God to bring us together as a community under a loving God, living at peace and harmony with each other. Even the first few about how we should “honor” or treat God were given to keep the people of God FOCUSED on a common deity. It was the Jews’ worship of and obedience to God that kept them together as a community, and the remaining commandments of the decalogue were specifically aimed at guiding them to live in harmony with one another. After all, God created us to LIVE and find wholeness and joy in this life, and to encourage one another in this pursuit. Of course, we humans had to “amplify” or “fix” God’s commandments, and we added to them, as well as intensified the meaning of them to such a degree that they eventually could fill whole libraries with the multiplication of them, coupled with the rabbinical interpretation OF them! This may be one reason we read in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament the “warning” in chapter 22 that “adding to or taking away from” the “words of prophecy of this book” (the Bible?) will bring about judgment. When we mess with and “strengthen” God’s law, we alienate and judge each other with it, instead of using it to maintain a peaceable, beloved community, and in doing so, we dishonor God.
As Psalm 19 states, God’s desire was that these commandments (God’s Word) would be sweet to the taste, and “more to be desired than gold.” If we succumb to what humans have often done to the observance of God’s law, we live in fear of it, or even avoid the discipline of living in accordance with it. But if we hold to God’s intent as to WHY the law was given, it DOES become something “sweet” and desirable, because it brings us peace, within our own souls, and with each other. A community living according to God’s “sweet” law is mutually respecting and accepting; no one goes without the basics necessary to life and sojourners (the wondering stranger) is welcomed and treated like they BELONG among us.
Verse 7 summarizes my thoughts—and indeed the central theme of the Psalm—that “the law of the Lord is PERFECT.” I guess I like this description because Mr. Wesley believed that we are on a journey “to perfection.” No one who understands Wesley even an iota believes that HE believed that we would become “perfect” in this life, if you focus on that as meaning “sinless.” I believe he was talking about building positive “habits” of learning and living according to God’s law. Being “perfected” was about how we structured and disciplined our lives, focusing on God’s call and becoming the person God created us each to be.
If we let the law win, our souls AND our world will be revived, according to the psalm. We “let the law win” by first understanding the WHY of the law, as I have attempted to lay out in this sermon, and then yielding to its precepts willingly, rather than begrudgingly. Ultimately, the law WINS when humanity succeeds—with God’s help—to build the Beloved Community that Jesus gave his life for, and luminary leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. worked to bring about. Both gave their lives for it. What if we LIVE our lives for it? Amen.
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