People, in our muddled way, sometimes seem to proceed as if there are two Gods. There’s a nice one, who is all about grace, love and forgiveness. Then there’s the scary one, who deals in laws, judgement and wrath. Christians are not exempt from this sort of theological confusion. The truth, of course, is that there is one God and that, through Jesus’ accomplishment on the cross, we may come to experience the first set of divine attributes and can thankfully escape the consequences of the second. 

However, both the book of Isaiah and the psalms testify that reality is not as simple as all that. The astonishing theme of Psalm 119 is that there is hope, comfort and rejoicing to be found not only in God’s loving kindness but also in his law. Perhaps this is hard for someone in our age to fully grasp. I might check the planning laws or the Highway Code to find out what I ought to do. As a Christian, I might search the Scriptures for guidance on how my church or my family should behave. The psalmist mentions ‘the law’ in almost every verse (using various vocabulary) but he does not once mention any rules he should obey. Instead, the law is his delight (v 70). Could we be missing something here?

How did you develop a love for the Bible? Was it through a person, an experience, a community? Thank God for how this happened.  

Experienced Bible readers know that Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem with a stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Perhaps because of that, its message can seem jumbled: yes, it’s about God’s Word, but the psalmist seems to bounce around to different, unrelated points. An image that helps me is a pair of glasses. Think of Psalm 119 as a poem written by a person looking at everything through the lens of God’s Word. That’s what brings order both to this psalm and to our lives.

So instead of trying to detect an integrated logic for each stanza, let’s meditate on individual phrases. What verses stood out to you in our reading? There were three that got me thinking. The first was the image of pondering God and his Word in the night (v 55). This is not a better technique for drifting off to sleep. Rather, the psalmist understands that night-time can be an opportunity to draw closer to God, which helps us to obey him in the day. Second, I resonated with the phrase, ‘I have considered my ways’ (v 59).  For the past year I’ve been practising the ‘daily examen’ of Ignatius. Each day I jot down one experience where I sensed God at work and use it as a starting point for prayer. It has been a meaningful spiritual discipline.

The third thing I noticed was counter-intuitive: the idea that our sin can help us obey God’s Word (v 67). We must be careful not to manipulate this truth, as Paul reminds us,1 but the fact remains that the memory of our failings in the past can motivate us to greater alignment with God’s Word in the future. Therefore, we, like the psalmist, should thank God for both the pain and the blessing of forgiven sin.

What difference has the Bible made in your life? What crossroads are you facing now? How could you bring God’s Word into your discernment process?

¹ Rom 6:1,2