July 12, 2013 by Erin

The Law of Freedom

I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free. (Psalm 119:32)

If you ask me, Psalm 119 is one of the most unexpected passages in all of literature. Here we have an exquisite Hebrew poem: every word building on the next, every syllable intentional, every part coming together to make a beautiful whole. And the thread that runs throughout, the theme that ties it all together is … the law.

I’ll admit I’m a very mediocre poet, but even I know that rules, commandments, and the like make for poor poetic subjects. Could anything be less interesting? And yet, the Psalmist brings the full weight of his poetic gift in celebration of Yahweh’s law. He loves it, rejoices in it, studies it, clings to it for dear life. Why?

Because, in an everlasting paradox, the law brings freedom. On a closer read, it’s clear that Psalm 119 is every bit as much about freedom as it is about the law. See what I mean? Very unexpected. Another poet picked up on this seeming contradiction two thousand or so years later when he wrote, “for I / Except you enthrall me, never shall be free …” (John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14). And I, another 400 years after that, face the same paradox.

I don’t like anyone telling me what to do. I don’t like to be tied down. But what the Psalmist knew, and what I’m learning, is that real freedom only comes when we submit our lives to God’s perfect rule. Rereading Psalm 119, I’m reminded just how beautiful, how wild even, this freedom is. The Psalmist writes that he has seen what human perfection has to offer, but that Yahweh’s commandments are “exceedingly broad” (v. 96). He says he walks “in a wide place” (v. 45). God offers me wide open spaces—room to run.

The law is a revelation of God’s character and His design for humanity. So this isn’t an impersonal set of regulations we’re dealing with here: it’s a Person. And when I think of His steadfast love and His goodness, when I remember that His hands “made and fashioned me” (v. 73), I want to cling to Him.

This God is love, His commandments are good, His ways are right, and, odd as it seems, it’s in His law we find the freedom we were made for.

#Blog Wars 2013