Free from the Limits of Self – The Law of Liberty (15)

Free from the Limits of Self

The Law of Liberty (15)

Readers will gain a better perspective on the main teaching of this series by reading The Ground for Christian Ethics, by T. M. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, click Publications, then click Waxed Tablet, and scroll down until you see this little volume.

Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors. Psalm 119:24

Psalm 119 is a truly miraculous psalm. The Celtic Christians regarded it with awe, and it had a central place in their lives and worship. Its 22 stanzas, each one dedicated to a letter in the Hebrew alphabet (in the Hebrew, all the verses begin with that letter), are a tour de force of attitudes toward and convictions about the Law of God. The overall mood of this psalm is not in the least burdensome; rather, one picks up the sense of the psalmist’s joy and liberation at being so deeply committed to and immersed in the Law of God.

If you pray three stanzas per day, beginning on the Lord’s Day, and four on Saturday, you can work your way through this psalm once a week. I assure you, the discipline will be worth it, for how Psalm 119 can shape your understanding of and approach to the Law of God.

In our verse for today, for example, the psalmist rejoices that he has the Law of God (“testimonies”), rather than merely his own best ideas, to resort to for counsel in daily living. In our postmodern age, when every person is encouraged to be his own best counselor and to have the last word on any matter, without reference to outside authorities, people are beginning to discover the limitations of that way of thinking. In the pursuit of big profits, bankers overburdened borrowers, who disregarded sound judgment to get what they wanted in a home. Investors defrauded clients or led them down blind alleys for the sake of short-term gains, while clients went along with their bunko schemes, contrary to sound investment principles, looking for the quick turn-around. Politicians push their agendas apart from the judgment of history or their constituents, simply because they want what they have determined is best, and they’re not open to voices other than their own.

All around us people are trapped in the constraints of self. The promise of being free from crusty old traditions and settled ways of thinking has “liberated” people into uncertainty, distrust, and confusion. But they who walk by the counsel of God’s Law are free from all such limitations. By delighting in God’s Law we rest our hopes and trust in a Counselor of infinite wisdom, Who knows how we are made to live and has provided clear guidance for any who are willing to follow.

We don’t have to live as slaves to the limits of our own puny thinking; we can be free before God to reach to the limits of His vision of the good life, and how we may attain to that, through obeying His Law.

Daily meditation in the Law of God helps us along the path of holiness, righteousness, and goodness (Rom. 7:12). Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, by going to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.