Loving God's law

I was reading Psalm 1 this morning. It struck me that this psalm has a very different attitude to God’s law than many Christians.

The psalm as a whole warns us first not to follow “the counsel of the wicked” and to not listen to “scoffers”. It struck me how much these days the church does listen to the ideas of society out there, and just how much like scoffers the MSM can often be.

The church today often feels it needs to follow the lead of the world. This psalm says instead that true blessing comes from a certain attitude to God’s law.

“his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Many Christians have such a superficial understanding of grace that they feel we have nothing whatsoever to do with the law now as Christians. It is right for us to realise we are no longer “under” law, and that we have a very different relationship to it than the legalist.

But, it seems to me that the Christian should look at the law for a view of God. The law reveals what God is like, and what sin is like. Thus, what Christian shouldn’t delight in it. We don’t use law as a tool to earn God’s favour. But, knowing God delights in us, why wouldnt we delight in his instructions? Why wouldnt we love to hear his guidelines for living? Why wouldnt we be eager to know how he wants us to live our lives?

The Christian should approach the law not as a stick in the hands of an angry God, but rather as the loving direction of a perfect Father.

We cannot afford “cheap grace”.

The psalm is clear that certain results will occur in the lives of those who love God in his law.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.