The heavens
declare the glory of God,
and the sky
above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours
out speech,
and night to
night reveals knowledge.
There is no
speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is
not heard.
Their voice goes
out through all the earth,
and their words
to the end of the world…
The law of the
Lord is perfect,
reviving the
soul;
the testimony of
the Lord is sure,
making wise the
simple;
the precepts of
the Lord are right,
rejoicing the
heart;
the commandment
of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the
eyes;
the fear of the
Lord is clean,
enduring
forever;
the rules of the
Lord are true,
and righteous
altogether.
More to be
desired are they than gold,
even much fine
gold;
sweeter also
than honey
and drippings of
the honeycomb.
Psalm 19: 1-4,
7-10
Reflection – Monday Psalter time again, and again we
have a psalm that is too long to include in its entirety. Psalm 19, many of the
scholars argue, is actually two psalms combined into one. There is a marked
change in rhythm, vocabulary, and subject matter half way through that seems to
indicate some kind of stitching together of diverse source material.
The
first section is all about the heavens declaring the glory of God, the beauty
of creation, and specifically of the sun running its course each day through
the sky ‘like a bridegroom, a champion’. There is a rapturous joyous tone to
this, the very structure of creation ‘pouring out speech’ about the greatness
of God, while remaining utterly silent all the while.
The
second section is equally joyous and rapturous in its praise of the law of God,
its sweetness and goodness. Sweeter than honey are the commandments of God. I
have always loved the Jewish feast of Simchat
Torah, ‘Rejoicing in the Law’, where the men dance with the Torah scrolls
and there is much jubilation and bucolic festivity.
So
different from our typical modern attitude to the law. We agree, with deep
heaving sighs and much frowning, that God does indeed have authority in our
lives. God (sigh…) does indeed have a right (pout…) to tell us what we can and
cannot do (sniff…). Since we don’t want to go to Hell (boo hoo…), we have to do
what he tells us (humph). And so we can go, the reluctant son in the parable
who doesn’t much want to do the father’s will but reluctantly goes about it, and
so somehow manages some kind of half-hearted obedience.
This
is so very different from the proper Jewish sense of the Law, and this
psalm—both halves of it—give a welcome and much needed corrective to our modern
anomic and rebellious spirit. God’s laws are good—this is the main thing. The moral life is the good life. Sin
is bad, harmful, death-dealing to ourselves and others. Virtue and moral living
are sweet and beneficent. And it all springs from this ordered and beautiful
creation which rapturously tells us of the beauty and goodness of God—his
glory.
In
light of this psalm, if we really take it to heart, of course we should dance
and sing and be radiantly happy when we read the laws of God, the moral
commandments. God has shown us how to live in such a way that our lives declare
the glory of God just as creation’s beauty does. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t
God good to us, to show us the path to a beautiful life, a truly good life?
And
yes, this path may (and indeed does) involve sacrifice, struggle, effort on our
part. If morality was a law in the same sense that gravity is a law, He wouldn’t
have needed to teach it to us (you don’t need to teach a stone to fall). It is
a law in that it is the assured and certain way that our lives become glorious
and not tragic, a living life and not a living death.
It’s
all in Psalm 19, and we need this psalm and those like it to keep us in that
vision of moral law and life, the wisdom, joy, and light of God expressed in
our humanity for his glory.
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