A Love Poem to God's Law

A Love Poem to God's Law

How could scripture inspire such poetry?

I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love. Ps 119:48

Psalm 119 is a special poem. This Poem takes a very systematic form: the acrostic, where each line of each stanza begins with a letter from the Hebrew alphabet, A in the first stanza, B in the second, and so on, through all 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

How do you fall in love with Law? Most people admit that rules are necessary, and appreciate them grudgingly.
But no one writes love poems about laws.

The word translated "Law" doesn't merely mean rules. It express the totally of God's written instructions. 
The sees life full of uncertainties, of enemies, of pain.

But God has given a reliable guide for living - like pavement underfoot after you have been stuck in mud.
Obeying God's law, to the Psalmist, is no slavery - rather it is freedom. "I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free"

On the Edge of Death

Psalm 119 is not written from an ivory tower. The poet has apparently been near death(They almost wiped me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts).
And even as he writes," the wicked are waiting to destroy" him (verse 95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies)

But in this dangerous situation he has learned to hang on to God's wisdom.
The lesson is so valuable he has become grateful for his sufferings:  "it was good for me afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees" (verse 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes)

The Psalmist simply does not see God's law as a dusty, rigid rulebook. He hears God's loving voice in it. "The earth is filled with your love, O  Lord; teach me your decrees"
"Your statutes ... are the joy of my heart
"
God's laws channel God's love into the poet's life. They protect him doing wrong, give him wisdom to understand his situation.

They make new life flow into him. No wonder he writes with such thankfulness.

In God's word he finds more than direction. He finds God himself