Psalms is one of the most well-known and favourite books of the Bible. It conveys human emotions, fears, frustrations, and delights. It’s a book many turn to for encouragement in times of trouble. For the Psalms help us express our frustrations to God, while maintaining our trust in him. But the Psalms also teach us a lot about God’s law. They inform us in how to think about God’s statutes and commandments.
The Psalms help Christians think about God’s Old Testament instructions.
Conversations in the church today about Christians’ relationship to the law aren’t new. In fact, one of the New Testament’s earliest epistles, Galatians, suggests this is a question Christians have always grappled with. What are we meant to do with God’s instructions for Israel in the Old Testament? Yes, the Psalms direct our hearts, give voice to our frustrations, and offer comfort. However, they can also help us to think about God’s Old Testament instructions for the people of Israel.
The Psalms are full of encouragements when faith is flagging. Simultaneously, many of them exhort believers to love and delight in God’s law. We can’t take one without the other. We must consider the repeated emphasis throughout the Psalter regarding God’s law. In order to keep this article short, I will focus on the relationship between blessedness and delighting in God’s instruction. According to the Psalms, those who are taught from the law, are blessed by God.
Law and Blessedness in the Psalms
At the very outset of the Psalms, God calls his people to delight in the law. We read: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law, he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). This points to an an attitude towards the law. A way of relating to it.
Importantly, it doesn’t say: ‘if you delight in the law, you will be blessed.’ No, rather it says: ‘if you delight in the law you are already blessed.’ This sets up a contrast. It distinguishes between those who love God’s law for what they can get out of it, and those who love it for its intrinsic value. The law is in itself a blessing. Those who delight in God’s moral instruction are blessed (Psalm 119:1).
The prosperity gospel has put forth health and wealth as the surest measurements of God’s blessing.
In contrast with the Psalms, the prosperity gospel has put forth health and wealth as the surest measurements of God’s blessing. These things are good. But, according to the Psalms, it is possible to have them and not be blessed. We see this in Psalm 73, where another writer reflects on the well-being of the wicked (Psalm 73:2-3), their health (Psalm 73:4), and how they increase in riches (Psalm 73:12). Yet he concludes that it is God’s plan to destroy them (Psalm 73:18-20).
Thus the mark of blessedness wasn’t seen in one’s prosperity. Rather, blessedness is tied to one’s disposition toward God’s law. This is more precious than wealth (Psalm 119:72). When we turn to the Psalms we find real encouragement there. We also encounter the repeated exhortation to delight in God’s law.
Obedience to God is Inseparable from Blessing
A similar idea is seen in Psalm 94. Here the Psalmist exhorts believers to view discipline as a blessing. So he writes: “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law” (Psalm 94:12). Most often we don’t like discipline. Nor do we desire to learn from God’s law. Yet the psalmist exhorts us to see it as a good thing. A blessing.
The giving of the law was a portrayal of God’s goodness, love, and grace.
Psalm 119 builds on this idea. It associates the law with goodness, love, and God’s grace. The psalmist says: “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes” (Psalm 119:68, 123). Look at Psalm 119:29, “Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law!” The psalmists saw no contradiction between the law and these attributes of God. For them, the giving of the law was a portrayal of God’s goodness, love, and grace. This is why they delighted in it.
We Thrive within Rules
Today this view of God is counter cultural. For a very common misconception about God in our society is that a loving God wouldn’t command some of the commands we read in the Bible. In fact, the world (and some Christians too) is happy to accept the God of love and grace while continuing in sin (Jude 4). Yet the Psalms teach that God’s lawgiving was a gracious act, full of love. We should have the same disposition towards God’s law and instruction, under grace in Christ. The God who showed grace to us in his Son, showed the same grace in giving his law.
The God who showed grace to us in his Son, showed the same grace in giving his law.
As much as we turn to the Psalms for encouragement, we must turn to them to shape our view of God’s law. They teach us to delight in it, learning discipline and thus experiencing blessing. Instruction is one of the ways God demonstrates his grace and love. The law does not contradict God’s goodness, grace, or love. Rather it displays it in a magnificent way. And we are blessed when we delight in and are taught from it.
