(REFLECTIONS ON Psalm 119:41-88)

What do the Lord’s commandments mean to us? Do we see them as rules, regulations, and orders? And if they are these things, do we feel like they put restraints on our life, take away our freedom and fun? Interestingly, we read in the today’s Scripture that the psalmist speaks of love for the Lord’s commandments.

47 I shall delight in Your commandments, which I love. 48 And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love…

How can love be associated with God’s commandments? Perhaps we have misunderstood God’s commandments? They are not just rules, regulations, and orders, but are precious, something to be honored, and should be loved. They also do not restrain, but rather give true freedom,

45 And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.

The Lord’s precepts, His commands, His Word, is for liberty and for freedom. It is because the Lord’s commandments help us to break free of what we really are chained to, and that is the flesh and the world. Do we think we have freedom apart from a relationship with God, His Word, and His commandments?

If that is freedom, then why are we restless, burdened, and lacking peace? Are we really free apart from God’s commandments? Or, are we actually bound without the freedom and liberty found in God’s Word, His love, and His salvation?

That is why the psalmist writes,

41 May Your lovingkindness also come to me, O Lord, Your salvation according to your word;

Salvation comes from the Lord’s commandments, His Word, and that is true liberty and freedom. That is because God’s commandments turn our feet from a path of destruction and being bound in the flesh, to the path of life, that is everlasting life.

59 I consider my ways and turned my feet to Your testimonies.

The Lord’s commandments pry us away from a path of addiction, obsession, and control, so that as we turn our feet, we can head in a different direction of liberty and freedom in Him. That is the healing we find in God’s Word, His commandments, and His precepts.

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word…71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.

Yes, the world has been afflicted, and the freedom we think we have apart from God’s commandments is actual an affliction that we perhaps don’t even know we have. However, for us that have tasted the grace and mercy of the Lord through Jesus Christ our Savior, we realize that the struggles that we face in life are like symptoms of illness in the body.

These symptoms are not the illness itself, but they reveal that something is not right within us. In the same way, our struggles remind us of our deeper affliction, so that we may turn our feet to the Lord’s testimonies, and through Jesus Christ and His commandments find true healing in Him.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Psalm 119