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A Prayer for Understanding

Psalm 119.33-40

Good News Translation (GNT)

33  Teach me, Lord, the meaning of your laws,
   and I will obey them at all times.
34  Explain your law to me, and I will obey it;
   I will keep it with all my heart.
35  Keep me obedient to your commandments,
   because in them I find happiness.
36  Give me the desire to obey your laws rather than
   to get rich.
37  Keep me from paying attention to what is worthless;
   be good to me, as you have promised.
38  Keep your promise to me, your servant -
   the promise you make to those who obey you.
39  Save me from the insults I fear;
   how wonderful are your judgments!
40  I want to obey your commands;
   give me new life, for you are righteous.

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Commentary taken from 'word-on-the-web'
supplied by Scripture Union
(adapted from Encounter with God)

'Freedom and pleasure'

'Who'd be a Christian?
It's nothing but 'thou shalt not'. I want to enjoy life and be free!'

The desire to enjoy life and be free isn't wrong - it's fundamental to being human - but somehow the devil has tricked us into thinking that those two things are best experienced apart from God.

The writer of Psalm 119 is writing without any such deception. Notice his conviction that true freedom and delight are found in God's law.

I find this worshipful poetry beautiful and refreshing to read - it flies in the face of all our preconceptions of law as dry, dusty, lifeless and prohibitive.

William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania,
once wrote,
'Men must be governed by God, or they will be ruled by tyrants.'

He recognised the fundamental freedom found in submitting to the Word of God, and that the alternative is an increasingly proscriptive human authority which, unless itself governed by God, restricts individual liberty, however noble its intent.

The difference between human authority and God's government is God's righteousness (which is perfect), his love (which is unfailing) and, most notably, his Word - a source of life, strength and security.

Similarly, if you think about enjoying life, here we see repeated (vs 35) the idea that God's commands are a source of 'delight'.

If we speak of pleasure-seekers, it doesn't exactly conjure up images of the sanctified life, but in this psalm, the writer seeks God in his law and finds delight and pleasure!

Other versions are available here

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