Judges and the law are a prominent theme in this week’s lectionary texts, with Jesus telling a parable in the gospel reading about a poor widow stubbornly seeking justice from an “unjust” judge, while the pericope from Psalm 119 displays a reverence for the wisdom of God’s law. We ostensibly have a deep respect in America for the rule of law... but in practice we tend to have a much more contentious attitude toward our legal system than the Psalmist had for God’s law -- as the product of inherently flawed human beings, we are all too aware of all the shortcomings of human laws.
