Proper 24 / Pentecost 22 / Ordinary Time 29
Devotional
Water From the Rock
Lectionary Devotional for Cycle C
Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long.
-- Psalm 119:97
This psalm is the longest in the book of Psalms. We miss in our English translations that this is an elaborate acrostic psalm. It consists of 22 stanzas of eight lines each. If it had been written in English, the first eight lines would all begin with the letter "a," and the next set of eight lines would begin with the letter "b." The continuing thread through all the stanzas is that they all reflect on the law of God. This particular section compares the law to all other sources of wisdom. It is wiser than one's enemies. It is wiser than one's teachers. It is wiser than the wisdom of the elderly that was so revered within the culture.
The psalm does not disparage these sources of wisdom but declares that all such wisdom must be measured against the wisdom of God that can be discovered in the Torah. For Christians, it is important to realize that the Torah is more than a set of regulations. We speak of it as the law, but it is really a reflection of the will of God that is expressed in stories, laws, poetry, and experiences. For the psalmist, God's law could not be contained in abstractions. To truly appreciate God's law, it must be experienced in one's behavior. "I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word."
Jesus' life became a commentary on the Torah that interprets for us the way of God in our lives. There is a parallel between seeing Jesus as the bread of life and the Jew saying, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" It may deepen our reflection on the meaning of Christ for our lives to substitute Christ for law in this psalm. If Christ taught us the way of God, then Christ is our wisdom. While we listen to the wisdom of history, science, and psychology for true wisdom, we need to see such truth through the eyes of Christ.
-- Psalm 119:97
This psalm is the longest in the book of Psalms. We miss in our English translations that this is an elaborate acrostic psalm. It consists of 22 stanzas of eight lines each. If it had been written in English, the first eight lines would all begin with the letter "a," and the next set of eight lines would begin with the letter "b." The continuing thread through all the stanzas is that they all reflect on the law of God. This particular section compares the law to all other sources of wisdom. It is wiser than one's enemies. It is wiser than one's teachers. It is wiser than the wisdom of the elderly that was so revered within the culture.
The psalm does not disparage these sources of wisdom but declares that all such wisdom must be measured against the wisdom of God that can be discovered in the Torah. For Christians, it is important to realize that the Torah is more than a set of regulations. We speak of it as the law, but it is really a reflection of the will of God that is expressed in stories, laws, poetry, and experiences. For the psalmist, God's law could not be contained in abstractions. To truly appreciate God's law, it must be experienced in one's behavior. "I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word."
Jesus' life became a commentary on the Torah that interprets for us the way of God in our lives. There is a parallel between seeing Jesus as the bread of life and the Jew saying, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" It may deepen our reflection on the meaning of Christ for our lives to substitute Christ for law in this psalm. If Christ taught us the way of God, then Christ is our wisdom. While we listen to the wisdom of history, science, and psychology for true wisdom, we need to see such truth through the eyes of Christ.
