Tried With Fire

From my notes on today's sermon: Can you imagine what it would be like if the very last word from God was the law given through Moses? That was it.  Nothing more.  We would have no other hope than trying to keep the law perfectly. But Moses did not have the last word.  The law was not the end. Grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ, the only One who can make God known to us. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This is he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'")  And from his fullness we have received, grace upon grace.   For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.  John 1:14-18

This hymn by William Cowper (1731-1800) sums up the difference between legalism and grace and the transformation that is only possible through grace. No strength of nature can suffice To serve the Lord aright; And what she has she misapplies, For want of clearer light. How long beneath the law I lay, In bondage and distress! I toiled the precept to obey, But, toiled without success. Then to abstain from outward sin Was more than I could do; Now, if I feel its power within I feel I hate it, too. Then all my servile works were done A righteousness to raise; Now, freely chosen in the Son, I freely choose his ways. What shall I do, was then the word, That I may worthier grow? What shall I render to the Lord? Is my inquiry now. To see the law by Christ fulfilled, And hear his pardoning voice, Changes a slave into a child, And duty into choice. From Gadsby's Hymns 188

I have been reading Psalm 119 very slowly. I've been thinking about why the psalmist says he loves, delights, and cherishes the law. What is it about the law of God that draws this love from the psalmist? I've had exposure to the laws governing homeschooling and more recently the laws governing divorce. I can't imagine my attorney or the presiding judge saying, "I love the legal code of Virginia." Maybe I don't understand this sentiment (for lack of a better word because it's not sentimental) because I am basically lawless at heart. I have viewed the law as nothing more than rules and regulations stipulating what I can and cannot do. But what if the law of God is really about God Himself and not merely a set of rules and regulations? Maybe the psalmist loved God's law because he saw the law as the revelation of God's holiness and character?