Highly Esteeming the Law of God
In this series, I take our law homily from our church gathering each week (The law homily is where we read from the law of God and let His law examine our hearts so that we can be a tender-hearted and repenting people), and I post them here for your edification. Here is this week’s law homily on the prohibition against mental idolatry.
You shall have no other gods before Me. - Exodus 20:3
When speaking about having no other gods before the one true God, we have pointed out that this means having no unlawful affection or allegiance in His presence. When God says not to put these things before me, He is not saying I do not care if you are a thoroughgoing idolator, so long as I am at the top of your list. He says no rogue gods, degenerate loyalties, or sinful loves should ever enter my presence. This is important because the underpinning of the decalog, the ten commands, is that God would live in their presence. So, if He was going to bring His pure presence into their space, it would be only natural to require them to bring a purified presence of their own into shared space with Him.
ESTEEMING THE LAW OF GOD
Now, the question remains: what does this look like? And if you remember, we have been attempting to answer that question over the last few weeks, especially in matters related to the mind. For instance, 3 weeks ago, we spoke about the mind directly. How we must never bring mental idolatry into the presence of God. 2 weeks ago, we took up a particular aspect of the mental life. We spoke of the needfulness of Biblical mediation and where the mind, unfortunately, goes when we neglect it. In addition to this, last week we looked at one further aspect of loving God with all of our minds, which is the fuel for Biblical meditation, and that is remembering, showcasing how easily it is to become dismembered from an experience of the presence of God when we fail to apply our minds toward remembering the goodness of God.
Today, we conclude our miniseries on the mind and what its posture toward the law of God should be by considering how our minds were made to esteem God's law. For instance, the book of the Psalms begins this way:
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night."
The Psalms do not begin with 7-11 ballads where we sing a seven-word chorus 11 times in mind-numbing repetition. They do not start like an overly emotive love song focused on how my deity is my boyfriend. Instead, they begin with strong words about the law of God. The entire hymn book of the Israelite people, and all of God's people after that, begins with the necessity of highly esteeming the law of God. Thinking about it. Having high opinions of it. Valuing the law so highly that it becomes a delight unto the heart.
THE CALL TO REPENT
This is where we should consider ourselves in light of Psalm 1 and Exodus 20:3. Do we highly esteem the law of God? Or do we bring sinful attitudes towards it into the presence of God this morning? Do we have a dismissive posture toward the law? Do we treat it like the red-headed stepchild of the Scripture? Do we avoid reading it in our Bible reading plans? Do we yawn at it? Despise it? Malign it? Or altogether consider it irrelevant to our lives?
Psalm 19:7-11 says:
"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward." - Psalm 19:7-11
Psalm 119:97 says
"Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day."
Psalm 119:165 says:
"Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble."
Paul says in Romans 7:12 the law of God is holy, James calls it a lay of liberty that preserves you from decay, and God told Joshua that it should never depart from our lips and that we are to meditate on it day and night
Is this our view of the law? That it is perfect? That it is holy? That it is supremely useful? That it is a delight to our soul? That it is a preservation agent in a world filled with corruption?
Dear ones, if your thoughts do not rise to this, would you repent? Would you ask the Lord to help you esteem His Law, to understand it, to learn to love it, and to meditate upon it day and night? Would you ask the Lord to craft your opinions about His law and to make your thoughts about His law holy? Would you ask Him to help you never to neglect His law? Would you ask Him to, by the power of the Spirit of God, to keep you from becoming so distracted by the cares of the world that other things end up choking out your capacity for highly esteeming God's law? Dear ones, would you join me in repenting for not highly esteeming His law as we should, and would you pray with me where you are as we confess our sins together to the Almighty and trust in the finished work of Christ for our justification.
Soli Deo Gloria
