Psalm 119:97 – Loving the Law

How I love your instruction!
All day long I meditate on it.

Most translations will use the word “law” where I’m translating “instruction.” That is a traditional translation that goes back to the Septuagint (LXX), which uses the Greek word nomos. This focus on the “law” aspect, rather than the broader aspect of “instruction” can give us a skewed idea of what the Psalmist and other readers and writers of Hebrew scripture are discussing.

But, as Christians, we also have a tendency to strip out and ignore the actual rules that are contained in Torah, which would more traditionally be regarded as law. You will miss something if you read Hebrew scripture, especially the first five books known as Torah or the Pentateuch, while ignoring any of these aspects. When the Psalmist celebrates, he is celebrating the whole, not some subset.

So what do we have to celebrate in the law?

Let’s start with something we may not enjoy, but which is very important. Law tells us where we are wrong. This may not be fun, and we may rebel or be angry, but it can be important. Let me give an example.

In my mind I picture driving out of Monteagle, Tennessee, along I-24, out of Monteagle pass headed east toward Chattanooga. It was worse before the interstate went through there, but even now the road can be deceptively difficult. When you see a warning sign giving the speed limit, it’s good to pay attention. When another sign gives a safe speed for a corner ahead, it’s a good idea to heed it. I have failed to do so in the past, and had a few frightening moments.

As I come upon one of those signs, if I want to keep moving and get to my destination quickly, I’m not inclined to be happy with the law. It’s easy to say the highway engineers have been over cautious. I can go a lot faster than that and still be safe. I really don’t like that law. It’s making me slow down when I want to go fast.

But a significant number of motorists have discovered that “there is a [speed] that seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (paraphrased from Proverbs 14:12). I may grate under the limitations of law, but the law is good in the warning.

You can have the vehicle and the road but lack at least part of the law. I discovered this in Budapest, Hungary. I was leading a mission team headed out to provide a children’s camp in eastern Hungary, and due to a poorly scheduled connection, I was stranded for several hours in Atlanta waiting for another flight. I was expecting to pick up a rental car in Debrecen, close to where we would work, but since this delay meant I would miss our welcoming committee and the ride from Budapest to Debrecen, I had to reschedule a planned rental car for pickup in Budapest, then spend the night at a hotel there, and proceed to catch up with the team I was “leading” the next day.

I asked the travel agent to get me a hotel near the airport and to the east of the city. That’s because that was the direction I was going to go. I didn’t want to find my way through Budapest at night. That was not what happened. The travel agent got me a hotel that was north and a bit west, though still on the eastern side of the Danube.

Now I know at least some of a number of languages, but Hungarian is not one of those languages. I had looked at a word book, and figured out perhaps a dozen words, though the pronunciation of Hungarian is difficult enough for a native speaker of English that it’s hard to be sure you’re getting it close enough to be understood.

What was worse is that road signs were unfamiliar and some traffic patterns were different than what I was used to. The agent at the rental counter was enthusiastic and explained to me that the route to my hotel was very easy, that I couldn’t miss it and would have not trouble. Welcome to Hungary!

“You can’t miss it” is a very fateful statement. Never, ever believe it.

Twenty minutes later, about the time I should have been at the hotel according to my directions, I was looking out the window from a bridge at the waters of the Danube. Now if you’re a tourist in Budapest, this is something you want to do, but if you are 36 hours into a 12 hour journey, it looks less friendly. Especially if you’re aware that your destination is on the side of the river you are leaving.

Well, I can’t make the story short at this point, but I’ll shorten it some. Two hours and several conversations with helpful Hungarians I could not understand later, I actually found my hotel. The problem here is that there were rules of the road, directions, traffic flow patterns, and signs, all of which could have helped, but I couldn’t comprehend them. I might have found signs annoying when they said I needed to be in a certain lane, or go a particular speed or a particular direction, but it was much more annoying not to know.

Proverbs 14:12 rattled around in my mind that night, and I preached on it a couple of times, to a great deal of laughter from my Hungarian friends. And I must note that even complete strangers during that two and a half hour experience were extremely friendly. We just couldn’t communicate because I didn’t know the language.

As annoying as it can be, law is a value.

As you go through your day today, ask yourself what rules are helping you get done what you need to do.

(The featured image is a map of Budapest, Hungary, credit max_776, licensed via Adobe Stock. If I recall correctly, I was crossing the bridge across the Danube that you see at the bottom of the map (south), headed west when I realized I had lost my way!)