“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment…
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
Isaiah 51:7-8
“The people in whose heart is my law.” What a beautiful display of honor to and trust in our God. Keeping His Law in our heart. Recognizing it as the treasure that it is, instead of the burden the world would have us believe.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the word. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:3-4). The commandments of God are not burdensome to those who trust Him. We who know Him and His unchanging character, who have placed our faith in Him, must believe that His Law is good and praiseworthy. If we don’t, what kind of a God do we think we serve? One who is holding out on us? One who simply wants to exert His power unnecessarily? One who keeps us from good that we otherwise could enjoy?
Our God is infinitely good to us. He loves us more purely and steadfastly than we can fathom. His commands are not given to weigh us down. They are given to set us free. When we stop fighting them, when we cast off our pride and allow the Lord to show us the beauty of His Law, we find life and joy within it. Because we find Him. We discover the heart of our God. A heart of righteousness, justice, and purity. A heart that is fighting for our salvation and our delight.
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). The Lord writes His Law on the hearts of His people. Because He loves us. He wants all barriers between us and Him to be torn down, so that we can know the wonder and fullness of joy found in His presence.
“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” (Psalm 1:1-2). In the Old Testament we find such beautiful praise toward the Law of our Lord. I wonder at times if we lose that focus, believing it unimportant in light of Christ’s salvation. But let us recall the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” The Law finds its fulfillment in Jesus. In Christ, God has done what the Law could not do—He entered in and enabled us to meet its righteous requirements (Romans 8:3-4). He saves us, knowing we cannot save ourselves, and in accepting His salvation we are also indwelt with His Spirit—the Spirit who cleanses us and empowers us to obey our Lord’s commands, and who opens our eyes to see wondrous things in this Law.
So let us be the people in whose heart is the Law of our God. Let us choose to serve Him, to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to delight in Him and in the law He has given to us. His law is good, because it is issued from our God of light, in whom there is no darkness at all.
In Pleasant Places 