His Righteousness Our Salvation
Psalm 119:33-40
Verse 40 How I long for your precepts! In your righteousness preserve my life.
We talked yesterday about the need to revere God by living the law. The writer of this psalm was passionate about the law and we could learn to love it as he did.
The psalmist starts this line of his prayer song with the exclamation of longing for the law of the Lord. Most of us would admit that we have never said that we long for His law. Longing is a word we leave to the more romantic areas of our lives and heart, not something we say about knowing God’s law. To long implies that great effort is put into seeking it and spending time enjoying it. The thought of longing for God’s rules likely causes us to catch our breath a bit.
The fact that the psalmist longs for the law talks about his longing for God, Himself. He seems full of joy as he talks about this longing he has for the law. When was the last time we have been excited about the law? What would it take for us to become excited about the Word of God? Why can’t we seem to find the time in our full schedules for enjoying Him? These are the questions that the psalmist’s exclamation should bring us to.
The psalmist didn’t stop by talking about his longing for the precepts of God, he continued with what he knew was the result of his longing. He knew that it was in living the way of righteousness that preserves life. This isn’t to say that we are saved by the law but that the way of righteousness is a way of preserving life in the way that God desires it to be.
He says that it is in God’s righteousness that we will be preserved. Though Christ had not come to earth and lived a perfect life yet when this was written, the psalmist speaks the very truth of the Gospel. Without Christ’s perfect life and sacrifice through death we would have no access to righteousness. There is no way we can live the law perfectly. Our best attempt at keeping the law would fall short of His perfect standard. We need to praise with the psalmist that His perfect righteousness can be applied to us and that should have us longing to live the law to the best of our ability.
Making It Personal
How much do you long for the law of God? How can you best thank God for applying Christ’s righteousness to your sinful life? How can you increase your longing for the law?
Making It Personal Kids
Do you ever try to learn more about the commandments of God? What did Jesus do that allows God to see you as clean? How can you learn to be better about obeying the commandments?
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for giving Your law for us and then sending Your Son so that we don’t have to rely on our own efforts. Give us a desire to seek Your law in every way so that we can reveal our love for You through obedience. In Jesus’ name, amen.