This psalm was challenging for me at first. Where the psalmist adores the law, I find myself uncomfortable at the thought of adoring any set of rules or commands. I adore God’s heart for us, I adore the Grace he has extended us, and the sacrifice he made for us on the cross. But I don’t think I’m comfortable with adoring the laws statutes and commandments that have been set down for us.

But, as Cameron reminded us a few days ago: Jesus is the word made flesh, the embodiment of God’s law, and will for humanity, the embodiment of all that God has to say to us. I have no problem adoring Jesus and his teachings, so why would I have any issue revering God’s law in the same way?

This understanding helped me frame some of the things that the psalmist is communicating in these stanzas. Time and again they ask to be rescued, delivered, saved. In the VOICE translation, verse 156 reads:

Your mercies are tender and great, O Eternal One; grant me life in keeping with Your ordinances.

In the final three stanzas of this poem, the psalmist longs for salvation and deliverance, and they are faithful that God will deliver, because they trust and adore his word.

176: I have wandered down the wrong path like a lost sheep; come find me, Your servant, because I do not forget Your commands.

Sometime after the psalmist uttered these words, Jesus came to find us all. He brought with him the salvation and mercy that the world had been waiting on.

I adore the word made flesh, and so I too, adore the laws, statutes, and commandments placed before me.