Divine Commands (mitsvah)

RTG Index | Lectionary Overview

Scripture: Psalm 119:6, 35, 98, 172 and 176 (NRSV)

Hello! I'm Henry Neufeld, president of Pacesetters Bible School, with today's Running Toward the Goal.

Today we continue looking at the many different ways in which God sends his word, working from Psalm 119.

A Mitsvah, or command, is really the simplest form of instruction from God. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart" is a command. "Love your neighbor as yourself" is another. "Love your enemies" is one of the commands that Jesus gave to us.

Many of us don't like commands. In fact, probably *most* of us don't like commands. Commands don't leave a lot of room for argument. Precisely because they're simple, they don't give us much choice. Just obey or not.

Others of us would much prefer to have everything in the form of commands. Some folks like to compare the Bible to a Boy Scout manual. Commands, procedures, principles, all set down clearly so hopefully the boys will not misunderstand. But the Bible is very much unlike a Boy Scout manual. Only a small portion consists of commands. Jesus, for example, spoke many parables and did many deeds-many more than the commands he gave.

In the Old Testament, we have history, poetry, prophetic statements, proverbs and many other things.

I've had people in classes tell me that they wished so much that God would have just given us a list of things to do. How can we possibly understand all those stories! We want to know precisely what God's will is.

But he has chosen to give us only a few things in the form of simple commands. Much more of his word comes to us in different forms.

In our text today, the psalmist is focusing on God's commandments. He will not be put to shame, because when he is working inside God's commandments he knows he will be in the right. He is delighted to be within those boundaries. He knows they are safe. He is wiser than those who are outside.

He may have gone astray, but since he remembers God's commands, he can confidently ask God to lead him back.

I like to compare this to the way we deal with our children. When they are very young, we will tell them not to touch certain things individually. This is like the simple commands of God. When they are older, we can tell them more generally, don't touch the things that might break; or don't touch the things that don't belong to you.

God, in his Word, has given us the tools which he will use through his spirit to train us in righteousness, in right living, until we attain maturity. Now don't get the idea that the commands become "wrong" as we get more mature; that we grow out of doing what God says. What does happen, however, is that we learn to apply them to more circumstances. We learn to live in relationship to God. We learn to follow the Spirit.

And when we've learned to do that, we will truly know God's will in each and every circumstance of life.