The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous.
Psalm 19.9b
As a background to this Devotional today please turn to, and read, Deuteronomy 4.5-14 where we hear Moses reminding God’s people of their incredible heritage of God given laws and decrees making them (if they obeyed) a ‘wise and understanding people’ with ‘righteous decrees and laws’.
I guess that David had this passage in mind when he wrote this Psalm which we have been thinking about in recent days and to which we shall return once more on Saturday. But for today it is good for us to focus on the fact of God’s ordinances being ‘sure’ and ‘altogether righteous’.
The people of Israel had the immeasurable blessing of such laws and ‘in keeping of them was great reward’ Psalm 19.11b. Sadly we know that they failed often (as we do) to appropriate those rewards as they failed to follow the laws God had graciously given them.
This leads me to reflect today on the state of affairs we have in our own country, Wales immediately geographically but also the whole of the United Kingdom and indeed casting the net wider, the whole Western World.
Here, we too are privileged to have an inheritance of laws which, by the grace of God, were established on the Judeo-Christian foundation as the gospel was brought to our shores and taken on board by the law makers of the West, thus giving us a foundation that has brought untold blessing and benefit in direct proportion to those laws being followed.
However in our immediate generation we find, at least from the writer’s perspective, those foundations being attacked and undermined at every level.
Those in power appear to interpret the law to their own advantage (Partygate). Principles that have stood the test of time are being abandoned (The Church in Wales proudly proclaiming that in 5 years they will approve SSM (Same Sex Marriage). Reality being turned upside down with Politicians unable (or unwilling) to define ‘Woman’. A world where God is given very slight token acknowledgement or most often, none at all, and so we could go on and on!
The laws that God gave his people placed great emphasis on care for people and especially the poor and clearly linked obedience with blessing and when kept, were proved to be sure and righteous.
It is true that post the Cross we live not under law but under grace but it is good for us to remember that God’s sure and righteous laws make for a good and harmonious society of people. Sure, they would still be broken because we are still naturally self-centred rather than God centred but if God’s people, live in God’s way they will undoubtedly be blessed and our nations challenged to get on the right path which God has established for man to follow.