Psalm 119

I started to read Psalm 119 this morning and I was a bit surprised - it's a love poem for God's laws. How odd is that? How often do I express my love for laws? Love for people, for food, for work, for play maybe... but for laws? I don't recall the last time I was delighted by the speeding limit on the highway...

As I was reading Psalm 119, I was inspired by a few verses and insights.

Psalm 119:11, 15-16
11 I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
...
15 I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.

Perhaps the heart of the matter is that I tend to think of God's laws as something of a chore, not something to delight in. When faced with nagging difficult unreasonable parents, my natural attitude is not to delight in the law to honour my father and mother. When dealing with seemingly impossible people to love, I don't often find it enjoyable to love my neighbour as myself. God's laws can be hidden in my heart and i know in my head how to "deal" with certain circumstances but maybe the reason why I respond towards all of God's laws so grudgingly is because I don't understand the reason for the law in the first place.

Why does God say to honour my parents? Why does God say not to murder? Or not to steal? Or to love our neighbours as ourselves? Why does it call out in God's laws to care for orphans and widows? What is God's heart behind these laws? Maybe this is what Psalm 119:15 means to meditate on God's precepts and consider His ways. If I meditate on God's law, and start to understand and consider His Heart behind making and creating laws, perhaps I will start to see them less and less as chores and restrictions and it will become more and more something I naturally and grow to love doing and to be able to find freedom that they claim to give.