ReadingThru: Psalm 1-2, Psalm 15, Psalm 22-24, Psalm 47, Psalm 68
Today’s Reading: Psalm 1-2, Psalm 15, Psalm 22-24, Psalm 47, Psalm 68
The kings of the earth take their stand
And the rulers take counsel together
Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
Let us tear their fetters apart
And cast away their cords from us!
Psalm 2:2-3
Why do people see a life submitted to God as one of bondage, constraints, and rules? I don’t know how many times I have heard someone talk about Christianity in terms of the “rules”. Even when someone complains that the church is full of hypocrites, what they are really saying is that there are a bunch of rules to follow and the people in the church don’t follow those rules.
Implied in this view, is that any alternative such as living without God or choosing some other worldview will result in a life without the “fetter” put on us by God.
But every worldview, every road we choose in life has rules to follow. “Casting away” the precepts of one lifestyle seems like just a tacit acceptance of some other set of rules and expectations. The problem with turning way from God is that God’s “rules” for us a just simply truth. To turn from the truth is to turn to deception. If the truth of God seems like fetters and cords, then the bondage that results from living in deception has to be like leg irons and heavy chains!
Bob Dylan had it just about right:
You’re gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Much of the reading today focuses on living a holy, righteous life. Being made righteous, that only happens by grace through faith in Christ, but expressing the righteousness imparted to us at the foot of the cross by living a life that confirms that gift. We desire to live a holy life, not in hopes of earning something by it, but to honor and express the gift given to us.
In the absense of that gift, without a personal knowledge of Jesus and the debt he paid for us, I guess I CAN see how people see only a set of instructions, rules, and constraints.
