The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. These are the sweet and reassuring words of the Psalmist (Ps 19:7). They are statements of a man who had tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord, a man who had rejoiced in the supreme sufficiency of the sovereign God.
These are sweet words because they are spoken by a witness of the golly and glory of God. ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good’ invites David again (Ps 34:8).
The Law of the Lord is perfect. Undeniably flawless. And because this is so, it is unchanging. The confidence the Psalmist has in the Law is because it is immutable. It does not change after a day or a year or a generation. He who spoke it is unchanging. But He is also all-knowing and does not need to change His mind.
God does not grow in knowledge like you and I. We grow, and we see things differently. We learn and change our opinions because we do not have the whole picture at any given moment. But there is nothing, whether in the future, present, or past that God does not know. He made it all, and He sustains everything. Therefore, we say He is perfect.
Out of His perfection, the Lord speaks. And He expresses excellence. That is why the Law of the Lord is perfect.
My assessment of some of the people I discuss with who gladly confess Christ is that they seem to fall short of this sweet surrender to the perfection of God’s Law and Word as revealed in scripture. At least that is what our conversations tend to show.
There is a temptation to think that God’s word changes with circumstances. Many in fact believe that there can be a new meaning in a given text that did not exist when the Author wrote the letter or a psalm. This is a failure to understand the nature of the perfection of God, and therefore of His word.
A man’s promise is as good as His nature and character, and the stability of a man’s word owes to the solidity of his person. Because men change minds, their words can be full today and empty tomorrow.
But not so with the omniscient One, not so with the God of Jacob. “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal 3:6).
David rejoices in the perfection of the Law of God because his redemption depends on the unchanging nature of God’s word. If the meaning of God’s written and spoken word would change with circumstances, how could we trust His promises at all? For no sooner had He promised heaven to us than the conditions changed His mind.
It could be that He promises us eternal life before He has seen the worst of us, and having had a taste of our worst selves tomorrow, He withdraws His promise. But such a god is not perfect, and we thus cannot rely on his Law.
Any promise of heaven today from a changing god might be torn in hell tomorrow owing to lousy weather just. A god whose word changes with the flow is an idol, unable to save his face, let alone redeem you and me.
The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. Our souls cannot be restored by anything less than perfection. And that is why motivational speaking ruins people. It misdiagnoses their malady and gives them a wrong treatment.
Because God’s word is perfect, we cannot think that our ‘deep revelation’ is ever profound unless it is a simple contextual understanding of what God said more than 2000 years ago. If the meaning you get from the text is not the meaning David or Paul or Luke meant, it would be safe to say that you are profoundly mistaken.
Because, again, unless the meaning of the word is fixed, you have no hope. Unless God’s word is unchanging, you cannot be saved. Until you understand that scripture reveals God’s very nature and character you will die deceived.
The words of the Psalmist are sweet precisely because they are pure and unchanging. You can trust them. Your grandmother can stake her entire eternity on them. They are to her what they were to David. And thus she can rejoice with David because they believe the same immutable word of truth.
The Spirit of God does not change the meaning of the Word of God, but reveals it, because He is the Author of it! And if you and I have the same Spirit, and study the same Word thoroughly, by His guidance, we should get the same meaning.
Only then can we confidently say with David, ‘the law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul,’ because only the unchanging word can give us the unchanging hope. Scripture does not change because God does not change, and therefore we are not consumed.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at theprincejose@yahoo.com