The words of today’s Psalm pose an interesting challenge to us. The psalmist extols the law of the Lord, saying that the law refreshes the soul, gives wisdom to the simple, rejoices the heart, and enlightens the eye (Psa 19:8–9); God’s ordinances “are more precious than gold” (v. 11). Do we believe what the psalmist says?
In those moments and areas of our lives where the inclination to sin is alive and well, we are liable to mistrust the psalmist. Then, God’s law may feel to us a burden or a restriction. We may feel resistance to the law in obvious ways, as in a movement contrary to the Decalogue presented in today’s
But the scriptures invite us to adopt a different attitude. Rather, Is the law of God—classically presented in the Decalogue, given in today’s first reading, but even more perfectly realized in the interior law of charity that is the grace of the Holy Spirit—really as wonderful as the psalmist says?