Loving the Law
Anthony Esolen on the Liberated Life of Sonship & Obedience
If I were to choose which verses from Scripture were most flatly incomprehensible to the man of our passing age, they would come from the longest of the psalms (119), that paean of joy and delight in the law of God. You might choose any of the poem’s sections, each of which contains eight verses beginning with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in order from the first to the last. Every verse in the poem plays upon one of the words for what God has spoken and set down as a rule for life: word, law, precepts, commandments, statutes, decrees, judgments, testimonies, ordinances, faithfulness, and so forth. If I had to choose one section, it would be this, under the letter mem (97–104):
O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.
I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.
How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.
Both Enthralled & Stunned
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Anthony Esolen is Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College and the author of over 30 books, including Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church (Tan, with a CD), Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture (Regnery), and The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord (Ignatius). He has also translated Dante’s Divine Comedy (Random House) and, with his wife Debra, publishes the web magazine Word and Song (anthonyesolen.substack.com). He is a senior editor of Touchstone.
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