“When Thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek” (Psalm 27:8).
This is a unique verse in the Old Testament, far removed from the bondage of the law of commandments, throwing a flood of light on God’s dealings with His people, whether it be with His Old Testament saints or those in New Testament times.
When the law was given at Sinai, we read of the Mount that might not be touched, that burned with fire, of blackness and darkness and tempest, of the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words. So terrifying was all this that the children of Israel entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more; and even Moses, their great leader, nearer to God than any, said, “I exceedingly fear and quake.”
And what was the lesson the law would teach? Said one, who most sincerely and earnestly sought righteousness by the law, “The commandment which was ordained to life; I found to be to death” (Rom. 7:10). So wrote the Apostle Paul, and he furthermore described the Old Testament, the law, as “the ministration of condemnation” and “the ministration of death” (2 Cor. 3:7, 9), for its only activity was to condemn those who failed to obey perfectly its commands, and its ultimate penalty exacted was death.
Was the law then not good? Surely, as emanating from God it was positively and altogether good. We read, “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12).
The law is like a sculptor, handling with exquisite skill the most exact tools, and yet he is utterly powerless. Why is he powerless? The answer is, Because of the material be works on. He is called upon to produce a sculpture out of a block made of sand, loosely held together. At the slightest and most skilful blow of the hammer on the chisel, the sand crumbles.
It is thus with the law. The law is good, but man’s heart is alienated from God. We read, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8:7). The law is powerless, because there is no response in the human heart of fallen sinful man to God, and the final verdict is that “every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Rom. 3:19).
But in Psalm 27:8, we breathe a different atmosphere altogether. When God expresses His desire that His creature should seek His face, there is the immediate response of the heart—“my heart said, Thy face Lord, will I seek.” Psalm 27, with its single verse speaking of God’s desire reminds us of Psalm 119 with its 176 verses, no less than 174 of which mention the law of God under different names—law, commandments, precepts, testimonies, judgments, statutes, ordinances, word, way, path. Psalm 119:1-176 is but the expansion of Psalm 27:8. Whatever name the law may go by, it is no longer condemnation and death threatening, but perfect delight and liberty. The writer bursts out, “My soul breaks for the longing that it has to Thy judgments at all times” (v. 20)—“Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments” (v. 164).
Psalm 119 is formed of twenty-two sections in acrostic form, each beginning with a letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the whole constituting one long outflow of worshipful joy in the law of the Lord. The writer calls upon his soul, heart, eyes, lips, tongue, mouth, hands, feet, to take part in this anthem of praise. The statutes, terrifying to the man in the flesh, become his songs in the house of his pilgrimage (v. 54).
The man with the renewed heart rises at midnight to give thanks to the Lord because of His righteous judgments; before the dawning of the day he is hoping in God’s word; in the night watches he meditates on the law of the Lord. His mind and soul and affections ever turn to the Lord, as the flower turns to the sun. In short the whole sets forth the law, the Old Testament, viewed from the standpoint of the New Covenant or Testament, that which consists of the forgiveness of sins, the new birth, “a new heart also will I give you” (Ezek. 36:26), and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Of course all this was not fully known in Old Testament times, not till the atoning death of our Lord showed how these blessings could come to us, but the spirit of it all was even recognized by faith in Old Testament times. King David could write of forgiveness of sins (Ps. 32:1), and of the Spirit’s presence (Ps. 51:11).
The correct, austere writer, James, takes up the same happy strain as Psalm 119. He calls the law “the perfect law of liberty” (Jas 1:25); no longer the law of bondage. Again the law is called “the royal law,” compressed into one word, Love—“thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (James 2:10). The deep cloud of Mount Sinai has given place to the sunshine of a rejoicing heart, responding to and fully answering to God.
Command a true wife to love her husband! Is there any bondage there? Is it not what already fills her heart to overflowing—the love of one, who has committed her life, herself, to the object of her affections—her husband.
So the believer is not “under law;” that is, as perfectly keeping it in order to stand before God in unforfeited life; but as walking in the Spirit and fulfilling the righteous requirements of the law by a new Power, even that of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, given to those who receive the gospel of their salvation (Eph. 1:13). “Ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him, who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God” (Rom. 7:4).
Here is the path of Christian liberty, joy and peace.