for I find my delight in your commandments,
which I love.

Psalm 119:47 ESV

As is common to stanza waw, this verse is a continuation of the previous verse, in which the psalmist declared that he would speak of the testimonies of God before kings without shame. Of course, that verse too was rooted particularly in verses 44–45, where he declared his resolve to keep God’s commands. Now the psalmist unveils why he will devote his life to keeping God’s commandments and unashamedly speak God’s Word before kings: for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.

Delight is nothing new to this psalm, for the psalmist has already expressed his delight in the testimonies of God and in the path of God’s commandments, and the writer still has more to say on the topic! The theme of delight is recurrent in Psalm 119 for good reason: the whole psalm is a massive expression of the psalmist’s joy in the Word of God. And delight is essential to obedience. Over and over again, the psalmist reveals that his motivation behind his commitment to keep God’s commandments is delight. He truly loves God’s law and, therefore, longs to be ever more in step with it.

This is, of course, exactly how we should also relate to obedience in light of the gospel. Rather than God’s commandments being burdensome, on one hand, or erased by the gospel, on the other hand, the good news of our redemption in Christ ought to only fuel our desire to pursue holiness by conforming ourselves to God’s Word. Indeed, now that Christ has taken upon Himself the curse of the law for us, the great dread of the commandments has been removed. We are now entirely free to obey out of love and delight, rather than out of fearing the consequences. We no longer look at the commandments as if they were an impossibly steep mountain to climb; instead, we now see them as the loving rules of our Father.

Do you, therefore, delight in God’s commandments?

Do you love God’s law?