Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. (Ps. 119:97)
My daughter spent her college career training as a designer. Sometimes, the artists among us earn the reputation of being boundary-pushers and rule-breakers. Creative types see the world from robust and new perspectives, and that can be uncomfortable for many. But artistic doesn’t mean messy. Creative doesn’t mean lawless. In fact, aesthetically pleasing design is built around symmetry and balance. As my daughter explained to me, scientists and mathematicians have discovered laws, such as the golden spiral, that are seen everywhere from DNA to flowers to entire galaxies. Laws make the world beautiful. God’s design for his physical universe and for his creatures is to flourish and reflect his beauty by adhering to his laws.
The psalmist opens with “Oh, how I love your law” (v. 97) and closes with “I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path” (v. 104). With exquisite literary skill, he not only captures the critical contrast between what we need to love and what we need to hate, but he also tells us why: God’s laws and precepts make the path before us beautiful.
God, the Lord of heaven and earth, makes all things new. At his word, beauty and symmetry entered the universe. His law does not give life to a sterile, vacant existence. His laws are beautiful. That is evident in his creation, both in the earth we inhabit and in the people whom he loves.
Realize that God’s precepts provide a beautiful path.
Dalene (Rovenstine) Fisher is a wife, mother, and grandma. She is an associate professor of English, dean, and assistant provost at Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
© 2022 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
