We're getting close to the great Torah psalm, Psalm 119. But I'm jumping on this line from Psalm 112 to get a head start.
Who takes delight, let alone great delight, in commands, rules, and laws? Not us!
Back when Saturday morning cartoons was a thing, I always noticed this trope in children's cereal commercials. The scene is in an elementary school, a classroom or cafeteria. The color palette is dark and grey. Some hectoring and domineering teacher is terrorizing the children. And then, Tony the Tiger appears! The colors explode. The kids start going crazy, dancing and breaking all the rules. The grim teacher is ignored or put in their place.
Basically, we use rebellion and rule-breaking to sell sugar-coated cornflakes to children. And it works because, as Western individualists, we all want to be James Dean. From pre-ripped jeans to "Come and Take It" bumper stickers, we style ourselves as rebels.
Everywhere you look, rule-following is denigrated. Being obedient is a blight.
Given all this, it's almost impossible for us to imagine the grace of law. In the Hebrew imagination life without God's commands would descend into chaos. There is a strong link between God's ordering commands over the tohu wa-bohu, the formless waste and void, and the moral instructions of the Torah. Without God's law, social and moral life would revert back into the tohu wa-bohu. Consequently, by inserting order into the formless chaos of our lives God's word become salvific. Commands are mercy. Instruction is healing. Law is grace.
That's a hard message for us to hear, we rebels without a cause.
