Psalm 40:8

Psalm 40:8

Your law is within my heart

In the days of ancient Israel, up to the coming of the Messiah, the Law of God was learned by rote. Children learned it, especially the boys, and they did not just learn bits of it, the elders, leaders and fathers of the people taught and recited the whole of the Torah law over and over. We need to remember that Jesus and the Apostles would have learned the Scriptures this way. That is the reason for the great scrolls found in synagogues and for the sacredness of the scriptures to the people. A scribe was literally a man who spent most of his days writing out the Torah and the Mishnah and all the other documents that were deemed to be so precious. Along with them were the “teachers of the law,” mentioned so often in the Gospels, who spent their lives instructing and teaching all ages the truths of the law. 

It is in Jeremiah 31:33 that the Lord promises a new covenant with the people of Israel, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, “Know the Lord;” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” This is a deep subject; some believe that the law is now obsolete because we have the Holy Spirit working in our conscience. 

The law has now been put in our minds and hearts, because Jesus obeyed the law, showing us the way to live it, and because He suffered and died for us under it. What was once the law to be obeyed through obedience alone, has become the law to be followed by the example of our Lord and Master who followed it. Furthermore, knowing the terrible sacrifice Jesus suffered on the cross to atone for our sins because we didn’t obey His laws, compels our minds and moves our hearts to obey all of His commandments, just as He obeyed them (1 John 2:3-6) so as to not grieve the Holy Spirit within us (Ephesians 4:30).

Remarkably, it seems that David had already made that leap of faith, the law was written within his heart because the Holy Spirit was with Him. As a consequence, he desired to do God’s will, he desired to be a faithful, obedient servant of the living Lord. 

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