Righteous Regulations || Psalm 119:7 || Manna for the Mind #83

Welcome to Day 83 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about taking scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses) and building our understanding of their teachings through their context and connecting scripture. I believe that doing this helps us understand how to be the type of human that God created us to be.

Today’s devotional is focusing on Psalm 119:7. I’m expecting today’s blog to be short because we’re only talking about this verse. We’ll look at what “righteous regulations” mean and understand how to live by those regulations.

Psalm 119:7

7             As I learn your righteous regulation, I will thank you by living as I should!

Righteous is the Hebrew noun tsedeq (tseh’-dek). It’s used to describe the government’s rightness of the laws. It describes the laws created by a governmental authority as something right. It provides justice and supports a righteous cause. It comes from the Hebrew word tsadeq (tsaw-dak’), which means to be just or righteous. It describes a cleansing or seeing justice turn into righteousness. It focuses on moral rightness. Let’s put this all together to create a working definition:

RIGHTEOUS is a descriptor of doing something or following something that provides justice and supports a moral rightness for a community.

Regulations in the New Living Translation also use the word “judgment,” which in Hebrew is the word mishpat (mish-pawt’). It describes a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or participant’s divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty. It comes from the Hebrew word shaphat (shaw-fat’), which means to judge or govern. It describes a sentence (for or against), by implication, to vindicate or punish; by extension, to govern. Let’s put it all together to create a working definition:

REGULATION is a sentence or verdict given through governance or implication pronounced through an authority that describes a formal decree involving an act, a place, a suit, a crime, and a penalty.

These definitions may seem complex, but let me simplify them for you in standard English:

RIGHTEOUS REGULATION: a descriptive law that tells us to be just and have divine morality for those around us. It gives us the details of how to live by these laws and the consequences when we don’t follow them.

Let’s examine the Ten Commandments to understand these righteous regulations and what happens when we follow them or don’t.

Most of you have heard what the Ten Commandments are. If you haven’t, here’s a summary and an encouragement to go read Exodus 20:3-17:

• No gods before God.
• No idols.
• No misusing God’s name.
• Keep the Sabbath holy.
• Honor your parents.
• No murder
• No adultery.
• No stealing.
• No lying.
• No coveting.

However, I want to discuss the following four verses after this passage. The people heard thunder and the loud blast of a ram’s horn. They saw lightning and smoke from Mt. Sinai. They were afraid and stood at a distance. They were afraid of God after this and only wanted to talk to Moses and have Moses talk to God for them. Then, Moses said this in Exodus 20:20.

Exodus 20:20

20          “Don’t be afraid,” Moses answered them, “for God has come in this way to test you, so that your fear of him will keep you from sinning!”

Let’s combine this idea with the second half of our focus verse, with having gratitude for these regulations by living rightly. The people were afraid, and Moses said that what they saw was only scary because God wanted to test them. I often hear and read about people interpreting this as God is a mean, angry, and vengeful god, but what, out of what they saw, was evil. They saw a scary storm, loud noises, and bright lights and assumed the worst was happening. They were so afraid of God creating this type of environment that God created that they were scared into following the commands of God. This is the central idea of “the fear of the Lord” concept.

They were so scared of what God could do that they’d rather not risk finding out what God could do to them. The environment was scary, but what else did they believe could happen? Deuteronomy 29:20-68 talks about this, which I’d encourage you to read about them. Again, this isn’t to say that God is angry, vengeful, or evil. Each decision we make will have its positive and negative outcomes. What was shared with the Israelites was their understanding of the adverse outcomes. The literal understanding of this was for the specific context and culture of the audience. Still, the moral understanding of this is the lesson we can take away in our 2024 American culture and context. God is powerful and a force not to be reckoned with, but his focus is on love. God is not abusive but loving and compassionate. God is not angry but patient and faithful. God is not evil but good and just.

Instead of our regular prayer, I want to leave you with these words in Exodus 34, which describe the character of God and reoccur the most often in the Old Testament.

Exodus 34:6-7

6             And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

7             maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.