Holy Law

1. Oh how I love Your holy law! It’s daily my delight;
I meditate and from it draw divine advice by night.
My waking eyes precede the day to counsel with Your word;
My soul with longing melts away to hear Your gospel, Lord.

2. Your heav’nly words my heart engage, and well employ my tongue,
And in my tiresome pilgrimage yield me a heav’nly song.
When I am trav’ling, or at home, it’s my perpetual feast;
Not honey dropping from the comb is sweeter to the taste.

3. No treasures so enrich the mind; nor shall Your word be sold
For loads of silver well refin’d, nor heaps of choicest gold.
When nature sinks, and spirits droop, Your promises of grace
Are pillars to support my hope; and sadness turns to praise.

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Isaac Watts paraphrased the following verses into this hymn:

Psalm 119
¹¹ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
¹³ With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
¹⁹ I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
²⁸ My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
⁴⁹ Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.
⁵⁴ Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
⁷² The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
⁹⁷ O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
¹⁰³ How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹²⁷ Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.
¹⁴⁸ Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
¹⁷⁵ Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy judgments help me.

Psalm 119 above all the other passages of the Bible, exalts the holy nature of God’s Law, when seen in it’s true spiritual light. The Law is God’s character, written out for men in ten simple, yet eternally deep, principles.

The New Testament teaches that grace has quickening power:

Ephesians 2
⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

But Psalm 119 accounts the same power to the Law:

Psalm 119
⁹³ I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

There is no contradiction. Both are simply the living, creative Word of God. The precepts of the Law, taken as promises from the mouth of Christ, are able to change us and make us like Him. It is grace, but it is also the highest spiritual meaning of the Law as spoken from the mouth of the Life-giver.

Alternate Version

Here is the same text with a Nova Scotian folk melody. It was actually the first tune we had put to this text, but was replaced in our church songbook with a less folky one. This tune has a lovely bagpipe-drone sound to it (if you like that style!).

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