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…the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever… Psalm 19.9
It’s curious that David would insert an observation concerning the fear of the Lord into the midst of this meditation on the Law of God. Quite probably “fear” is another way of referring to the Law, since, keeping the Law issues from love for and fear of God (Deut. 10.12). When we fear the Lord we turn to His Law in order to discover how we may please Him. The same is true as we love the Lord. Our relationship with God is suspended on the cusp of genuine love and proper fear of God, and each of these comes to expression in the form of obedience to God’s Law.
Of course, we do not keep the Law perfectly (1 Jn. 1.8). Nor can we keep it in our own power. We must have the Spirit of God at work within us to make us willing and able to do God’s good pleasure (Phil. 2.12, 13). But, as He does, as He teaches us the Law and empowers us to obey it (Ezek. 36.26, 27), we are able to walk in the pathway of cleanness before the Lord. The Law – the fear of God – is clean, and, under the tutelage and power of the Holy Spirit, it makes us clean as well.
The devil will certainly try to convince us otherwise. He’s good at reminding us of all our shortcomings and past failings. But we don’t walk that path anymore, not since we have come to know Jesus (Eph. 4.17-24). Now, loving God and fearing Him, we look to His Word and Law to guide us in the proper way of showing gratitude and growing in grace. We leave the filth of our past behind and, clothed in the clean garments of Jesus righteousness, we seek the cleansing of God’s Spirit to lead us on the path of cleanness before the Lord.
You cannot be clean before the Lord apart from the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And you cannot stay clean without the work of His Spirit, sanctifying you in the Word of Truth (Jn. 17.17). The more you make daily meditation in God’s Law a part of your regular discipline, the more you will know the power of its cleanness at work with you in all things.
Order your copy of The Law of God, a compilation of the Mosaic Law for contemporary believers, and The Ground for Christian Ethics, by T. M.