September 20, 2025

Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 15 - Psalm 119:137-140, 142; antiphon: Psalm 119:144

Daily Lectionary: Nehemiah 4:7-23; 1 Timothy 3:1-16

“Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness. My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words. Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true. Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.” (Psalm 119:137-144)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. 

Do you delight in God’s Commandments? So often, the Commandments and precepts of God can feel like a weight we carry in this life, a burden that keeps us from what we really want to do. And part of that comes from how we often see the Law and what we read and hear about it. The Law is almost always talked about in “do’s” and “don'ts” based on how we have failed to keep God’s Law. We are told how we have given in to temptation, how we have hurt our neighbor and not loved them properly, how the Law says that without Jesus, we deserve death and Hell. These things are true, of course, but they don’t bring to mind the same words of the Psalmist, who delights in the Law of the Lord. The truth is, as much as the Law shows us our sinfulness, it really, truly shows us the goodness of God! From the very beginning of the world, God set His Law in place in the universe. Before the Fall into sin, the Law was simply the way things were. Our God is a good God who desires an ordered creation, a world in which His creatures do not kill one another or steal from each other, where husbands and wives love each other as Christ and His bride, the Church, love one another, and where His people are righteous and close to Himself. When we “delight” in the Laws of God, we recognize that our Lord wants what is best for us and desires to be near to us. We know that God uses this Law, even in this broken world, to guard and defend us from evil. In these verses of Psalm 119, the Psalmist speaks against those who have forgotten the Law of the Lord, but praises Him for His righteousness that guides His creation and promises to remember God’s Words and precepts. As baptized Christians, we are given freedom from the fear of the law through the death and resurrection of Jesus. In this freedom, we have the ability to, like the Psalmist, delight in the goodness of the Law and work to keep it, not out of fear or a desire to earn salvation, but out of love for God and our neighbor. God has kept the law in all fullness for us, and that is something we may truly delight in.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Law of God is good and wise And sets His will before our eyes, Shows us the way of righteousness, And dooms to death when we transgress. (LSB 579:1)

Rev. Benjamin Heinz, pastor of Athens Lutheran Church in Athens, TN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Join author R. Reed Lessing helps with this chapter-by-chapter exploration of the Book of Numbers in Hope in the Wilderness. With helpful maps, diagrams, and connections to the rest of the Bible, you’ll be able to understand the beauty of Numbers.