Almost everyone agrees that good laws promote good and restrain bad in human society. Because of the nature of our broken world, though, not all human laws are good. But God’s laws (or “words of instruction”) are good—and they are also good for us.

In this section of Psalm 119, the psalmist revels in the goodness of God’s laws. They are eternal. They are the deep roots of creation. God’s laws are just and consistent, valuable in every time and place and for all generations, in the past and present and into the future. God’s laws are good because God is good, and his laws reveal his goodness. In short, God’s laws are perfect.

The psalmist celebrates the perfection of God’s laws, but he also takes them to heart. God’s laws give comfort in times of anguish. They give hope in times of despair. They even preserved the psalmist’s life when he was surrounded by enemies. They provide a wisdom that leads to flourishing, which produces joy. No wonder the psalmist commits to meditating on and following God’s laws, his precepts, his instructions, his commands, his statutes.

With the psalmist, we too should celebrate the boundless perfection of God’s laws. And, like the psalmist, we should not stop there; we should let God’s Word speak to our hearts and guide our lives.