An insomniac's Psalm 103: Verse 18

". . . to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments."

Keeping covenant is increasingly a foreign concept in America. The closest we had to it was perhaps marriage. That was in the old days when "for better or for worst" meant it.

God has kept his covenant with me---mostly "for worst." I alluded in an earlier blog post to my decades of highhanded rebellion. It is interesting to observe the way a God in covenant handles that kind of thing. One never gets off scot-free, in the sense of feeling no painful repercussions; they are exquisitely painful. But God is expert in weaving chastisement with blessing seamlessly. And then you minister out of your scars, and it's all good.

I like the way my New King James Version phrases the last part of the verse: "who remember His commandments to do them." It's one thing to remember God's commandments, another thing to actually do them. I think we've all got the "remember" part more or less down pat: Love your enemy; forgive 70 times seven, do not grumble, do not be anxious. And I have a bad feeling that some of us are going to be awfully surprised some day that we confused the "remembering" part with the "doing" part. As my brother Marc likes to say, "When all is said and done, more will have been said than done."

Some of us late bloomers have also come to see that when we have actually tried to start seriously "doing" the commandments, they're not bad at all. Maybe that's what Jesus meant by His yoke being easy and his commands not burdensome. As a matter of fact, to begin to venture out into the virgin territory of moment-by-moment obedience is to soon discover that the commandments are doorways to joy. Yes, what we have been avoiding doing all our lives turns out to be the way to our own joy.

And then we reread the Psalmist's exclamation, "Oh, how I love your law!" And suddenly we don't think he's a weird ancient Hebrew "enthusiast" anymore.

To read "Verse 19," click here.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.