Either David Was a Lunatic, or You Were Handed a Lie About the Torah
The longest chapter in your Bible is one hundred and seventy-six verses of sincere love for the thing you were taught to escape.
I dare you to open Psalm 119. Don’t just skim it. I want you to read it slowly, the way you would read an intimate letter from someone you love deeply and know time was running out.
This is the longest chapter in your Bible, 176 passionate verses. It says the same thing over and over again, all the way from the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet to the very last: “I love your Torah. I ache for it deeply. Teach me to keep it, Lord. Do not permit me to wander away from it. I incline my heart toward it. My soul is consumed with a deep hunger for it.”
Now hold that against what you have been told. We all know the institutional church handed us a Torah that was labeled a complete burden, a legalism yoke nobody could even bear, or ever bear, a dead letter God could not wait to be rid of. It was retired at the cross, replaced by a simple grace that gets us out of jail free.
However, think about this for a moment. If that is true, when you read the Psalm again slowly, take a minute and tell me what you’re looking at, because a man, a passionate man, sat down and poured out all those verses of love for the very thing we’ve been sold as a curse. He called it sweeter than honey, more precious than gold. This was his meditation throughout the day.
There are only two ways to read this, really:
1. David was a complete lunatic, writing love songs about his chains in his prison and calling his prison something beautiful.
2. The thing he loved was never what we were sold it was, and I say “sold” loosely because you can’t have it both ways.
We can’t have it both ways. We can’t have it by what’s called a burden and got abolished, and a Bible where most of its devoted, passionate writers spent its longest chapter adoring it and never feel the two grinding against each other, at odds. One of those readings is absolutely wrong, and it’s worth knowing which one.
I encourage you to do the honest thing, to do the Berean thing, and read the psalm slowly yourself. This time, watch what the verbs do closely. Pay attention. He does not say, “I keep it.” He says, “Teach it to me, incline me, keep me from wandering away from your instruction, give me the understanding, revive me.” Those are not words coming out of a man reporting his obedience to the world. Those are very sincere words of a man begging for a strong connection with God. He absolutely loved God’s instruction with everything he had, and he still could not keep it from the inside. He had this role in front of him and the agony inside himself at a very deep level, and no power to close the gap between the two- that gap, the entire psalm.
That is the same gap you and I feel, if we’re honest, every time we love something in scripture but cannot seem to live it out. This is what I want you to sit with. It’s exactly what I want you to sit with. I don’t feel like David was a lunatic. He was the most honest man in the Tanakh about the one thing most of us hide from. He was craving what he could not satisfy on his own. It was not a dead end. It was simply a prayer, and he had an answer coming. He didn’t know it.
That answer runs straight through the New Testament: that people have been taught to leave the Torah behind. Jeremiah named it Yeshua, enacted it; Shaul lived inside of it. Yohanan said outright that the commandments we were given were not a burden. Every one of them is standing exactly where Psalm 119 put it, but don’t take my word for it. Be Berean.
I’ve laid this whole thing out: David’s cry, the covenant that answers it, the unbroken line all the way from Yeshua’s own mouth to the last letter of the Bible. This is a new piece on the Berean table. It is long. It’s the longest chapter of the Bible, so it deserves a very slow unpacking. If you’ve ever loved something in scripture that you could not keep from the inside, this is the journal entry built exactly for you. Read Psalm 119 first. Do it slowly, then come and read this and ask yourself honestly whether or not what you were handed agrees with the man singing passionately on the page, or does it make a lunatic out of him?
It’s up to you.
→ The Torah David Longed to Keep
Shalom v’shalvah,
Sergio
You’ve been quiet for a while. I’ve wondered what you were working on. I appreciate the way you connected this to our need and desire to ‘fill the gap’.
My prayer at age 12 while under John 16:7-11 conviction was:
“Ok, God…what do you want? I go to church, give an offering and I’m TRYing to keep the 10 commandments. I believe Jesus is your Son and I want his death, burial, and resurrection applied to my life so I can live a life pleasing to You.”
Trying is not trusting!
I’ve since learned that Bitachon goes beyond emunah.
I’ve come to believe we are just as dependent on Abba for our sanctification as we are for our salvation according to Ezekiel 36: 26-27 and John 17:17.
I had gone to church as long as I remember. The above prayer was long before I had read the Bible all the way through, let alone study it inductively!
I’ve also been thinking about Psalm 119 a lot lately and how my study of it in 1989-1991 was a game changer for me. I was also considering going through it again and rewriting my study of ‘The 7…no 8 Wonders of the Word. Hmm…🤔
On another note that I think you will appreciate, today I was reading a teaching by Brad Scott (Wild Branch Ministries) who said this:
I have found that many of the web sites devoted to teaching that our Creator is limited to judicial jurisdictions, think like typical westerners think. They see the words of our Father as legislative rather than parental. If we can just adjust our thinking to seeing God's commands as parental rather than legislative, the scriptures soon begin to point to a house, a family and a fruitful piece of land rather than a court, a jury and a burial plot. The bottom line to this discussion on moral and ceremonial law is that from the beginning there has only been one body, one spirit, one family and one God.
Why do religious systems continue to refer to laws for the church and laws for the Jews.
Shalom❣️
Debra
in my experience, at least part of the problem for mainstream Christians in warming up to the idea that Jesus didn't come to do away with His own law, is the legalistic attitudes of many (and i mean MANY) Sabbatarians regarding a host of Biblical doctrines.
while our mainstream brethren also have attributed legalistic tendencies (ie: making the trinitarian formula for the Godhead a salvation dependent doctrine), Sabbatarians seem to excel in this unbiblical area, often equating the observance of some specific law of God with salvation.
too many of us have considered our mainstream brethren as “heretics” merely because God hasn’t yet opened their eyes to various truths we claim to know & understand. i’ve heard the condemnation with my own ears far too many times.
our tiny congregation has over the past few years or so endured two splits, most everyone leaving over doctrinal disagreements.
for example, disagreement over: our not prohibiting women from being actively taking part in appointed times holy convocations; our allowing parents to decide whether or not their children would fully take part in Passover services; our not doing Passover properly and/or calendar disagreements; our not warranting everyone use specific “sacred [Hebrew] names” of God; our not warranting everyone wear zit zits; our not warranting all adult men be physically circumcised; our discouraging the slippery slopes of books like Enoch and/or the Flat Earth nonsense… and certainly some other matters that have currently slipped my mind.
from the typical mainstream believer’s point of view — and from this Sabbatarians’s POV — all such is nonsense and not indicative of God’s Spirit whatsoever.
if all that wasn’t enough to discourage our mainstream brethren from finding interest in God’s appointed times, there seems to be a new (to me) concept being pushed by at least one very popular “torah teacher”, along with others among some Sabbatarian congregations.
i am in the middle of composing some questions to accompany various scriptures in order to confirm what i think i’m hearing, but it’s been sounding like these folks are teaching that we are not under the order of the Melchizedek priesthood (Jesus/Yahshua’s priesthood), but remain under the “sons of Aaron” priesthood (within the tribe of Levi), thus replacing Yahshua with humans as our mediator between us and the Father.
they further claim that Jesus cannot ever enter the forthcoming earthly/physical temple’s holiest of holies room upon His return because He was of Judah not Levi (nor a “son of Aaron”). they seem to view the Old Covenant human priesthood as being eternal, ignoring the fact that the very first priest mentioned Biblically was none other than Melchizedek, and this was the only time He showed up to anyone as such.
some of these “torah teachers” have also been growing very comfortable with casting judgement (condemnation) upon other believers for things like inscribing “YHWH” upon objects, claiming doing so is blasphemy to God.
if i an correct in my understanding of such teachings and in light of all i have experienced myself over the decades i’ve been in this walk, it appears as though pride has gripped some of our brethren who have forgotten that for one, we don’t perfectly understand all of God’s Biblical “instruction” (or, “torah”). we strive to do so, but we perhaps forget that we still see as through a glass dimly.
perhaps some also forget that God is sovereign. He gives and takes away. He sets up humans to be in specific positions (like priesthood) for a time in according with His plan for the reconciliation of humankind to the Father & the Son. yet, only God is eternal. our eternal life through Messiah is by invite, not by anything we can do except acceptance of the invitation.
sadly, i continue to see this legalistic trend growing worse, not better. over the past few years our congregation emphasized that we hold there to be ONE salvation dependent doctrine: the sacrifice of our LORD Jesus Christ, Yahshua Messiah. i was surprised to discover how many individuals among the brethren of various congregations had such problems with this concept.
why? i can think of only ONE answer: LEGALISM.
while everyone who left our congregation over doctrinal disagreements are some of the sweetest as well as passionate folks who genuinely love God and strive to obey Him in spirit and truth, from my perspective it appears as though Christ’s sacrifice somehow isn’t enough.
i pray that God will entirely destroy the spirit of legalism among our Sabbatarian congregations and their elders.
ironically, while the TV show The Chosen has received so much criticism from the mainstream (Protestants & Catholics) as well as Sabbatarians, my opinion is that the show has done more to spread the gospel of the risen Messiah and His coming heavenly Kingdom to the world over the past decade, than any of these manmade Christian religions.
so… what’s it gonna be my fellow Sabbatarians? shall we continue to entertain this wicked spirit of legalism which only serves to discourage one another, along with our mainstream brethren who might be finding interest in God’s truths during these last days? or shall we repent of doing so?
my heart continues to be broken, because i’m certainly not holding my breath after all i have witnessed. yet, i’ll continue to pray for such a miracle of God to take place while we await our LORD’s return.
Godbless… 🙏🏼😎❤️♾️