Heaviness and Rest

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,  
who walk in the law of the LORD!  
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,  
who seek Him with their whole heart,  
who also do no wrong,  
but walk in His ways!  
You have commanded Your precepts    
to be kept diligently.  
Oh that my ways may be steadfast  
in keeping Your statutes!  
Then I shall not be put to shame,  
having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments.   
I will praise You with an upright heart,  
when I learn Your righteous rules.  
I will keep Your statutes;  
do not utterly forsake me!  

Psalm 119:1-8

Last week I had the privilege of attending the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference along with 9,000 other women during a heat wave in Indianapolis, IN. On the first day, the conference’s bookstore was giving away new NIV Study Bibles. They were large and heavy, but needless to say, I put one in my book bag along with lots of other new books and excitedly went about my day of hearing wonderful teaching from many godly women. By the time dinner approached, our book bags were getting heavy, and our dinner reservation was a 30-minute walk in the scorching heat. Sweaty and weary, we finally got to the restaurant. My friend, who also snagged a free study Bible, slammed her bag on the table and pronounced, “Jesus is HEAVY”! We all laughed, grateful for the relief of being free from our heavy burdens and ready for a restful meal. What my friend said made me think of the law, the burden of sin, and the freedom Jesus gives us.

In Psalm 119:1-8, the Psalmist uses words like “law”, “testimonies”, “ways”, “precepts”, “statues”, and “judgments” all to describe God’s written Word. In John 1:1 we read that Jesus is the Word. As it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). The Word of God reveals Jesus to us. When the Psalmist states in verses 1-3 that we are most blessed and most favored when we keep God’s commands and seek Jesus with our whole heart, He is expressing his belief that Jesus is the most important person in all of life. He is in effect, saying “Jesus is HEAVY”.

The center of this section of Psalm 119, verse 5, is a prayer. The Psalmist cries out, “Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statues!” Clearly, he realizes that without the enablement of God Himself, this desire to live by God’s statutes is doomed. The apostle Paul spoke of being unable to keep God’s ways in his flesh, and he too prays for help. We read this in Romans 7:22-24 where Paul says:

“For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law raging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

No one can keep God’s law, in fact, it further exposes our sin. It is a heavy burden, and it can be exhausting. Yet, this is why Jesus came, to affirm the law and commend us to keep it, as we see in Matthew 5:17-20. However, He also came to fulfill the law and show its true purpose. Jesus desires us to have an obedience to His Word, that flows from the heart.

Paul Tripp speaks to this when he said:

“Jesus came to give us rest. He came to give us rest from the impossibility of defeating sin on our own and from our inability to live up to God’s glorious commands.”

The next time following God’s ways and obeying Him seems hard, even heavy, remember this truth: Because of Christ’s great love, He came to bear the burden of the law and to set us free from its weight. He invites us to turn to Him by saying, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). How can He do this? Because He is our HEAVY, our defeater of all sin, for all who believe for all eternity! Oh, what a weight of Glory!