What's so good about laws?

Psalm 119, with its 176 verses, is dedicated to the law of God. In verse 93 the psalmist declares that he was kept alive by God's commandments.

I think the most widespread perception of laws is that they are restrictive. When I think about laws, my mind turns to what I must do or what I dare not do, if I want to stay out of trouble. So how does a law save my life?

When I read Ps 119:93 this morning it hit me. It is knowledge of the law that keeps me alive. If I did not know about the law of gravity, I could decide to walk off a high building into the air. Knowledge of the laws of electricity keep electricians alive while they work on high voltage cables. Divers, miners, mechanics and many more need to know some natural laws if they want to stay alive.

Under certain circumstances a law requires that an aeroplane's fuel tank must be 40% full when it lands. Recently a man landed with little fuel at a place which did not have his kind of fuel. He decided to fly to the nearest refueling station and ran out of fuel in mid-air. He crashed the plane and died.

By law a driver is not to allowed to overtake by crossing over a solid line in the road. Many people who have survived head-on collisions appreciate the value of such laws.

Keeping God's laws can protect us from doing things that could kill us. In our day millions are dying of Aids because they broke God's laws out of ignorance or willful disobedience. Others have defied God by doing violent crime and ended up dead.

Knowledge of God's moral laws can be very helpful, as the author of Psalm 119 found out centuries ago.