This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

Environmentalists and owners demand fairer quotas for small fishing boats

PSALM 119

⁷ Oh, how I love your law!    It is my meditation all day long.
⁹⁸ Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,    for it is always with me.
⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers,    for your decrees are my meditation.
¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the aged,    for I keep your precepts.
¹⁰¹ I hold back my feet from every evil way,    in order to keep your word.
¹⁰² I do not turn away from your ordinances,    for you have taught me.
¹⁰³ How sweet are your words to my taste,    sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴ Through your precepts I get understanding;    therefore I hate every false way.

119 is a an alphabet psalm with each section and each verse in each section beginning with one letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are eight verese in each section denoting absolute perfection (7=perfection; 7 + 1=complete perfection). This passage is one section. In it the author declares that the wisdom gained by practising God’s law is greater than the traditional sources of wisdom: teachers and the elders of the people. It also gives means of dealing with enemies. The emphasis here is on God’s law as “halakhah” that is, a way of walking. Mere study itself does not give wisdom; only study that determines a way of life does so. For this author the law brings him/her to the side of God, because s/he discovers that the law leads to a satisfying life. God’s commands are not arbitrary but are for the good of humanity. Such a view of the law is about as far from St.Paul’s as it is possible to get. For him the law was an unachievable demand. Jesus, on the other hand, finding that the law had been turned into a mere demand for obedience, strove to return it to an expression of God’s grace. We cannot imagine St. Paul making this psalm his own; but we can imagine Jesus doing so. He would have identified with its praise of God’s practical wisdom and especially with its expressions of love: “how I love your law/ how sweet are your words to my taste/ sweeter than honey in my mouth!” The character of God is expressed in his law. Ot perhaps we should say, “religious lawgivers express their view of God’s character in the law they attribute to him/her.” Those who teach precepts as God’s law may always be mistaken about God’s character. That’s why divine law does not stand on its own but needs fulfilled by the gospel which insists that God’s anger is always part of his love, God’s justice is always saving, God’s command is always the foundation of human freedom. 

If a mere blogger can claim a place in the psalm, it would be in the words, “How I love your law; it is my meditation all day long.” I can say those words as my own. I’m not, and never have been a holy person but my love for God’s wisdom, my daily study of it and my attempt to follow it, have stopped me from being a complete asshole. So, hallelujah!