In today's psalm we sing, "Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord."

The readings' vocabulary of law, commandment, obedience, and righteousness is likely to receive a frosty reception from many in attendance. Many Christians struggle to understand the notion of "God's law" central to the development of Jewish identity and Hebrew scripture.

Though we often regard laws as barbed wire designed to entrap our freedom, they might also be viewed as the means to secure our liberty.

"The great thing about the psalms is that they address really the whole spectrum of human emotion, from intense despair and feelings of abandonment by God, feelings of betrayal by humankind, fear of mortality, to great joy and jubilance."

Jesus' words about the gravity of anger and adultery are meant to take us more deeply into our own hearts to examine not only how well we keep rules and laws but to be sure that we understand that merely "looking good" to others is not the same as being good or doing good--and it is the latter that matters to God.

God gives us the freedom to choose between good and evil, life and death.

If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you.

Nobody has a more sacred obligation to obey the law than those who make the law.