Psalm 119:45 I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.

Reading this I am reminded of something I tell people frequently when talking about parenting, and that is that as human beings we need boundaries. Throughout our lives the period of greatest security is in the womb, with very little freedom even of movement, but no anxiety at all. Setting and maintaining appropriate boundaries is one of the most important tasks for parents, because children who have appropriate boundaries grow up to be both responsible and fulfilled adults, but those who lack such boundaries suffer all sorts of problems. It is an interesting quirk of human nature that we always test those boundaries, overstepping them, but if no consequences come, we go further and further afield, losing emotional security in the process and all too often encountering disaster. The Psalmist here gives the secret to a life that is both assured and unhampered, and that is to love and seek God’s laws. That is true freedom. For example, we are not free to walk off of a cliff to try to get to the next hill, nor are we free to walk through walls to get from one room to another. Most of us understand such physical boundaries, but we can fail to understand moral and spiritual boundaries. Not knowing what the boundaries are leaves us uncertain, in trouble, or both. Knowing that God is our loving heavenly Father, and that His rules are for our good, should cause us to seek His guidance and rejoice to be obedient to it.

This is something I have come to understand as I have grown as a parent and as a child of God. I was blessed with parents who did seek to set Godly boundaries for me, and in large measure they succeeded. It was in areas that they failed to do so that I made the most problems for myself and for others. As I grew, along with making plenty of mistakes myself, I studied psychology and counseling and also learned better how to apply the Bible to life. In the process I came to agree completely with something expressed by a Christian clinical psychologist friend of mine, who said, “Psychology and psychiatry can diagnose, but they can’t heal. Real healing is only by the Holy Spirit.” In the final analysis, for someone who is spiritually mature, the only boundaries we need are the 1st and 2nd Commandments, as Jesus defined them. (Matthew 22:37-39) If we love God with all we are, we will seek to be obedient to Him in everything. If we love our neighbor as we should love ourselves, we will do him no harm, but only good. This is how I am to live, and how I am to teach others to live.

Father, thank You for this reminder. I see every day that I live in a fallen world, and people all around me are in chains because they have ignored Your boundaries. Help me indeed preach deliverance to the captives (Luke 4:18) so that they may walk in the freedom of loving You and Your laws, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!