Day 40: The Law That Brings You Back
Read: Psalm 19:7–11
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
— Psalm 19:7 (ESV)
Reflect
When we hear the word "law," we tend to think of rules. The Hebrew word behind it, torah, is broader than that. It means instruction, God's teaching for his people. And this verse says that teaching does something to you.
It revives the soul. Literally, it brings the soul back.
That phrase comes from the same family of words the Old Testament uses for returning and for repentance. The idea is that God's Word causes your soul to come home. It finds the part of you that has wandered off and brings it back.
And the way the Hebrew is put together makes clear who is doing the work. It is the law itself that does the returning. You do not restore yourself by reading hard enough. The Word does the restoring.
That changes how you open your Bible. You are not mainly there to prove something, or to get through a reading plan, or to collect facts. You are there to be brought back.
God's Word is not only an instruction. It is a restoration.
Across Scripture
Psalm 23 uses the same idea: "He restores my soul" (Psalm 23:3). When Naomi's grandson is born, the women call him "a restorer of life" — one who brings a person back (Ruth 4:15). Peter writes to scattered believers, "you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25).
Sit With It
Read a passage today the way you take medicine, not the way you take a quiz. Afterward, ask: what did it bring back in me?
Pray
Bring my soul back.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.