“I will keep on obeying your instructions forever and ever. I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments” (Psalm 119:44-45, NLT).

Don’t laws control you? Then, how do laws set you free?

Psalm 119 is a Hebrew acrostic poem. There are twenty-two stanzas, one for each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the eight verses within each stanza begins with the Hebrew letter named in its heading. The unifying theme of the Psalm is love for and obedience to God’s Law or Word.

Several Hebrew words are frequently used in the Psalm to represent God’s Word and are translated as instructions, laws, words, regulations, statutes, commands, decrees, commandments, and promises.

In these verses the Psalmist makes a rather strange observation. He says that because he obeys God’s instructions, then he walks in freedom. So, adherence to God’s Word will set you free. Jesus said, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

When we live according to God’s law that governs the universe, then we are set free from the law of sin and death that governs the order of this world. When we live according to the truth of God’s salvation, we are no longer subject to God’s wrath.

The Apostle Paul says that unless we belong to Christ, then we are under the control of sin: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death…He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins” (Romans 8:1-3).

So freedom is a matter of what controls you–sin or God’s Word. Obedience to God’s Word sets you free from the power of sin so that you can walk in freedom.

I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. (John 5:24, NLT)