The Perfect Law: Psalm 19:7a

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.


Torah is a broad term to define. While it is usually translated "law," it carries a broader meaning, closer to "instruction." Therefore the Pentateuch is Torah, but the term can include the whole Tanakh (Old Testament), as well as the act of studying it, as in "doing Torah." And doing Torah can be relational as well as intellectual--relational in its interaction with other students (horizontal), and also with God himself (vertical). In that sense Torah is a way of life.

The author of Psalm 19 describes Torah as "perfect"(a derivative of thamam)--another word with multiple meanings, encompassing the idea of "mature," "complete," "full," "reaching a pre-determined end;" as well as "blameless" and "unblemished." One would expect the Septuagint (Greek translation) to use the word teleios, picking up on the idea of completeness. But instead, the translators chose the word amomos: "spotless," "unblemished," a word most readily associated with animal sacrifice.

It is hard for a Christian not to recognize Torah's personification of itself in Christ. He is "the way, the truth, and the life." He is the "end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes," and "the lamb without blemish or spot."

Furthermore, the unblemished Torah is described as "reviving the soul." The Hebrew word for "revive" is a derivative of shuv, a common verb meaning to"return" or "come back," or, in King James, "convert." The response to unblemished Torah is the restoration of a broken or lost soul.

What, then, is the connection between the perfect Torah and a revived or repentant soul? Keil, in his commentary on the Psalms, points to the attractiveness of Torah, which is "spotless and harmless, absolutely well-meaning, and altogether directed towards the well-being of man." Torah is both beautiful and trustworthy. But does the depraved soul always respond to beauty and faithfulness? The commentator goes on the say (I paraphrase) that Torah "imparts newness of life, and quickens the soul." This is closer to the truth. It is Torah itself that revives. There is within the personified Torah of the new covenant a power to draw a broken soul to itself (himself)--a magnet with the power to work the sought conversion.

Any man who approaches Torah runs the risk of being apprehended by it. Any man who beholds the face of Christ, no matter how faintly, is in danger of being swept away into the whirlpool of conversion. It is also true that every Christian man knows the power of Christ to shatter old images of Himself and bring the believer into deeper waters. It is because "the law of the lord is perfect, reviving the soul."