Enlightening the Eyes

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
-Psalm 19:8b

From the root tsa-wah, "commandment" carries the common meaning of orders from a superior to a servant. But it has other nuances. It overlaps with "instruction," in the student-teacher relationship. Jesus often referred to the body of teaching that he passed on to his disciples as "my commandments." In the Old Testament it sometimes referred to a literal set of instructions given with a commandment: Moses was told to construct the tabernacle and given a set of plans. Likewise Noah had a blueprint of the ark along with the command to build it. In other words, God provides what we need to fulfill what he requires.

The commandments of God are “pure” (ba-rar), a word most commentators associate with the purity of ore or metal. In that sense it can mean “unalloyed,” and carries with it the secondary meaning “bright” or “shiny.” In other words, the commandments of God are not deceitful, nor designed to mislead or trick us. They are straightforward, backed up with whatever instructions we need, and can be trusted to bring us life.

These pure commandments are said to “enlighten the eyes” to make the eyes bright, and a source of light themselves. Jesus recapitulates this idea in Matthew 6:22: The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. We tend to read this text negatively: Beware of what you see, lest it sully your heart and spread evil in the inner man. True enough. But the point of the text in Psalm 19 is that the commandments of the Lord fill our eyes with a light that spreads to our whole being. It is not an injunction to look away, but to behold a pure beauty that transforms.

At this point it is good to remember that Christ is the “fulfillment of the Law to all who believe.” We are admonished in Scripture to look to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith.” John tells us that when we see him at the eschaton that we will become like him, “for we will see him as he is.” It is the opaque beatific vision (that will only be complete at his coming) that transforms us. Any attempt in the New Covenant age to fulfill the commandments in our own strength is to look inward, not outward.

My pastor made an alarming observation a few weeks ago. He was analyzing the evangelical obsession with “total surrender,” the endless altar calls to give all to God, the striving to “yield our all.” He stated that we simply can’t. It is a hopeless quest. No man can in himself give himself wholly to God. The very quest takes our eyes off the only One who totally surrendered himself to God on our behalf. It is reliance upon his work and his love for us that “enlightens” our eyes, and floods our hearts, not with our striving, but with his presence, and with his surrender.