There was a time in my younger days when I used to run ten-kilometer races. Never being a fast runner, I always wound up at the back of the race. In one race, a runner passed me wearing a t-shirt that bore the words: When the going gets rough, sprinters quit.

Psalm 147 affirms that God's word doesn't quit. God's word runs swiftly, says the psalm. For the Christian, two questions are basic to our religious quest: "Who is God?" and "Who are we?" To love God and our neighbor we have to be clear about our answers to these questions.

Psalm 147 emphasizes that God's very nature is to give gifts. Finest wheat, snow like wool, frost like ashes, hail like crumbs, the winds that blow, and the waters that flow—all are gifts from God's generous hand.

God's statutes and ordinances represent the most profound of these gifts, though. The commandments God gave to Israel, which Jesus summarizes as love of God and neighbor, are special gifts. They make us partners with God in making the world into the place God wants it to be.

We cannot contain God's word in any of the boxes we try to put it in. God's word is a living, breathing reality—not ours to possess but one that runs ahead of us. What an image! We have to run even to try to keep up with God's living word. This reality makes sense, though, since after two thousand years we've been unable to contain or even keep up with Jesus, God's living Word.