"Rules suck"

Where did our culture get it's fear of rules? Somebody decided one day that rule existed to keep us from having fun and therefore ought to be broken shamelessly. I think this is one of the sillier concepts America has come up with. I was talking to someone about what it would be like to do God's will at every moment. The person I was talking to kept objecting that having God control him so much would be torture. They don't seem to be able to reconcile the idea of an all loving God and a God who uses phrases "thou shall not" and "deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me". Yes, God is loving enough to give us free will, and he asks us, in love, to form our will to be one with His. He's bit smarter than us, after all. The fact that doing as your told actually brings you greater happiness never entered my friend's mind. If you asked him if God loved him, he would say yes. If you asked him if God knew what was best for him, he would say yes. But if you ask him if he would like to do God's will at every moment of his whole life, he says "That's Torture!" There is something wrong with this picture. It's so sad it's almost funny.

A couple thousand years ago somebody had it right. That somebody wrote a psalm about how wonderful it was to follow the commandments of a loving and wise God.
He says:

"With my whole heart I seek thee; let me not wonder from thy commandments!
I have laid up thy word in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Blessed be thou, O Lord; teach me they statutes!
With my lips I declare all they ordinances of they mouth.
In the way of thy testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on thy precepts, and fix my eyes on they ways.
I will delight in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word."

Later he goes on:

"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things our of thy law."

A little later...

"My soul is consumed with longing for thy ordinances at all times."

He longs to understand and follow perfectly all the rules. They guide him, console him. It sounds strange on my American ears. Statutes and Delight in the same sentence? His souls is Consumed with Longing for God's Ordinances? It seems so contrary. He's either crazy or the biggest suck up ever. I wish I could pray this whole psalm with sincerity. When I think about giving God my every moment, it terrifies me as much as anyone. But I want to want to do it. I know in my head it will be the best for me. Getting things from my intellect to my will is the hard part. At the moment my will is in rebellion. I read once that if you have even the smallest desire to be a saint, and you give that to God, He will do great things with it.

I want to want Your will. I will fix my eyes on thy ways. Teach me thy statutes.

The are verses from Psalm 119 (or 118). Revised Standard Version. Catholic edition.