Sat, 28 October, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
73 Your hands have made and fashioned me;
give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.
We are working through the longest chapter in the Bible: Psalm 119. Yesterday, we read in verse 64: The earth, O LORD, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes! God’s creation declares His mercy in His creation of it, and His sustaining it. Here, the psalmist is more specific, and talks of his own creation.
What do we learn from this?
God’s hands have made you and fashioned or formed you. The word translated here “fashioned” is not the term used of shaping pottery. Instead it is the word translated as “established” in verse 90. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. It means literally, “to set up” or ‘to stand perpendicular”. It is used in scripture as establish, fix, prepare, apply, appoint, render sure, prosper. God has not only made you, but He has stood you upright, established you, and made your way sure.
But the psalmist goes on to ask that God would give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. God has taken such great care of our physical bodies we can be confident that He will also care for our souls.
Where is Christ in this passage?
We desperately need understanding from God. We need to understand His ways, and His word. Our only hope for our future is that we correctly understand what God has done for us, and how we can be made right with Him. We are in rebellion against God, and our only hope is to understand who we are, who God is, and what He requires of us. We need to understand what God has done for us in sending Jesus Christ to live the perfect life and die on the cross for the sins of all who come to Him in faith. This is knowledge that can only come from God.
