Made by God
How wonderful it is to be fashioned by God through His commandments!
Psalm 119:73 reads, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments” (NKJV). This is the prayer of the man who loves the LORD’s commandments (verse 47), and it is obvious that he means more than just memorising the actual commandments. So, what does he mean?
This man recognises that the LORD has “made” him. That seems obvious, but then he states that the LORD has “fashioned” him. The idea behind the word translated “fashioned” is ‘to cause to stand in an upright position’. The NEB translates this, “made me what I am”. I picture this man not only recognising that he has been made by the LORD, but that he has also been moulded and crafted by the LORD’s hand into a person of responsibility who is enabled to stand erect before his maker. The LORD has made this man to be a person of responsibility and accountability while blessing him with God-given gifts and abilities. In a sense he is like a blank canvas and he must now decide what he will draw on that canvas.
This man did not then say, ‘I must use all my abilities to their full potential’ and neither did he say ‘I have the means to be all that I want to be’, as many of our age would say. Rather, he recognises his own uniqueness and the wonder of the One who made him. He sees that what he truly needs is to know the God who made him! He may have gifts and abilities, but they are not to be squandered on himself. He has been made for much, much, more than that! Man was made for the glory of God, not for the glory of man! This man recognises that it is in the “commandments” that he sees, and comes to know, the LORD. For this psalmist the “commandments” may well encompass the Torah, all five books of Moses, but we could also restrict the word to cover only the Ten Command-ments. Either way, he sees that what he needs, as someone made in the image of God, is to be found in the LORD’s Word. He sees in the LORD’s Word more than words to be religiously followed for he sees that the “commandments” show him the LORD Himself.
More understanding!
The psalmist may have abilities and gifts but to “learn” the LORD’s “command-ments” he needs the LORD to grant him a true understanding of what the text says. The gifts and abilities that we have been endowed with can lead us to understand many things, but they are not spiritual revelation, and spiritual revelation is what this man knows that he needs. In Rom 7:14 the apostle Paul writes, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin”. Paul saw that the “commandments” were “spiritual”: They were more than legal obedience to a set of rules. Yet there was a time when Paul could say of himself that, “concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Phil 3:6). No one could point a finger at Saul of Tarsus with respect to his religious observance, yet we find in Romans 7 a different man who looking into this exact same law sees his complete inadequacy to match up to it. It is obvious that Paul is seeing in the law something that he never saw in it before he met Christ. The psalmist had more spiritual insight than Saul of Tarsus for we can see in him someone wanting to get to the heart of what the LORD had said. He sensed, knew, that there was more to the “commandments” than mere religious observance and he also knew that he needed the LORD’s help to get to the heart of the “commandments”, hence the cry for “understanding”.
It is clear that in coming to know Christ Christians will view the “commandments” in a very different, and more spiritual, light. Or do we? Of course, we know that our righteous standing before the LORD is not based upon our personal obedience to the law, but do we see in the “commandments” the spiritual aspect that the psalmist and Paul saw? Is there a longing in our hearts to grasp in the “commandments” what the psalmist longed to grasp? I am not suggesting that we should drift back into legalism. Rather, I am seeking to point us back to that humble, child-like obedience to the LORD’s Word, where we come seeking to understand better and more deeply what we think that we already understand. The psalmist refers to “understanding” ten times in this Psalm (verses 27, 34, 73, 95, where it is rendered “consider”, 100, 104, 125, 130, 144, and 169), and if that was what he needed then it is what we also need.
A spiritual understanding
We read in Luke 10:25-37 what we know as the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that parable Jesus opened up the fuller meaning of the commandment, “you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD” (Lev 19:18). In truth, how many of us would have been just like the lawyer in that story? He had set views regarding what a neighbour was, and he was quite comfortable in those views until Jesus brought him spiritual “understanding” of what the LORD intended in His law. We can all fall into this trap. Perhaps we also need the spiritual “understanding” that the lawyer received from Jesus and that the psalmist longed for.
The Commandment reads, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) and we know that Jesus expanded this word to encompass the thoughts of our hearts (Matt 5:21 & 22). I wonder if we need to meditate further upon these words of Jesus. The rabbis of old would say that to destroy a man’s reputation was much the same as killing him, for what is a man more than his reputation? How often have we made remarks that have chipped away at someone’s reputation? Of course, we may not have said what we said in harsh words and we may even have sounded concerned, but, nevertheless, we lessened that person’s reputation in the eyes of our hearers. We read in Ezekiel 18:23, “’Do I have pleasure at all that the wicked should die?’ says the Lord GOD, ‘and not that he should turn from his ways and live?’” There was great rejoicing among some Muslims when the Twin Towers were destroyed, but should we rejoice at the death of Osama bin Laden? We may see the need for evil men to be removed, but there should be no place for rejoicing in such an incident for the LORD took no pleasure in bin Laden’s death: He would sooner that bin Laden had repented! And to bring the issue of murder nearer to home, what about abortion? Does the death of the unborn children touch us as it should? Our nation is all concerned about an unseen virus, but ignores the killing of many more babies than this virus ever killed. Just as the lawyer was humbled by the words of Jesus in the parable, so there are times when we need to be humbled as we are brought face-to-face with a more spiritual “understanding” of the depth of God’s Word. We can be too familiar with the Scriptures and lose their sharp cutting edge. (Heb 4:12).
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The Heart of God
It appears that the psalmist wanted to get ‘behind’ the “commandments” and get to the LORD’s heart in them. But to do this would involve time and much meditation upon the LORD’s Word. When reading Psalm 119 I am left wondering how long it took for him to write this Psalm. This Psalm was not ‘knocked together’ one sunny afternoon while strumming his guitar in the garden. In this Psalm we see the musings of a godly man who loved God and loved His Word yet was aware of his human frailty and sinfulness. This spiritual Psalm came out of much meditation upon the LORD’s Word and upon his own inadequacies that the LORD’s Word exposed in him.
So, what am I trying to say in all of this? I am saying that perhaps we should set aside some of the things that we think that we know and spend time meditating and pondering over the actual Scriptures themselves. How many times have we heard someone share what they heard from another source, be it a book or a preacher, rather than share what they have found for themselves in the LORD’s Word? I would never advocate disregarding good Christian books or good Christian preachers, but should we not be more like the psalmist in this Psalm and cry out, “give me understanding that I might learn Your commandments”. Perhaps it is too easy to pick up a book of some preacher’s thoughts than it is to come to the Scriptures alone and search them out for ourselves in our walk with Christ. I have heard of imprisoned Christians suffering for Christ, who having no access to a Bible, long for a copy of the Scriptures, but I have never heard of such a person, without a Bible, longing for a book of some preacher’s daily thoughts or sermons!