WEDNESDAY 23rd
Psalm 119:73-80 – Section Ten – Hebrew – YODH
‘Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word.
I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. Let your mercy come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.
Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts. Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies. May my heart be blameless in your statutes, that I may not be put to shame!’
V73 ‘Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn your commandments.’
The psalmist understood that mankind didn’t just come into existence through some accident, or because of some explosion in the long distant past, he was clear in his mind ‘Your hands have made and fashioned me’, we are among those who believe in the truthfulness of the creation story as we read it in Genesis 1-2, that all things came into existence because God called them into existence, we believe in the account of the creation of human kind, that God took of the dust of the ground and formed man and breathed into his nostril the breathe of life.
God created mankind and gave him life, and it is God who continues to create and give life through the process of human reproduction, yes, it takes a man and a woman to come together, but behind it all, the miracle of life comes from the hand of God, it was Job who made this statement, ‘Your hands fashioned and made me’ (Job 10:8) My mum and dad were Rees and Joy and yes, they came together in an act of intimacy, but it was God’s hands who fashioned and made me, it was God who gave me my life, my soul, my spirit, my being. These truths should remind us that life is precious, and that life is something that should be cherished, and therefore any attempts to snuff out life, be it through abortion, euthanasia, murder or suicide are wrong. These are actions that remove the sanctity of life and are efforts to take the place of God who alone has the right to give life and to determine the end of a life, he has already determined the length of a person’s life. (See Psalm 139:13-16) It is important to remind ourselves here that Scripture tells us ‘that it is appointed unto man to die, and after death the judgement’, therefore while we have breath in our lungs we should prepare ourselves for the life that is to come by accepting Jesus.
But going back to the psalmist he recognises that it is God who gave him his life, therefore he needed to follow God’s instructions on how to live that life, the Maker knows all there is to know about that which he has made! He says, ‘give me understanding that I may learn your commandments’. The Bible, the Word of God, using the other words that are used in this long psalm, statutes, commandments, laws etc. are God’s instructions for us, because he made us, he knows all about us and he knows what is best for us. May we follow his instructions, follow the manual that he has given to us so that we may be those who live for him and according to his will for us.