YOD. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding, and I will learn thy commandments.
The verse puts two things side by side. God's hands shaped this body. Then comes a prayer for the inner sense to learn what He commands. Commentators read the second half as resting on the first: the psalmist asks his Maker for what only his Maker can give.
The verse opens with origin. One writer notes that the making was individual. He sets it beside the psalmist's honest view of his own small understanding.
The psalmist here recognizes and considers the actions and ways of God with him. What he considers first is that God's hands have made him (v. 73). God fashioned him in a distinct way, for every individual is distinct, not cast in the same mould at all. Amazing fact! For the works of men are so limited that they would be helpless to imitate the great variety of God's works. But the psalmist also recognizes how limited his understanding is. So he pleads with God for at least enough understanding to learn His commandments.
Job said the same thing, then added that God had destroyed him. One writer sets that beside our verse, and turns the study of the human body into a case for the Creator.
Job adds to this: "Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether" (Job 10:8). Let God be true, and every man a liar. Let me study the circulatory system, plasma, the nervous system, the brain, the eye or any other part of the body … "give me understanding …," and I will know that God created me, and that I am a responsible, intelligent human being answerable to Him.
The word "fashioned" carries weight. The making had care and purpose in it. That makes the prayer more than a hope. What the psalmist asks for is what his Maker was aiming at all along. The same writer then carries the argument from the first creation into the new.
The basic fact here is a Creator-God. He must therefore be for the work of His hands. His hands have made us, and not roughly, but fashioned us so as to be witnesses of His handiwork. He must intend, then, that His creature fill the place He made him for. He will not deny the understanding needed for this. Psalm 139 dwells on this argument at length. The New Testament puts it in the strongest possible way for the Christian. Here we can speak of new creation, and of the word of God as that by which He has given us birth to Himself. There is no fear that He may deny it to us. To us it is like milk to a newborn baby — the one thing its nature must have.
Not everyone welcomes the truth that they did not make themselves. One writer says this prayer only rises from a heart that already knows God in grace.
The soul now looks to God, depending on Him for man's very being. So He should direct and guide it. Peter wrote the same thing: we entrust our souls to a faithful Creator while doing good. Only the heart that knows Him in grace can do this. Otherwise we seek our own will in resistance to Him. But once we know Him, we know Him in all that He is, according to the truth of His nature in grace… I only exist by Your work. So make me walk with a heart set by You and a path guided by You.
The psalmist does not ask for information. He asks for a life that fits the One whose hands shaped him.
The Lord's servant owns that he is the creature of God's hands. So he pleads for understanding, that he may learn the will of God and walk in a way that suits his Creator.
This line opens a section of eight verses. What it sets down shapes what follows, including the gladness of those who fear God.
To learn the divine commandments, the creature needs understanding from his Creator. The knowledge gained in this way brings joy to those who fear the Lord.
- Made — God's hands did the work, and did it distinctly. He casts no two people in the same mould.
- Fashioned — He shaped us with care and purpose, to show His handiwork. He did not throw us together.
- Answerable — because He made us, each person is a responsible, intelligent being who must answer to Him.
- Given — He made the creature for a place, so He will not hold back the understanding needed to fill it.
- Walking — the understanding asked for has one aim: a life that suits the One who made it.
They that fear thee will see me, and rejoice; because I have hoped in thy word.
In verse 73 the psalmist tells God that His hands made him, and asks for understanding to learn His commandments. Verse 74 turns outward: why should one man's hope in God's word make anybody else glad?
The gladness of verse 74 rests on verse 73. One writer reads the two verses as one movement.
The Lord's servant admits that God's hands made him. So he asks for understanding, to learn the will of God and to walk in a way that fits his Creator. All who fear the Lord will gladly recognise the man who acknowledges God in this way and trusts His Word.
Another writer sums up the whole eight-verse section in one line.
The psalmist looks to the Lord as a faithful Creator, and counts on those who fear Him. He afflicted for good, and so He would also show loving-kindness.
The verse turns on a moment of sight. One writer says what these people recognise in each other.
They also recognise one another as belonging to a company known even then as a family of faith. So the psalmist says here: "Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice" — a joyful glance of recognition. And here is the mark by which they recognise each other: "because I have hoped in your word."
The same writer counts this recognition as one of three facts the psalmist stands on. The third is how God deals with His people.
"I know, Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." So three things are recognised here: God, His people, and the relationship between them. His word has authority over them all. It is their joyful confidence, and His acts always match it.
What ties these people together is one shared hope. It also shapes how they take God's dealings with them.
Those who fear God will be glad to recognise one another and enjoy their fellowship, because their mutual hope is in the Word of God (v. 74), and they have full confidence that His judgments are right. This involves the recognition that it is God's faithfulness that sees fit to send affliction to His servants. Yet along with the affliction he desires God's merciful kindness to be his comfort (v. 76). These are not contrary to one another, both being fully in accord with the Word God has spoken.
The gladness comes from what others see a believer live through. One writer points to Paul writing from prison.
The apostle Paul speaks of this in Philippians 1:14: "And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear." They had seen how Paul could rejoice in the middle of persecution and trial, and how he had hoped in the Word of the Lord. How do others see you and me? Whether we are aware of it or not, we are an influence for good or for bad. So we are strongly reminded of our own responsibility to be a help and a blessing, and not a hindrance.
The same phrase, "I hoped in your word," comes back later in the psalm. One writer shows what that hope looks like in practice.
His dependence is not just a passive admission that he owes God in a general way. It is an active, whole-hearted dependence that calls on God. It is so earnest that it makes the believer rise before dawn to cry to the Lord. And his dependence comes out of confidence, for he can say, "I hoped in your word." So the godly man is marked by dependence, obedience, and confidence.
- Maker. The hope starts where verse 73 starts: God's own hands made this man, and we can count on a faithful Creator.
- Word. Hope rests on what God has said. It shows as dependence, obedience and confidence — not a mood.
- Mark. Hoping in His word is the badge by which the family of faith knows its own; the recognition is a joyful glance.
- Affliction. God afflicts in faithfulness and comforts in kindness. Both agree with the word He has spoken.
- Influence. Others watch. A life that hopes under trial makes them bolder, as Paul's chains did. We influence people whether we mean to or not.