Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:
Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments (Psa 119.73).
Wisdom is our greatest need, and wise is the man who knows the spring of wisdom and how to tap into it. Wise men like the psalmist know this. “Wisdom must be from God, because it can be found only in relation to Him” (Edmund P. Clowney). “Wisdom and the will of God are intimately related . . . Nothing is more vital for practical knowledge of the purpose of God than wisdom” (Sinclair Ferguson). “If you lack knowledge, go to school. If you lack wisdom, get on your knees! Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge” (Vance Havner)1. Even as James wrote by the infallible Spirit, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (Jas 1.5).
Everyone is in desperate need of this wisdom because of the objective reality of our situation. We are all God’s creatures (even atheists), designed by God from the beginning to worship Him. We cannot possibly function well unless and until we come to realize this. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,” the wise preacher said after an extended meditation on the meaning of life. “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Eccl 12.13). “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever” (WSC #1). It is for lack of this spiritual wisdom that people finally end up in the eternally-burning trash dump of rejected humanity called hell, where the catastrophe of spiritual folly will become painfully obvious.
As a wise man, the psalmist confesses his creaturely relation to God and the consequent need of wisdom from God.
YOU ARE MY CREATOR
“Thy hands have made me and fashioned [or, established] me.” This confession is in poetic form, using anthropomorphism (God described in human form) to state a spiritual truth. God does not Himself have literal, physical hands (John 4.24; 1 Tim 1.17), but He made us as if He did, for we naturally use our hands to make and fashion things.
At the very least, the psalmist is confessing that he had his very existence from God, the eternally-existent One. God is the Author of the psalmist’s very being, as He is the Author of being for everything outside Himself. Therefore God alone has inherent “author-ity” (i.e., the power or right to give orders and enforce obedience) over all things, because all are His creatures. God is King and we are His subjects, responsible to Him by His decree.
As our Creator, God is also manifestly wise and the fount of all wisdom. He “made” us in His image, and all He made was “very good” (same word in Gen 1.26, 31). The psalmist confesses by faith that God had by His wisdom “fashioned” or “formed” him. “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all” (Psa 104.24). “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psa 139.14). The greatness of human beings as God’s creatures commends to us the wisdom of our Creator, and that should prompt us to seek wisdom from Him. It is even as our confession says,
God having all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself: is alone in, and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creature which He hath made, . . . He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, and He hath most sovereign dominion over all creatures, to do by them, for them, or upon them, whatsoever Himself pleaseth; . . . to Him is due from angels and men, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience as creatures they owe unto the Creator, and whatever He is further pleased to require of them (1689 LBCF II.2).
These implications explain the insane zeal of evolutionists to deny God the Creator. We recognize intuitively that if God made us, then we are ultimately responsible to Him and utterly dependent upon Him for all things, and this is just what sinners are resolved to deny in the suppression of true knowledge and wisdom (Rom 1.18-22). Our main cause for alarm with respect to evolutionary theory is not its bad science but its inherently anti-God intellectual posture. At the end of the day evolution is a religious view and apostasy from God’s truth. Contrariwise, the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the LORD (Prov 1.7) with a confession of Him as our Creator.
Now the psalmist seeks by prayer the blessing of wisdom from the LORD his Maker.
YOU ARE MY TEACHER
“Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments.” Here is a petition and a purpose. My aim in asking understanding from God is my reformation in righteousness, that is, a godly life.
The full extent of religious, spiritual, and ethical understanding that we need is not inherent in us. It is true that God witnesses to His own being and glory in the things He has made (i.e., general revelation), so that the pagans are without excuse for worshiping idols, even though they are without the written word of God. Natural human intelligence is sufficient to expose the folly of bowing down before a block of wood as if it were worthy of our worship (cf. Isa 44.19). God has given all men a conscience with some knowledge of His moral law, that is, a sensitivity to right and wrong (Rom 2.15). But,
although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and His will which is necessary unto salvation (1689 LBCF I.1).
Therefore God gave Scripture (“thy commandments”) to supply sufficient revelation for the understanding of those beloved ones to whom He sent it. And this “makes the Holy Scriptures to be most necessary” (1689 LBCF I.1).
True understanding, the kind that transforms our hearts and conduct, and through us, our world, comes from God through His Word. Therefore the psalmist humbly petitions God for understanding. In itself that demonstrates that the psalmist has already begun to be taught of God. Multitudes lack wisdom because they are too proud to seek it from the Lord. Their unbelief blinds them to God as the Fount of all wisdom.
The aim of this worthy petition for understanding is that the psalmist “may learn Thy commandments.” The initial divine illumination gained through the Word throws further subjective light upon God’s objectively-revealed commandments. The Scriptures do not change, but oh how glorious familiar passages become in our experience when the Spirit chases away our natural darkness! To the degree that He fills the vacuum of our spiritual ignorance with His truth and conquers the rebellion of our prejudice against His truth, the written law of God blazes forth with a luminescence unknown to fools!
Further, the psalmist has not just insight but also discipleship in mind. To “learn Thy commandments” is to implement them skillfully, so that there is a disciplined, practical, and cheerful obedience to them. This is the Hebrew view of wisdom, not the Greek which was more narrowly intellectual.
Only a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit trusts God enough to pray earnestly and sincerely for a closer conformity in heart and conduct to His revealed will in Scripture, so that the confession and petition of this verse serves as a reliable test of whether we are in a state of grace.
Here is a will to pay, or a heart set upon service and obedience; for this is a speech becoming one heartily devoted to God: “Thy hands have made me,” &c. He would willingly return to his Creator’s service, and glorify Him with what was made by Him: “I acknowledge that I am obliged, as I am the work of Thy hands, to live in a faithful obedience to Thee; Lord, I give up myself to this work.” Mark, this is a good spirit: he doth not beg his own comfort, but ability for service, that he might know his Master’s will as to do it. Now, this is repentance toward God, when we are heartily willing to return to our duty more than to our comfort. There is more hope of that soul that rather seeketh obedience than comfort (Acts 2.21), and where there is a resolved will and purpose to devote ourselves to the Lord, to please Him, and serve Him (Thomas Manton, in loc.).
So let us consider whether we have been in a habit of comparable pleas to God, that we might learn more consistently to escape conformity to this world, and be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may test and approve what is the will of God—that is, what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (Rom 12.2). This is not only the way of reasonable worship in which we present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice (Rom 12.1), but it is also the way of our own eternal safety and blessedness.
As Sinclair Ferguson also said, “It should be the aim of every Christian to have his will directed by the will of God revealed in Scripture,” and, “Only in obedience can we discover the great joy of the will of God.”2 The Lord help us receive all this. Amen
Notes:
1. The Complete Gathered Gold, ed. John Blanchard, “Wisdom.”
2. Ibid., “Will of God.”
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