Christ’s Nail-pierced Hands Fashioned Us
10/28 Reading Portions: 2 Kings 9; 1 Timothy 6; Hosea 1; Psalm 119:73-96
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10/28 Reading Portions: 2 Kings 9; 1 Timothy 6; Hosea 1; Psalm 119:73-96
Psalm 119:73
Your hands have made and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn Your commandments.
BUILT
While many take this first part of the verse and apply it to our initial, natural creation, such as cited by the psalmist elsewhere (Psa 139:14-16), it is best and most clearly understood by its New Testament interpretation in Christ (John 5:39); and by His crucifixion in particular (1 Cor 2:2; 1 Pet 1:18-20). Because of the Lord Jesus Christ’s atoning death, because of the Messiah’s nail pierced hands (Psa 22:16), you and I are made new creations in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). Moreover, by the truth of Christ crucified and risen, our Lord Jesus fashions you and me; that is, He builds us up and establishes us firmly, like the priesthood erecting the tent curtains of the tabernacle in the wilderness. It is only in our conscious, devotional, and loving meditations upon the magnificent and multiplied truths of Christ’s atoning sacrifice that we may find wisdom, discernment, and understanding to learn God’s commandments. The Hebrew word used here, translated commandments, is not Torah, referring to the whole of the writings of the Law of Moses contained in the first five books of our Bible. It is the Hebrew word Mishpat, referring to each individual command of the 613 commandments contained in the Torah. We need wisdom, discernment, and understanding with regard to all commandments within the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, else we become legalists, seeking to elevate ourselves in conceit, just as we are warned not to do from our New Testament reading portion today (1 Tim 6:3-5). We must ever and always keep in mind the truth of Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the law and prophets (Matt 5:17), thus making His work upon the cross the sufficient, penalty-satisfying, God-pleasing, salvation-effecting phenomenon it is. The best of our collective deeds and good works exercised by the godliest and holiest believers in the world can never match the sinless perfection of Christ’s person and work. Our understanding of the commandments springs forth from the truth of Christ incarnate and crucified. Therefore, all that is left is love and gratitude to Christ in godly fear. Because we respond in love and gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, we fear with holy trembling that we may break His heart because of remaining corruptions and the weakness of our flesh. Nevertheless, desiring to please our loving God, we carry out those commands, as we understand them through Christ’s cross, as much as a sinner saved by grace is able. It will never be perfectly performed by you and me on this side of eternity’s veil, but that’s what Christ’s imputed righteousness is for. Hallelujah! What a Savior!