Embracing Our Creator: Wisdom, Affliction, and Jesus

Here the psalmist proclaimed God as creator your hands have made me and fashioned me the psalmist understood that he had certain obligations to God because he was fashioned by the word of God matter of fact that particular Hebrew word fashioned there in verse 73 it is a reference back to the Hebrew wording of Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 which says that God formed man from the dust of the ground it's a deliberate connection back to it God you have created me you created me just like Genesis chapter 2 and Genesis chapter 1 say your hands have made me and fashioned me. [00:02:07]

To say that God is our creator is to recognize that we are obligated to him as the one who gives us life it's to recognize that we should respect him as the one who is greater and smarter than we are it is to recognize that God as our designer knows what is best for us and to acknowledge God as our creator is to recognize that since our beginning is connected to the invisible world so our end will also be connected to that world. [00:03:31]

The consideration that God made us is here urged as an argument why he should not forsake and reject us since every artist has a value for his own work proportion to its excellence it is at the same time and acknowledged of the service we owe him founded on the relation which a creature bears to his creator no the fact that God has made us shows that God will not forsake us and reject us and it also shows that we owe something to him. [00:04:30]

Give me understanding is connected to the thinking of God as creator you see the psalmist prayed for understanding as he recognized that this was something that is often misunderstood people don't understand today that God is their creator and therefore we should ask for and expect help and understanding both how God created us and what our obligations should be to him as our maker we gain a lot of understanding by considering God as our creator and especially as the creator of human beings as mankind. [00:05:52]

The psalmist considered that this righteous life would be an encouragement to others who also fear God those who fear you will be glad when they see me your acknowledgement of God as creator you're walking after God in obedience will encourage other people who fear the Lord and this is an additional reason to hear and obey God and it all happens notice the second line of verse 74 because I have hoped in your word his life could give encouragement and gladness to other righteous people because his hope his attention were put upon the word of God without this hope his righteous life would be impossible. [00:07:21]

Here the attention that he spent upon God's word gave the psalmist a wise and godly perspective even in seasons of suffering he says I know O Lord that your judgments are right and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me he could proclaim the righteousness of God's judgments even when he was afflicted you know it's one thing for someone to say God has the right to do with me as he pleases which is true God's our creator he's the Lord of all the universe he's a sovereign God God has the right to do with us whatever he pleases but it's an even greater thing to say as it says in verse 75 that his judgments are right and in faithfulness you have afflicted me. [00:08:44]

He understood that the affliction was from the Lord and that God was using it for good he understood that but he wasn't a masochist he rightly called out for God's comfort to come to him so he says let I pray your merciful kindness before my comfort according to your word here the psalmist prayed on solid ground in verse 76 asking on the basis of promises made in God's word and when we have such promises then we can ask for God's merciful kindness even in the midst of our affliction. [00:11:26]

The psalmist prayed here in verse 77 with the understanding that God's tender mercies came to him through the word of God through the law of God and by staying close to God's word and by letting it fill his life he also received God's tender mercies you see as George Horn in his commentary on psalm 119 says the mercies of God are tender mercies they are the mercies of a father to his children no tender as the compassion of a mother over the sun of her womb they come unto us when we are not able to go to them. [00:12:56]

Let the proud be ashamed for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood but I will meditate on your precepts let those who fear you turn to me those who know your testimonies let my heart be blameless regarding your statutes that I may not be ashamed the psalmist here prays first of all that the proud would be ashamed did you see that in verse 78 let the proud be ashamed for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood the psalmist said this not only out of a sense of God's righteousness but also out of a sense of being personally wronged these proud ones had treated him wrongly with falsehood now therefore they should be put to shame. [00:16:14]

In contrast to the proud ones who loved lies the psalmist loved and would meditate on God's word again I like what Spurgeon said at this point he said he would study the law of God and not the law of retaliation the proud are not worth a thought the worst injury they can do is to take us away from our devotion let us baffle them by keeping all the closer to our God when they are the most malicious in their onslaughts that's true the psalmist was not studying the law of retaliation he was studying the law of God matter of fact he says there in verse 17 I will meditate on your precepts. [00:18:26]

Truth can come to the heart but hold no power or effective working until there is a deep serious and sustained thought upon those truths if you want to find something in a dark room you can't just pass quickly through the room with a light in your hand flashing it here and there no you need to slow down carefully focus the light and look that is one way to think of what it means to meditate on God's word Lord I'm not going to hurry through these verses I'm not going to hurry through this chapter I'm going to slow down and like I'm looking for something in a dark room I'm going to let the light of the Holy Spirit carefully illuminate the things that my heart can't see with full illumination not that there's anything dark in God's word but it's my heart the slowness of my understanding that brings the difficulty in understanding his word. [00:19:59]

Those who truly feared and honored the God of Israel were glad to see the Messiah the Christ who was the perfect representation of God Jesus could say this if you have seen me you have seen the Father so to truly reverence God was to truly honor Jesus and to be glad when they saw Jesus the Messiah I think of Anna and Simeon these two people who were present at the temple at the dedication of Jesus and both of them rejoiced in their souls to see Jesus even as a baby why because in verse 74 those who fear you will be glad when they see me true for the author of psalm 119 true in our lives in some measure but especially and perfectly true of Jesus the Messiah. [00:25:11]