Psalms 119:73-80

“Your hands have made and fashioned me…”

These mighty hands that flung the stars into place, that gathered seas and formed land,  that formed the mighty elephant and the delicate butterfly also have made an d fashioned you and me. Isn’t it incredible?

The opening verse of this stanza also calls to mind Psalm 139:13-14:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

To think that the same wonderful hands that created us will also be there to guide our steps with firmness or gentleness as needed is comforting to me. The Mighty God who  formed me has not left me alone to figure things out on my own, but He Himself will provide the understanding that I need to walk in a manner pleasing to Him. He is neither remote nor uncaring. Instead,  He is as actively involved in shaping me now as He was on that day His skillful hands first formed me.

I need reminders like these from time to time, for there are seasons when God does seem to be far off or aloof. Yet, like the Psalmist, I have that unshakable knowledge that His rules are righteous. When I am afflicted by His silence, it is in faithfulness that He afflicts me — and far too often the silence is a result of me wandering from His side and not the other way round.

That His steadfast love will always be there to comfort me when I return is a promise I treasure intensely.  It is because of His love and mercy that I can delight in His laws; it is because He is good that I know His rules and ways are good.

These are promises that are sure and steadfast, more certain than the sunrise and longer lasting than the very rocks of this world.  May it be said of all of us that those who fear our God will rejoice along with us. May it be that we, too, seek to be blameless in His statutes and to share His testimonies with all the listening world.

There is great joy to be had in the Living Word. Let us start the new year right by meditating on His wonderful precepts and rejoicing together in His promises!