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Psalm 119:73
Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
71It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
72The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YODH
73Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
74Those who fear you will see me and be glad, because I have put my hope in your word.
75LORD, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Notice
God’s hands form a person who still needs to learn, joining the certainty of being made by God with a request for understanding his commandments.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What connection do you see between God forming you and your need for his understanding?
Write on thisWhere do you need understanding to learn God’s commandments rather than just recall their words?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 139:13For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.Both address God as the one who formed the speaker; Psalm 139 names the mother’s womb as the place of that forming.
Psalm 100:3Know that the LORD, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.Both name God as the one who made his people, with Psalm 100 expressing their shared belonging to him.
Isaiah 64:8But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.Both describe people as the work of God’s hands; Isaiah develops that picture through clay shaped by a potter.
Psalm 143:8Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.Both ask God for help in knowing how to live, whether through learning his commandments or knowing the way to walk.
Psalm 139:14–16I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.Both recognize being made by God; Psalm 139 responds with thanks, while Psalm 119 asks for understanding.
Job 31:15Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?Both speak of God making and forming a person; Job extends that recognition to another person made in the womb.
Job 10:8“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.Both address the hands that formed them, but Job follows that recognition with an anguished accusation that God is destroying him.
2 Timothy 2:7Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.Both connect learning with understanding given by the Lord, joining the learner’s attention to dependence on God.
Job 32:8But there is a spirit in man, and the Spirit of the Almighty gives them understanding.Job 32:8 attributes understanding to the Spirit of the Almighty; the psalm asks the God who formed the speaker for understanding.
1 John 5:20We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. …Both describe understanding as a gift from God; the psalm seeks to learn his commandments, while John speaks of knowing him.
Proverbs 14:8The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.Both concern understanding for how to live; the psalm seeks God’s commandments, while the proverb commends thought about one’s way.
1 Kings 3:9Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people …Both ask God for understanding with a stated purpose: learning his commandments in the psalm and discerning good from evil in Kings.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The God whose commandments you seek to learn is the God who formed you. Asking him for understanding belongs within that dependence on your Maker.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).