Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
Parallel translations
- KJV Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.
- BSB Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.
- NKJV Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.
- NASB ¶Your hands made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, so that I may learn Your commandments.
- NLT You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Because God made and formed him, the psalmist asks his Maker for the understanding to learn His commandments. The God who creates is also the one who must teach.
Overview
Opening the YODH stanza, the psalmist grounds his prayer for understanding in the doctrine of creation: the hands that fashioned him are competent to instruct him. He recognizes that learning God's law is not merely intellectual effort but a gift of insight from the Creator. This anticipates the New Testament truth that God who began a good work also opens the heart to understand His word (Phil. 1:6; Luke 24:45).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 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.
- Ps 138:8Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands.
- Job 31:15Didn’t he who made me in the womb make him? Didn’t one fashion us in the womb?
- Ps 111:10The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
- 2 Tim 2:7Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
- Job 32:8But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
- Ps 119:125I am your servant. Give me understanding, that I may know your testimonies.
- 1 Jn 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. This is the true God, and eternal life.
- Ps 119:34Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.
- Ps 100:3Know that Yahweh, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
- Jas 3:18Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- 2 Chr 2:12Huram continued, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who has given to David the king a wise son, endowed with discretion and understanding, who would build a house for Yahweh, and a house for his kingdom.
- Ps 119:169Let my cry come before you, Yahweh. Give me understanding according to your word.
- 1 Chr 22:12May Yahweh give you discretion and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel; that so you may keep the law of Yahweh your God.
- Ps 119:144Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live. KUF
- Job 10:8–11“‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 119:73 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.