Identity Card (2)

This has become mine, that I comply with Your precepts.  Psalm 119:56  NASB

Comply – Did you think we’ve completely mined this verse after yesterday’s investigation?  Well, we learned that “This has become mine” is probably better understood as a statement of identity rather than possession.  It’s not something that I have acquired.  Rather, it’s a declaration of who I am.  Yesterday we learned, that “This has become me” is a poetic way of saying, “I am Your servant.”  zōʾt, the Hebrew translated “This,” could refer to the idea of complying.  Could there be a stronger identity marker than that?  “I belong to You, Lord, and that fact is demonstrated by my acceptance of Your oversight in my life.”  This idea is expressed in another poetic psalm written by a different man.  “But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; . . .” (Psalm 73:28)

But even this interpretation isn’t strong enough.  You see, there’s something else going on with the verb nāṣar, the one translated “comply.”  This verb also means “to create.”  In fact, that is its primary meaning in modern Hebrew.  What this means is that our verse doesn’t just say that my identity is solely tied to compliance with God’s oversight.  What it means is that God’s oversight created me!  Let that sink in.  I am who I am because God has orchestrated my life.  My very existence, my identity, is totally dependent on His invisible hand.  Now read this verse:

“This has become me; I was created by Your supervision.”  Wow!  Look ahead and see if we don’t hear this again: “Your hands made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, so that I may learn Your commandments” (verse 73).

This gives us the opportunity to discover something about the entire zayin section of the psalm.  Did you notice that each of the zayin verses expresses personal conflict, resolution, and resolve.  Comfort in misery, revival in distress, assurance during derision, anger at evil, songs in pilgrimage, commitment in the dark, and finally . . . “This is me.”  God has supervised the journey all along.  I am the collection of all those experiences with Him.  They have created me.  I can no more think of myself as an independent, self-made man than I can think of myself as the Pharoah of Egypt.

The last verb in this verse reminds me of another biblical story, a story about receiving a name.  Jacob spent his life in an effort to make his own name, until he came to the crossing point.  At the brook, he met a “man” and after a night-long battle of neither victory nor defeat, he was given a new name, a name that identified who he really was.  That name, as you know, was Yisrael, meaning “to struggle with God and men, and persevere” (Genesis 32:28).  The psalmist has a name too.  His name is “Supervised.”

Are you related?

Topical Index: nāṣar, create, identity, Psalm 119:56