Sacred life...

 God’s power is evidenced by his creation of each individual. God created our ‘reins’ (our innermost being, that is, those things that control us—minds, hearts, wills). He ‘covered’ us while we were in the womb. The word ‘covered’ may also be translated ‘knit’ or ‘wove’. By using this term the psalmist pictures himself as a fine piece of art and God as a skilled craftsman.

The psalmist’s conclusion is that he is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. Henry writes: ‘… we may justly be astonished at the admirable contrivance of these living temples, the composition of every part, and the harmony of all together.’[1]  David praised God for His omniscience and omnipresence. Verses 13–15 draw together the concepts that a person is formed in his or her mother’s body and that humans are made from the clay of the earth (Gen. 2:7). Thus we, no less than Adam, are God’s creation.[2]

David delights to meditate upon the purposes of God’s providence. He cannot even begin to count all the individual components of that theme. His last thoughts as he falls asleep were of God. When he awakes, he finds himself still in the Lord’s presence, still occupied in contemplating the mystery of his being.[3] God has always been at work in David’s life. He formed him in his mother’s womb. He sees his every action and knows his every thought. There is nowhere David can go which is beyond God’s saving presence and love. The vastest distance, the deepest darkness—even death itself—are no barriers to God.[4]

If the work of God in forming the fetus is precious, how much more precious are thy thoughts, the thoughts of God, toward His creation. How great is the sum of them! Were we to total them they would be immeasurable. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. “If all is glorious deeds my song would tell, the shore’s unnumbered stones I might recount as well”—Pindar (b.c. 518–442). More than the sands of the sea are the delightful thoughts of God toward us.[5]

 

God has His eye on us before we are born. These verses avow that personhood does exist from the moment of conception. The psalmist affirms God’s knowledge of his life from the pre-embryonic stage through death. The Lord weaves and knits together our beings in the wombs of our mothers (v. 13; see Gen. 9). We are in a real sense “prescription babies” in that God has a custom design for every individual, equipping each for specific achievement and purpose (see Is. 43:7, 21; Rom. 9:20; 1 Thess. 1:4). Even the greatest tragedies can be overruled or transformed to good within the providence of God (Rom. 8:28). We praise God for the wonderful way in which He fashioned our bodies, our minds, and our spirits. We marvel at the magnitude of His thoughts (vv. 17, 18). We are grateful that He never finishes His edification process (Eph. 2:10; 1 Pet. 5:10). Even our worst negative traits can be transformed into positive qualities (Rom. 12:2).[6]



[1] Roger Ellsworth, Opening Up Psalms, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2006), 126-27.


[2] Duane A. Garrett, "The Poetic and Wisdom Books" In , in Holman Concise Bible Commentary, ed. David S. Dockery (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1998), 233.


[3] James E. Smith, The Wisdom Literature and Psalms, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 1996), Ps 139:17–18.


[4] Andrew Knowles, The Bible Guide, 1st Augsburg books ed. (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 2001), 246.


[5] KJV Bible Commentary, ed. Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 1176.


[6] Inc Thomas Nelson, The Woman’s Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), Ps 139:13.