Fearfully and Wonderfully Made! (Part 4)

Psalm 139:13-18

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.

We have been examining Psalm 139 to understand what the Lord wants us to know regarding our being and our relationship with Him. This devotional points to tremendous truths that have particular relevance both morally and politically as we consider the upcoming election.

What have we learned thus far? God knows His children personally and He is always with us. Here is the next truth that we should all ponder when we consider the war that is being waged against those not yet born. God made us!

We find amazing truths in these verses about the way God created each of us. This Psalm is literally a scientific treatise on the creation and development of the human embryo in the womb of a mother. Verse 13 states, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Years ago, I met with a minister here in Raleigh who told me that he was pro-choice. I asked him if he had a Bible. When he handed me one, I opened it up and read to him these verses in Psalm 139. When I finished, he said, “Russ, you need to realize that Psalms is full of poetry. It talks about the hills, the trees, the valleys and the streams.” What was he really saying? “Russ, don’t be so naïve. You can’t believe everything you read in the Bible! Some of it is just poetry.” I wish I knew then what I know now.

We are not to take poetry in the Bible literally. But poetry in the Bible does paint for us a reality. God didn’t literally pick up a needle and thread and knit us together. However, what the Psalmist is telling us is this reality: God formed us. From the moment of our conception, God was at work in our mother’s womb creating us from a tiny cell into a wonderfully made human being. We are a miraculous work of God!

Verse 13 states, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

The idea is this: God, YOU, made me. We are not the result of nature or some evolutionary process. God is the one who made us. He personally created each one of us with intricate design and with meticulous care. He created us in His image which makes us entirely different from animals. We have a will and a spirit. We can come to know our Creator when we allow Him to indwell our spirit. Our will and our spirit make us unique in all of creation and we are the very pinnacle of the creation.

Keep in mind that when David wrote this Psalm, he did not have access to a 3-D sonogram. He wrote as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit. The words translated ‘inmost being,’ have to do with our inner vital organs; our kidneys, hearts, lungs and livers.[i] When David writes that “you knit me together,” it points to the truth that “God weaved us together,” like an interwoven mass of muscle, tendon, bone, veins and arteries.[ii]

What God did is truly amazing. (The following commentary comes from a source that I was unable to find…sorry!)

“Just consider the red blood cells. Our life is based upon the blood that flows in our veins. The amazing red blood cell, created in the bone marrow, immediately gives up its nucleus when it reaches the bloodstream. For any other cell, this would mean death. A red blood cell is found like a doughnut with a thin membrane across the hole. Without a nucleus, it is able to carry more oxygen for the body. If it were shaped like other cells, it would require nine times as many cells to provide oxygen to the body.

And what a wonder—the human eye! Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, the famous English physiologist who wrote a classic on the human eye said, “Behind the intricate mechanism of the human eye lie breath-taking glimpses of a Master Plan.” When confronted with darkness the human eye increases its ability to see one hundred thousand times. The finest camera ever made does not even vaguely approach such a thing, but the human eye does it automatically.

Furthermore, the eye will find the object it wants to see and focus upon it instinctively. Both eyes moving together must take different angles to fix themselves upon what is to be seen. When the eye got ready to create itself, it also had the forethought for its own protection, and built itself beneath the bony ridge of the brow, and also provided a nose on which to hang the eyeglasses that most of us need. Then it provided a shutter to protect itself from any foreign object.

If we had time, we could talk about the brain, which weighs only 3.3 pounds, yet can perform what 500 tons of electrical equipment cannot do, and the nervous system and the way all of our muscles work together in conjunction with the brain. But we don’t have time.”

Tune in next week as we wrap up our study of Psalm 139!


[i] Quote from Dr. Stephen Davey’s sermon: Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, Living Beyond the Daily Grind: Book II (Word Publishing, 1988), p. 369
[ii] Ibid.