As I ponder what David wrote about himself in Psalm 139:13-16, I am feeling mixed emotions. There is the sense of awe & wonder that David felt in knowing that God formed or designed “my inward parts” and “knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (13), though likely she was not aware of my becoming a “wonderful” work of God (14b) within her. I wasn’t an accident, though I was the fifth child to come out of that womb. God made me on purpose for a purpose – to praise HIM (14). That’s another emotion I feel. When I think about the wonder-filled work that went into making me, “I praise YOU, O God.” Why? Because “I am fearfully & wonderfully made.” This phrase can also be translated “awesomely wonderful.” I need to remind myself (“my soul”) of this fact, because sometimes I don’t acknowledge it well enough (14c). But when I think about myself in these terms of God’s making, wonderful work and intricate tapestry, the byproduct of such thinking should be praise to GOD and not to myself. As I look inward at myself or see my outward features in a mirror (flawed as they may be), my thoughts and praise and gratitude should ascend upward to God. I am not a self-made man. I have been made by God, so he deserves the praise. This is especially true as I reflect on how God made me “in secret” and “intricately [wove]” me together as my “unformed substance” began to take the shape and characteristics God designed (15-16a). Every part of me – from my outward appearance (the color of my hair & eyes & shape of nose) to my physiology (whether I would be endomorph rather than ectomorph or mesomorph in body type) to my temperament (whether I would be sanguine or melancholic or choleric or phlegmatic, or a combination of each) to my personality (whether I would be extroverted or introverted or more jovial than somber) – God formed all of it and therefore deserves the credit. (I’ll take all the blame for every misuse of my body or manifestation of the sinful parts of me.)
Then there is the sense of sobriety & seriousness to know that if God has made me this “wonderful,” so is every other human being I meet. Every human is God’s work, so I need to treat everyone with total respect. Each person bears the image & likeness of God that requires me to acknowledge their dignity more than their depravity (for I am well-aware of my own). Furthermore, I am sobered to know that my days are already determined by God who created me for his praise (16b). I have been formed by God for equally formed or determined days ahead of me, the exact number of which I don’t know. So I will live today for God’s praise and not my own.
However, another emotion I feel is anger. I am angry with the abortion industry that totally disregards everything I have written above. The true horror of the abortionists is that humans coming into begin are being cut up or torn apart or siphoned from their mothers before God’s very presence & all-seeing eyes (16a). They ruin God’s wonderful tapestry, his divine knitting, his jaw-dropping work. As I think about this tragedy, I wonder how human beings can do that to other humans becoming. But then I think of my own sinful capabilities and my heart & my thoughts and ask God to search out “any grievous way in me” and rid me of it. Only his grace can and will do that, which is even more reason to praise him today.
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