Psalm 139:13-18

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.    They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

After seeing God’s omnipotent power in the source of our being and the wonder of our being, now David reveals: 

• The Plan For Our Being (v. 16)

The plan is that we have a significant purpose to fulfill, Psalm 139:16 says “You saw me before I was born.” Our natural eyes cannot see the human fetus in the womb, but God can and what David is saying is that even while we were concealed from the world in the womb, God was there watching over us. God was superintending our development all along, even from day one. “Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” Here we see another wonderful Bible doctrine, one that is seen over and over in Scripture. And that is, God’s sovereign control over every detail of our lives. “All the days or every moment” refers not only to the time in every 24-hour day, but every circumstance within those 24 hours. Each individual day with all that it brings is not a surprise to God. He has a plan that involves every moment of our lives, but this doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility for how we act. So, what about the crazy out of control moments? Well, the truth that “every moment was laid out” should serve to reassure us that anything out of our control is still in His control. We can trust Him because His purposes are good, and His plan is perfect. We might not always understand and see that, but they are. It doesn’t make sense for God to create us and save us only to walk away from us. Do you believe that God does what is best for us? If we look at our lives like a tapestry, what we see is the underside, with all its gnarls and tangles, but God sees the beauty of the upper side. While we see the mess, God sees the Masterpiece.  There is a poem that puts this truth to words:

My life is but a weaving

Between my Lord and me;

I cannot choose the colors

He worketh steadily.

Oft times He weaveth sorrow

And I, in foolish pride,

Forget He sees the upper,

And I the under side.

Not til the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly,

Shall God unroll the canvas

And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the Weaver’s skillful hand,

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.

My life is but a weaving between my God and me.

I see the seams and tangles, the fairer side sees He.

Then let me wait in patience and blindness satisfied 

To make the pattern lovely upon the upper side.

It’s hard to wait in patience especially when we can’t see what God is doing on the upper side, and all we can see is the mess instead of the masterpiece. So often when it comes to our lives instead of believing the bible we start to feel like we fit more with what Shakespeare described in one of his plays, “A tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” But the truth is we can agree with the Psalmist in Psalm 31:15, “My future is in your hands” Our days are known by God, He has established them for a worthwhile purpose. We were not created to meaninglessly bumble through this life we were designed for a purpose. Not only do we see the plan for our being but also:

• The Joy of Our Being (v.17-18)

Psalm 139:17-18, “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.” The thoughts that David is talking about are all the things he has revealed in this Psalm. The intricate details of his body, the many circumstances of his life, God has it all in His mind at every moment. If we could count them all up, they would be even more than all the grains of sand. That’s how much God thinks about you. Even while we are sleeping, He thinks about us, and when we wake up in the morning, God is still thinking about us, because He does not slumber and sleep. David does not rebel or react negatively to such close scrutiny by His Creator. Instead, he sees God’s thoughts of him as one of his most valuable treasures, verse 17 “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God” If I would ask you to make a list of your most valuable assets what would you say, where would you start? Many of us would start with our house, or other material possessions. But as a child of God, one of your most precious possessions is that God is thinking about you right now. Maybe you feel insignificant and unimportant. Maybe you feel insignificant and unimportant to your family or at work. But to the One that matters you are valuable. Because to Him you are His unique and special creation, He made you and He cares about you deeply. So much so that He will never stop caring about you, and He will never put you out of His mind. Do you believe it, accept it, and rejoice in this revelation? Are you resting in His sovereign control of your life, and in the assurance that everything He does is for the best? Why not take time today to cultivate your relationship with Him. Get to know the One who knows you intimately and start to trust Him fully. 

Psalm 139:13-18

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. 15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. 17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.    They cannot be numbered! 18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

One aspect of God’s omnipotence is seen in His power to create us both personally and individually and after stating the source of our being in verse 13 David now reveals: 

• The Wonder of our Being (v. 14-15)

The wonder of it all is found in the truth that we were created and fashioned by the Master Craftsman. David’s response to this truth is one of thanksgiving and praise, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” I wonder is that our response when we remember that God made us? It should be because God doesn’t make junk. Some versions refer to us as being “fearfully made” but this does not mean that there is anything to be afraid of. What it means is that we are unique and distinct. We are distinguished from any other created being; we are unique in God’s plan and program. It also says that we are “wonderfully made” which refers to the marvel of the human body. David recognized this truth even though he had never taken Biology 101 or Anatomy and Physiology. David understood that the human body was more than just an amazing organism, he saw it as miraculous. The King James Version translates this as “marvelous are Thy works” and it truly is marvelous. Wilbur Nelson wrote a book called, “If I Were An Atheist” in which he includes a chapter entitled, “If I Were A Medical Doctor.” In it he includes a whole list of “think ofs.” That’s what he calls them. He wants us to think of these things, ponder them, and meditate on them. Here are a few… “Think of the human body composed of more than one hundred trillion cells. Think of the skin. While water penetrates the skin outwardly, it cannot penetrate inwardly. Aren’t you glad about that? I mean, if not, you would have blown up and exploded in the shower this morning! Think of the bones, capable of carrying a load 30 times what a brick will support. Think of the liver, it breaks up blood cells into bile and neutralizes poisonous substances. Think of the blood. 10-12 pints of syrupy substances distributes oxygen and carries away waste from tissues and organs. It also regulates the body’s temperature. Think of the heart. weighing less than a pound. It’s a real work horse. On the average, it pumps a hundred thousand times every day, circulating 2,000 gallons through 60,000 miles of arteries, capillaries and veins.” Wow! And that’s only a fraction of the wonder! Our brains are another thing to consider. “It has 10 billion nerve cells, to record what it sees and hears and feels. Can you imagine! 10 BILLION nerve cells! The brain’s capabilities surpass any manmade computer. And then consider the chromosomes…Did you know that a single microscopic human chromosome contains 20 billion bits of information?! How much information is 20 billion bits? Let me try to put it into perspective for you…Let’s assume that there are six letters in an average word. That same information (20 billion bits) would correspond to about 500 million words. Assuming 300 words a page as an average, that would translate to 2 million pages. And assuming 500 pages a book, that would correspond to 4,000 books! So, do you get the picture? Imagine a library of 4,000 500-page books. One microscopic human chromosome contains as much information as in all of those books! Incredible, isn’t it?! It shows the intricacy of our bodies, the exquisitely designed construction of our bodies. We are a very complex and wonderfully functioning organism.” This is why David says “Your works are wonderful, I know that full well” When was the last time you stopped to contemplate the complexity of creation and marvel at what God has made? Not only is it amazing, but to think that it all works without a thought. Right now, your heart is pumping and you don’t have to tell it to. It’s pumping keeping you alive by providing life-giving oxygen to every cell in your body. Imagine if we had to consciously tell our hearts to pump, which on average is 110,000 beats per day or over 40 million per year. If we did it’s probably all we would get done. Think about your breathing, we breathe in, we breathe out, and you probably didn’t even think about that a minute ago until I said something. We do it automatically, without thinking even while we sleep. David goes on to say in verse 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” Our frame is the bony skeleton and the muscles and sinews that hold us all together. Without it we would have no structure, we would be but blobs.  “the secret place” refers to the womb where we were woven together. “Woven together” means embroidered, like a work of fine needlepoint, or a tapestry woven together by a skilled artist. We have been marvelously made by the Master, intricately knit together in the our mother’s womb. I want to encourage you to take some time today to not only ponder God’s marvelous creation but also to praise Him for who He made when He made you. Because God doesn’t make junk.