Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Psalm 139

You Know Me

After an initial inscription, the psalm confesses the intimate and complete knowledge of God (1-4). I may not always know what I have done event after I have done it, but the knowledge of the Lord is not bound even by time. He knows our words even before we say them. His knowledge is so complete and detailed that even the hairs of our heads are numbered (Luke 12:6-7). What are we to God, that he should have such intimate knowledge of us?

This question is famously asked in another psalm (Psalm 144:3) and somewhat more anxiously by Job (Job 7:17-18 – Note that the word that the NIV translates as “care” in these passages is the same word it translates as “know” in Psalm 139:2). As our psalm continues, we hear an ambivalent mixture of anxiety and awe for the omniscient, omnipresent nature of God (5-12). Jonah is known for his attempt to flee from the presence of God (Jonah 1:1-3). But as he was both literally and figuratively in the deep, he called to God and knew that God heard him (Jonah 2:1-2).

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Various theologies seek to address the role of an omniscient, omnipotent God in a world of evil and suffering. Some say that God must be removed from creation, aware but apart – that he has flung the world into existence and stands aloof, waiting for the final day. The psalmist feels differently. The God who has created continues to create (13-16). The great God who has formed our “inmost being” in a way and place removed from our understanding is the personal God who, with skill and care, has crafted us in the womb.

How is it that the psalmist can swing from this prosaic description of our beginnings to the confession that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”? As God had revealed to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-5) so the psalmist is aware that God has known us even before we received our physical form. Only the one who has known us from eternity can promise to love us for eternity.

Know My Heart

It may seem an abrupt departure as we hear the psalmist cry “O God, how I wish you would kill the wicked!” (17-22; quotation is GNB) But it is only natural, when considering the timeless perfection of the Creator, to be confronted by the evil in creation. We should never be afraid to bring to God the petitions that are on our hearts, and often we cry to God for relief from the evils and horrors of our lives.

But as this thought has thrust itself upon the psalmist, a new thought creeps upon him – can it be that the evil that is in my world is in myself (23-24)? The words “search” and “know” that are used here are the same words with which the psalm began, but where they had been used to acknowledge the all-knowing God, they now express our desire to be known by God, and not only to be corrected, but to be lead. The God who knew us from the beginning is active in our present situation and will love us through eternity.

After Jesus finished saying this, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son, so that the Son may give glory to you. For you gave him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him. And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent. (John 17:1-3 GNB)