"For you formed my inward parts" (Psalm 139:13)-what does this mean, and what implications does this have?

In the third section we come to that which is the full expression for the psalmist of that compassing about of man on God's part,which at the same time shows fully the divine interest in him, and thus is the revelation to him of God, so as to bring him to fullness of delight in all His thoughts. As Christians we should not take up the mystery of our formation in the womb to assure ourselves of this; and that he does so shows us sufficiently the difference of the Old Testament standpoint. Christians are naturally, therefore, disposed to find in all this the typical presentation of Christian truths. But however this may do as application, the literal meaning must come first, and be the foundation of all other. It is true that this speaks to us only of the Creator, and leaves the question of sin unbottomed. Yet a soul that has realized redemption can and will come back to God's creative thoughts, with fresh apprehension of the truth that He cannot "forsake the work of His own hands." And the question of sin being here left out, at least makes the whole matter proportionately simple.

"For Thou hast acquired my reins" is the keynote of what follows. "The reins" stand for the very innermost parts; and, according to the Old Testament, the deepest recesses of the mind: there where the fundamental moral questions are entertained and find solution, — the good is received and the evil rejected.* God is the Master here; Lord of the conscience, which continually reminds us of Him and summons before His judgment-seat; and He has acquired this right over us by the fact to which the psalmist now goes on; that He is our Maker: "Thou hast acquired my reins: Thou coveredst" — or, perhaps, "didst interweave me in my mother's womb." Marvelous power it was that was at work there, and not idly, but with purpose and plan. "I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth well."

Everything about every individual is perfectly known to God, for He formed even the inward parts or kidneys, as the original really is, sometimes called "reins" because of being in driving control. The kidneys filter impurities from the blood, just as we are responsible to filter out all that is inconsistent with truth. God has made us with this ability, whether or not we use it rightly. But from the womb of one's mother, God is active in forming the individual (v. 13), and this fact awakens the praise of the psalmist's heart, for he is "fearfully and wonderfully made." Indeed, every detail of the human body is amazing, so that we may well agree that we know this very well.

When we think of how God has made us, does it not make us wonder at His greatness and wisdom? What a marvellous creature man is! Well do we praise God for His creatorial power, and for the wisdom displayed in making such a creature. What mysteries are wrapped up in the development of the unborn child! Every part unperfect, but not imperfect — mysteries of nature, body, mind, soul and spirit; mysteries that alone are known to God. Every member was foreknown to God before it existed: it was written in His book: and before it really existed, during the process of its formation, God's eye rested upon it. How blessed for the Christian to realise that God was interested in him before he had any being. Then to realise, as Paul did, that God's eye was upon him from his mother's womb (Gal. 1:15). There has not been a moment in our lives (and never shall be for all eternity), that God has not been interested in us watching over us; caring for us, with an infinite and eternal love. He knew all about us when we were born in sin and shapen in iniquity; but there was divine provision for it all in the cross of Christ. What a precious thought, He sent His Son to die upon the cross that we might receive the forgiveness of sins, be justified, have peace with God, and be accepted before Himself in His beloved Son.

Hereupon we have in the Psalm which follows (139) how a saint can come to be at home in the Divine presence. The sense of God's omniscience as well as of His omnipresence cannot provide that. Rather the contrary. God's eye on him is no comfort. From under that eye he cannot escape, wherever he goes. To what place soever he might betake himself, that eye would still be on him (1-12). What then can minister relief? The answer to this is very simple and very blessed. God's thoughts as revealed can do it. The Psalmist's thoughts about God have not done it. So up to verse 12 he is uneasy. In verse 13, however, he strikes a different note, and the first thing which ministers relief is the remembrance that God thought of him when in his mother's womb (13-16). That eye which he finds on him wherever he may go, that eye surveyed his frame when made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. "Thine eyes," he proceeds, "did see my substance, being unperfect and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance [or, day by day] were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." The remembrance of this has quite changed his key. "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knows right well" (14). He has got quite away from thinking about himself, and is now occupied with God.

We are the work of His hands. Here it is man as man, so that the earth out of which he was fashioned at first is as the womb out of which we were born. God has formed us, be it in the womb of dust or of our mother, the place where we were nothing before we were. The same God has ever thought of us along the road, and here confidence has been acquired; though thus acquired it reaches to all God's creative knowledge and power. If He sees in the dark, He keeps in the dark. When we awake, and so it will be in resurrection too, we are still with Him. He knows our thoughts, but thinks of us when we think not. Thus if God knows all our thoughts, and long before His are precious to us, to such the putting down of evil is the sure expectation, yea the call for judgment on the haters of the Lord, whom we therefore abhor.

Behind this lies the old error that my value depends on what others think of me. I could mention without hesitation a number of unmarried brothers and sisters whose faith and service is of great value for the saints. And while it is certainly good to mention our appreciation of this to those Christians, this is again on the level of how I value other believers. We do not become valuable by what we do (even if it is to marry), but are valuable because God has created us and we are precious in His eyes (see Ps. 139:12–16).