What does it mean that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)?

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.

Certainly, one's frame was not hidden from God, for his Creator had acted in secret with marvelous skill "in the lowest parts of the earth' (v. 15). This may be a reference to Adam's being formed from the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7). It certainly must have taken some skill to accomplish a matter like this! And the Lord knew perfectly the substance of every individual long before this formation took place. He did not have to experiment to find what may be successful, but in His book (of course figuratively) everything about the person was written down long before his being in existence. How little indeed can we understand such wisdom!

We have been considering the wonders of the world, let us now consider the wonders of our own bodies. Have you, boys and girls, ever thought of the many twos, or pairs, we have in our bodies, such as two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs, etc.? The members of our bodies are generally called organs. In everyday life we find that all our organs are necessary, and that they form one harmonious whole. We need our eyes to see with, our ears to hear with, our hands to work with, our legs to walk with; and all the time our hearts are busy pumping blood through our veins from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet; and our lungs are continually supplying us with the necessary air. We may well sing with the Psalmist, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Thy works … and in Thy book all my members were written” (Ps. 139:14, 16).

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.

But He has possessed our reins. He has made us for Himself. We are His, we belong to Him. He has covered me in my mother’s womb, He has exercised over me a beneficent Creator’s care. Therefore I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. Astronomers set their telescopes to the heavens to see the marvellous works of God, while the most marvellous works are to be witnessed in the person of the astronomer himself. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. But do our souls know this right well?

"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."

He proceeds to speak of these marvels: of the bony framework upon which the flesh was supported; of the delicate embroidery of vessels and nerves ramifying through it; all this wrought in secret, in underparts of earth," — not the ground, surely, which would scarcely have been true of Adam, — but of that human substance which is but animated dust. He thinks of that wrapped up embryo, and of the sketched out plan; in which each part of that continually progressing organism had, before coming into being, its predestined place.

Job adds to this: “Thine hands have made me, and fashioned me together round about; yet Thou dost destroy me” (Job 10:8). Let God be true, and every men a liar. Let me study the circulatory system, plasma, the nervous system, the brain, the eye or any other part of the body … “give me understanding … ,” and I will know that God created me, and that I am a responsible intelligent human being answerable to Him.

How very wonderful that such an alteration can be made in poor things like ourselves! Naturally, we prefer to be just what we are, and each one of us loves to boast in his own good qualities. But when we get a sight of Christ and see something of His excellency, our boasting in ourselves comes to an end. Indeed, when we see ourselves in the light of God, we find we have no room to boast; rather the opposite, for we find there is no good in the flesh. But the learning of this is sorrowful though very profitable exercise. In Psalm 139 we have a man upon whom the light of God arises, but we find him at the first very averse to the searchings of that light. He would fly from it if he knew where a hiding-place could be found. He says, “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there … If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.” He has to learn there is no hiding-place from God, and that God knows him perfectly. In that light, and by those searchings of God, he gets to know what a wonderful being he is. He says, “For I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works: and that my soul knoweth right well.” In the light of God one gets to know how fearfully and wonderfully man is made. When one sees what man is capable of, one gets a little glimmer of how fearfully he is made. Innocent one hour, fallen the next, a lawless, law-breaking, God-hating fratricide, fit only for the flames of an eternal lake of fire. And how wonderfully! Capable of being so changed that he will love God with all his heart, soul, strength and mind, and give his life for the brethren. In the school of God our souls get to know this truth “right well.” God can change him—does change the believer after the pattern of Christ. Soon our bodies will undergo a change, at His hands who is able to subdue all things to Himself.

"I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well" (v. 14). Most marvellous! Look at man; is he not most skilfully and wonderfully contrived? See in the same person the loftiest flights of thought, and the most debasing passions! Physically and morally, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. If we regard the second Man the Lord from heaven, Immanuel, God with us, the One testified unto by Jehovah of Hosts, as "the Man my fellow," Him who fills the highest heavens, and yet was down here a babe in a manger, who could command the waves, and still the storm, but was buffeted by His creatures - how fearfully and wonderfully made! But we are looking at the Psalm in another aspect, and who so fearfully and wonderfully made, as one quickened by the Spirit, the believer in God's testimony to His Son? The believer holds to two heads. As naturally constituted, we are under "the law of sin and death." Men may deny that man is so constituted, but the fact is before our eyes, that no progress man has made, no advancement, no cultivation, no invention, has liberated him from "the law of sin and death." This is what human philanthropy cannot achieve. But it is here divine philanthropy begins. "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ," Eph. 2:4-5. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," Rom. 8:5. How fearfully and wonderfully are believers made, holding both to the first, and to the Second Adam! And when we look within, how fearfully and wonderfully made! Our souls know what it is to leave things here behind, and to find Christ excellently precious: and then some vain trifle comes in, and pulls us down, and makes us more intensely interested about the passing trifle, than all the solid realities which are in Christ Jesus. Those who have learned something of themselves, know how often their songs of gratitude and praise are succeeded by murmurings, as with Israel of old - yea, they know how the atheistic thought, that would dethrone God, has battled with the spirit which would fain praise God for redeeming grace and delivering mercy. Those who are taught by the Spirit of truth, are learning the unmitigated evil of the flesh. - "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." In practice we often contradict this truth, probing into that which is below, and only learning disappointment. But God is never disappointed when we are disappointed. He allows us to be disappointed with ourselves, in order that we may better learn our need of, and be satisfied with Christ. It is hard and painful to us, to be stripped of self, to be searched, and winnowed. We become disappointed with the world, disappointed with other Christians (and this may be needful), but when God winnows our path, we learn to be thoroughly disappointed with ourselves.

"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." (v. 14.) Most marvellous! Look at man; is he not most skilfully and wonderfully contrived? Physically and morally, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. If we regard the second Man, the Lord from heaven, Immanuel, God with us, the One testified unto by Jehovah of hosts as "the Man my fellow," Him who fills the highest heavens, and yet was down here a babe in a manger, who could command the waves and still the storm, but was buffeted by His creatures - how fearfully and wonderfully made! But we are looking at the psalm in another aspect, and who so fearfully and wonderfully made as one quickened by the Spirit, the believer in God's testimony to His Son? The believer holds to two heads. As naturally constituted, we are under "the law of sin and death." Men may deny that man is so constituted; but the fact is before our eyes, that no progress man has made, no advancement, no cultivation, no invention, has liberated him from "the law of sin and death." This is what human philanthropy cannot achieve. But it is here divine philanthropy begins. "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." (Eph. 2:4-5.) "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Rom. 8:2.) How fearfully and wonderfully are believers made, holding both to the first and to the second Adam! And when we look within, how fearfully and wonderfully made! Our souls know what it is to leave things here behind, and to find Christ excellently precious; and then some vain trifle comes in and pulls us down, and makes us more intensely interested about the passing trifle than all the solid realities which are in Christ Jesus. Those who have learned something of themselves, know how often their songs of gratitude and praise are succeeded by murmurings, as with Israel of old; yea, they know how the atheistic thought that would dethrone God has battled with the spirit which would fain praise God for redeeming grace and delivering mercy. Those who are taught by the Spirit of truth are learning the unmitigated evil of the flesh. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." In practice we often contradict this truth, probing into that which is below, and only learning disappointment. But God is never disappointed when we are disappointed. He leads us to be disappointed with ourselves, in order that we may better learn our need of and be satisfied with Christ. It is hard and painful to us to be stripped of self, to be searched and winnowed. We become disappointed with the world, disappointed with other Christians (and this may be needful); but when God winnows our path, we learn to be thoroughly disappointed with ourselves.

There is a further truth disclosed. The psalmist recognizes himself to be the handiwork of God. "Thou hast possessed my reins … I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Here, again, if we could not connect Christ with this psalm, and so pass on to being the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus, where all has been wrought under the eye of God, instead of praising, we should quail under the sense of being manifested in His presence. "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Luke 5: 8.) We have then, in Ephesians 2:1‑10, the fulness of that which the Spirit of Christ utters in Psalm 139. There we have Christ in death. He descended into the lower parts of the earth. (Psalm 139:15; Eph. 4:9.) It is there we see Him in this epistle, and that is the birthplace of the Church; we are quickened together with Him. He is the Head of the body, the Church, who is the firstborn from the dead. "Curiously wrought," is the word used for the embroidery of the hangings for the doors of the tabernacle. (Ex. 26: 36; Ex. 36:37.) The veil was of "cunning work." This word has the sense of "purpose" or "device." That was represented in the inside veil. What was seen outside was the beautiful embroidery which answered to that which was of cunning device inside - every grace that was manifested in Christ and reproduced by the Spirit in the saints. In Psalm 45:14 it is mentioned in connection with Israel: "She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework." That is the reproduction of Christ outwardly, as the wrought gold is the glory within.

We may note another point in connection with the workmanship of God. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Why "fearfully"? Because the travail of the soul of Christ in death is the birthplace of the Church. Her origin is from the place of His sorrows and sufferings. A passage in Exodus 34 will help to illustrate the connection of these sorrows with Psalm 139. The future birthplace of Israel as a nation will be in the terrible moment of Jacob's trouble, but in the depth of their misery they will find their deliverance in One who has borne their griefs and carried their sorrows. Their salvation is entirely the result of the death of their Messiah. In verse 10 the Lord thus answers the intercession of Moses, to take a stiff-necked people as His inheritance (z. 9): "Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels." The people are looked at entirely in relation to the mediator, as in verse 27: "After the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." The Lord proceeds, "And all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee." "Terrible" is here the same word as "fearfully" in Psalm 139, and in its full application refers to the great tribulation through which Israel will pass. Moses does not actually pass through it, but as the mediator he has to take it up in spirit. Christ, as we have seen, has taken into His own soul those terrible, fearful sorrows here announced. There too, as we have said, in those unutterable depths of anguish, where not only governmental wrath against an ungodly nation was tasted, but where all the power of death and the judgment of God were fully known, did He travail, according to the will and purpose of God, for the members written in His book. We may well say, "I will praise thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." The birthplace of glory could only be in the sufferings of Christ. All has been wrought in the lower parts of the earth. There were the members formed that are quickened together with Him.