Psalms 139:14

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.^{[a] 1}Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

Psalms 139:14 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 139:14

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully
made
the formation of man is not of himself, nor of his parents, but of God, and is very wonderful in all its parts; it has been matter of astonishment to many Heathens, as Galen and others, who have, with any carefulness, examined the structure and texture of the human body, the exact symmetry and just proportion of all its parts, their position and usefulness; holy every bone, muscle, artery, nerve and fibre, are nicely framed and placed to answer their designed end; particularly the eye and ear, the exquisite make of them for sight and sound, have filled the most diligent inquirers into nature with amazement and wonder, and are a full proof of the wisdom and knowledge of God; see ( Psalms 94:9 ) ; no man has cause to reproach his parents, nor blame the Former of all things for making him thus, but on the contrary should praise the Lord, as David did, who has given him life and breath, and all things; or own and confess ^F12, as the word may be rendered, that he is in various surprising instances a wonder of nature; see ( Isaiah 45:9 Isaiah 45:10 ) ( Romans 9:20 ) ( Psalms 100:3 ) . R. Moses in Aben Ezra thinks David is speaking of the first father, or the first Adam; who was wonderfully made of the dust of the earth, and had a living soul breathed into him; was made after the image of God, holy and upright: but rather he speaks of Christ, the second Adam, his antitype, who as man is a creature of God's make, and was wonderfully made, even of a virgin, without the use and knowledge of man; is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, the tabernacle which God pitched and not man; was produced by the power of the Holy Ghost, was born without sin, which no man is, and united personally to the Son of God, and is the great mystery of godliness; and his name is justly called Wonderful, ( Isaiah 9:6 ) . Cocceius interprets this passage of God's separating act of David, and so of others in election; which is a wonderful setting apart of than for himself, as the word is used ( Psalms 4:3 ) ; it is the effect of amazing love, and to be ascribed to the sovereignty of God, and the unsearchable riches of his grace; but this seems not to be intended here, though it is a marvellous act, as all the works of God are, as follows; rather, since the word may be rendered, "I am wonderfully separated" ^F13, it may be interpreted of his being separated in his mother's womb from the rest of the mass and matter of her blood, and formed from thence; which was done in a secret, unknown, and marvellous way and manner;

marvellous [are] thy works;
of creation, providence, sustentation of all creatures, the government of the world, the redemption of mankind, the work of grace and conversion, the perseverance of the saints, and their eternal salvation;

and [that] my soul knoweth right well:
having diligently sought them out, and having such a distinct knowledge of them as to be capable of talking of them, and of showing them to others, and pointing out the wonders, beauties, and excellencies of them; see ( Psalms 111:2 ) ( 145:5 ) ( 9:1 ) ; however, he well and perfectly knew, or knew so much of them that they were very wonderful and amazing: some connect the word rendered "right well", which signifies "greatly", or "exceedingly", not with his knowledge, but with the marvellous works known; and take the sense to be, that he knew them to be greatly or exceedingly wonderful; so R. Moses in Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 (Kdwa) "confitebor tibi", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "confiteor", Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis.
F13 (ytalpn) "tremendis modis separatus sum", Cocceius; so Gussetius, p. 676, 677.

Psalms 139:14 In-Context

12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Cross References

• 1. See Psalms 72:18

Footnotes

• [a]. Or for I am fearfully set apart