Psalm 139:14
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.
I praise You
The phrase "I praise You" is a declaration of worship and gratitude directed towards God. In Hebrew, the word for "praise" is "yadah," which conveys a sense of acknowledging and giving thanks. This act of praising God is not just a ritualistic expression but a heartfelt acknowledgment of His greatness and goodness. Historically, praise has been a central part of Jewish and Christian worship, reflecting a deep-seated recognition of God's sovereignty and benevolence. The psalmist begins with praise, setting the tone for a personal and intimate relationship with the Creator.

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made
The words "fearfully and wonderfully made" highlight the awe-inspiring nature of human creation. The Hebrew word for "fearfully" is "yare," which can mean to stand in awe or reverence. "Wonderfully" comes from the Hebrew "pala," meaning to be distinct or set apart. This phrase emphasizes the unique and intricate design of each individual, crafted by God with intentionality and purpose. From a historical perspective, this reflects the ancient understanding of humanity as the pinnacle of God's creation, a belief that has been foundational in Judeo-Christian thought.

Your works are wonderful
"Your works are wonderful" acknowledges the magnificence of God's creation beyond just humanity. The Hebrew word for "works" is "ma'aseh," referring to deeds or accomplishments. "Wonderful" again uses "pala," underscoring the extraordinary nature of all that God has made. This phrase invites believers to reflect on the beauty and complexity of the world around them, recognizing it as a testament to God's creative power and wisdom. Throughout scripture, God's works are celebrated as evidence of His glory and majesty.

I know that full well
The phrase "I know that full well" conveys a deep, personal conviction. The Hebrew word for "know" is "yada," which implies an intimate, experiential knowledge. This is not mere intellectual assent but a profound understanding that comes from personal experience and revelation. The psalmist expresses certainty and confidence in the truth of God's creative power and the value of His works. This assurance is a cornerstone of faith, encouraging believers to trust in God's design and purpose for their lives. Historically, this reflects the biblical emphasis on knowing God personally and intimately, beyond mere ritual or tradition.

Persons / Places / Events
1. David
The author of Psalm 139, King David, is expressing his awe and gratitude for God's intricate creation of human life.

2. God
The Creator, who is praised for His marvelous works and the intricate design of human beings.

3. Creation
The event of God creating human beings, highlighting the complexity and intentionality of His work.
Teaching Points
Understanding Our Value
Recognize that each person is created with intentionality and purpose by God. This understanding should shape our self-worth and how we view others.

Praise and Worship
Like David, we should respond to God's creation with praise. Acknowledging His works leads us to worship and gratitude.

God's Sovereignty in Creation
Trust in God's design and purpose for our lives, knowing that He has intricately woven us together with care and precision.

Embracing Our Uniqueness
Celebrate the unique qualities and gifts God has given each of us, understanding that they are part of His marvelous works.

Living with Purpose
Reflect on how being "fearfully and wonderfully made" calls us to live purposefully, aligning our lives with God's will and design.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding that you are "fearfully and wonderfully made" impact your view of self-worth and identity?

2. In what ways can you incorporate praise and gratitude into your daily life as a response to God's creation?

3. How does recognizing God's sovereignty in your creation influence your trust in His plan for your life?

4. What unique qualities or gifts has God given you, and how can you use them to serve others and glorify Him?

5. How can the truth of being "fearfully and wonderfully made" help you encourage and uplift others in their own journeys?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Genesis 1:27
This verse connects to the idea of being "wonderfully made" as it describes humans being created in the image of God, emphasizing the intentional and unique design of each person.

Jeremiah 1:5
This verse speaks to God's knowledge and purpose for individuals even before they are formed, aligning with the theme of being "fearfully and wonderfully made."

Ephesians 2:10
This verse highlights believers as God's workmanship, created for good works, which ties into the acknowledgment of God's marvelous works in Psalm 139:14.
Man Adoring His MakerThomas Lord.Psalm 139:14
Man Fearfully MadeJ. Lathrop, D. D.Psalm 139:14
The Fabric of the Human BodyR. G. A. Bennets, B. A.Psalm 139:14
The Growth and Perfection of the Natural Man's Body and MindBishop Bethell.Psalm 139:14
The Mystery of Man's BeingS. Conway Psalm 139:14
God All-SeeingPsalm 139:1-24
God and OurselvesW. Hoyt, D. D.Psalm 139:1-24
God OmniscientWeekly PulpitPsalm 139:1-24
God's Exhaustive Knowledge of ManT. W. Chambers, D. D.Psalm 139:1-24
God's Knowledge of ManW. G. T. Shedd, D. D.Psalm 139:1-24
God's Omniscience and OmnipresenceH. Woodcock.Psalm 139:1-24
God's PresenceArchbishop Temple.Psalm 139:1-24
Lord, Thou Knowest AltogetherS. Conway Psalm 139:1-24
The All-Seeing and All-Present OneHomilistPsalm 139:1-24
The All-Seeing GodMonday Club SermonsPsalm 139:1-24
The Mystery of Being is with GodR. Tuck Psalm 139:13, 14
God as the Creator of ManHomilistPsalm 139:13-18
People
David, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Confess, Conscious, Delicately, Distinguished, Fearful, Fearfully, Formed, Full, Fully, Knoweth, Marvellous, Praise, Soul, Strangely, Thanks, Wonderful, Wonderfully, Wonders, Works
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 139:14

     1100   God, perfection
     4006   creation, origin
     5698   guardian

Psalm 139:1-15

     5941   secrecy

Psalm 139:1-16

     5027   knowledge, God's of humanity

Psalm 139:13-14

     4016   life, human
     8340   self-respect

Psalm 139:13-15

     5067   suicide

Psalm 139:13-16

     5061   sanctity of life
     5199   womb
     5971   uniqueness
     8471   respect, for human beings

Psalm 139:14-16

     6708   predestination

Library
August 31. "Lead Me in the Way Everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 24).
"Lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps. cxxxix. 24). There is often apparently but little difference in two distinct lives between constant victory and frequent victory. But that one little difference constitutes a world of success or failure. The one is the Divine, the other is the human; the one is the everlasting way, the other the transient and the imperfect. God wants to lead us to the way everlasting, and to establish us and make us immovable as He. We little know the seriousness of the slightest
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

God's Scrutiny Longed For
'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.'--PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24. This psalm begins with perhaps the grandest contemplation of the divine Omniscience that was ever put into words. It is easy to pour out platitudes upon such a subject, but the Psalmist does not content himself with generalities. He gathers all the rays, as it were, into one burning point, and focusses them upon himself: 'Oh,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

September the Eighteenth the All-Round Defence
"Thou hast beset me behind." --PSALM cxxxix. 1-12. And that is a defence against the enemies which would attack me in the rear. There is yesterday's sin, and the guilt which is the companion of yesterday's sin. They pursue my soul like fierce hounds, but my gracious Lord will come between my pursuers and me. His mighty grace intervenes, and my security is complete. "Thou hast beset me ... before." And that is a defence against the enemies which would impede my advance and frighten me out of
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Kingdom Divided
THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS: Jonah Page Amos Page Isaiah Page OUTLINE FOR STUDY OF PROPHETICAL BOOKS 1. Class. 2. Commission of Prophet. 3. Biographical Description of Prophet. 4. Title of Prophet. 5. Historical Place. (a) Name of Kingdom. (b) Names of Kings. 6. Outline of Contents. 7. Prophecies of Earthly Kings or Kingdoms. 8. Prophecies of Christ. 9. Prophecies of Christ's Kingdom. 10. Leading Phrases. 11. Leading Chapters. 12. Leading Teachings. 13. Questions. 14. Items of Special Interest.
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

The Tests of Love to God
LET us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden. 1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

God Omnipresent and Omniscient --Ps. cxxxix.
God Omnipresent and Omniscient--Ps. cxxxix. Searcher of hearts! to Thee are known The inmost secrets of my breast At home, abroad, in crowds, alone, Thou mark'st my rising and my rest, My thoughts far off, through every maze, Source, stream, and issue,--all my ways. How from Thy presence should I go, Or whither from Thy Spirit flee, Since all above, around, below, Exist in Thine immensity? If up to heaven I take my way, I meet Thee in eternal day. If in the grave I make my bed With worms and dust,
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24
Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24. All hearts to Thee are open here; All our desires are known; And we are that which we appear To Thee, good Lord, alone. No eye of man can penetrate, Another's secret mind, Nor well discern his own estate, Naked, and poor, and blind. The entrance of Thy word gives light: Let it so shine within, That each may tremble at the sight Of his unbosom'd sin. With godly sorrow make him grieve, Till hope spring out of grief, And,cry with tears, "Lord, I believe, Help Thou mine unbelief."
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Excursus on the Present Teaching of the Latin and Greek Churches on the Subject.
To set forth the present teaching of the Latin Church upon the subject of images and the cultus which is due them, I cite the decree of the Council of Trent and a passage from the Catechism set forth by the authority of the same synod. (Conc. Trid., Sess. xxv. December 3d and 4th, 1563. [Buckley's Trans.]) The holy synod enjoins on all bishops, and others sustaining the office and charge of teaching that, according to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church received from the primitive times
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

An Unanswered Question
'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. 33. Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death? Note-- I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Out of the Deep of Doubt, Darkness, and Hell.
O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night unto Thee. Oh! let my prayer enter into Thy presence. For my soul is full of trouble and my life draweth nigh unto Hell. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in a place of darkness, and in the deep.--Ps. lxxxviii. 1, 2. If I go down to Hell, Thou art there also. Yea, the darkness is no darkness with Thee; but the night is as clear as the day.--Ps. cxxxix. 7, 11. I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my calling.
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

The Deity of the Holy Spirit.
In the preceding chapter we have seen clearly that the Holy Spirit is a Person. But what sort of a Person is He? Is He a finite person or an infinite person? Is He God? This question also is plainly answered in the Bible. There are in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments five distinct and decisive lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit. I. Each of the four distinctively Divine attributes is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. What are the distinctively Divine attributes? Eternity, omnipresence,
R. A. Torrey—The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

The Suffering of Love.
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend."--John xv. 13. Love suffers because the spirit of the world antagonizes the Spirit of God. The former is unholy, the Latter is holy, not in the sense of mere opposition to the world's spirit, but because He is the absolute Author of all holiness, being God Himself. Hence the conflict. There is no point along the whole line of the world's life which does not antagonize the Holy Spirit whenever He touches it. Whenever
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Hardening Operation of Love.
"Being grieved for the hardness of their heart."--Mark iii. 5. Love may also be reversed. Failing to cherish, to uplift, and to enrich, it consumes and destroys. This is a mystery which man can not fathom. It belongs to the unsearchable depths of the divine Being, of which we do not wish to know more than has been revealed. But this does not alter the fact. No creature can exclude itself from the divine control. No man can say that he has nothing to do with God; that he or any other creature exists
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Inconsideration Deplored. Rev. Joshua Priestley.
"And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness."--HOSEA vii. 2. Is it possible for any man to conceive of truths more fitted to arrest the attention and impress the heart than are those contained in this volume? It has been said that if a blank book had been put into our hands, and every one of us had been asked to put into it the promises we should like to find there, we could not have employed language so explicit, so expressive, and so suited to all our varied wants,
Knowles King—The Wesleyan Methodist Pulpit in Malvern

Annunciation to Joseph of the Birth of Jesus.
(at Nazareth, b.c. 5.) ^A Matt. I. 18-25. ^a 18 Now the birth [The birth of Jesus is to handled with reverential awe. We are not to probe into its mysteries with presumptuous curiosity. The birth of common persons is mysterious enough (Eccl. ix. 5; Ps. cxxxix. 13-16), and we do not well, therefore, if we seek to be wise above what is written as to the birth of the Son of God] of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When his mother Mary had been betrothed [The Jews were usually betrothed ten or twelve months
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Love of Christ.
THE Patience of Christ was recently the object of our meditation in these pages. Blessed and inexhaustible it is. And now a still greater theme is before our hearts. The Love of Christ. The heart almost shrinks from attempting to write on the matchless, unfathomable love of our blessed and adorable Lord. All the Saints of God who have spoken and written on the Love of Christ have never told out its fulness and vastness, its heights and its depths. "The Love of Christ which passeth knowledge" (Ephesians
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

The Kingdom Undivided
THE POETICAL BOOKS: Psalms Page Song of Solomon Page Proverbs Page THE PSALMS I. The Collection and Divisions: In all probability the book of one hundred and fifty psalms, as it now stands, was compiled by Ezra about 450 B.C. They are divided into five books, each closing with a benediction, evidently added to mark the end of the book. Note the number of psalms in Books 1 and 2. II. The Purposes: 1. They were originally used as songs in the Jewish Temple Worship.
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

How the Simple and the Crafty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 12.) Differently to be admonished are the simple and the insincere. The simple are to be praised for studying never to say what is false, but to be admonished to know how sometimes to be silent about what is true. For, as falsehood has always harmed him that speaks it, so sometimes the hearing of truth has done harm to some. Wherefore the Lord before His disciples, tempering His speech with silence, says, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now (Joh. xvi. 12).
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Christ Teaching by Miracles
We have seen how many valuable lessons our Saviour taught while on earth by the parables which he used. But we teach by our lives, as well as by our lips. It has passed into a proverb, and we all admit the truth of it, that "Actions speak louder than words." If our words and our actions contradict each other, people will believe our actions sooner than our words. But when both agree together, then the effect is very great. This was true with our blessed Lord. There was an entire agreement between
Richard Newton—The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young

The Disciple, -- Master, it is Clear to Almost Everyone that to Disobey God And...
The Disciple,--Master, it is clear to almost everyone that to disobey God and to cease to worship Him is sin, and the deadly result is seen in the present state of the world. But what sin really is is not absolutely clear. In the very presence of Almighty God, and in opposition to His will, and in His own world, how did sin come to be? The Master,--1. Sin is to cast aside the will of God and to live according to one's own will, deserting that which is true and lawful in order to satisfy one's own
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet

Appendix xvii. The Ordinances and Law of the Sabbath as Laid Down in the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud.
The terribly exaggerated views of the Rabbis, and their endless, burdensome rules about the Sabbath may best be learned from a brief analysis of the Mishnah, as further explained and enlarged in the Jerusalem Talmud. [6476] For this purpose a brief analysis of what is, confessedly, one of the most difficult tractates may here be given. The Mishnic tractate Sabbath stands at the head of twelve tractates which together from the second of the six sections into which the Mishnah is divided, and which
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Being of God
Q-III: WHAT DO THE SCRIPTURES PRINCIPALLY TEACH? A: The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Q-IV: WHAT IS GOD? A: God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Here is, 1: Something implied. That there is a God. 2: Expressed. That he is a Spirit. 3: What kind of Spirit? I. Implied. That there is a God. The question, What is God? takes for granted that there
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Out of the Deep of Suffering and Sorrow.
Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul: I am come into deep waters; so that the floods run over me.--Ps. lxix. 1, 2. I am brought into so great trouble and misery: that I go mourning all the day long.--Ps. xxxviii. 6. The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: Oh! bring Thou me out of my distress.--Ps. xxv. 17. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: the Lord will receive my prayer.--Ps. vi. 8. In the multitude of the sorrows which I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

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