For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)
It’s official – next year I’m going to be a Grandad! Now I know what you’re thinking – that I look far too young to be a Grandad – but trust me, it’s really true. I’ve already seen a picture of the scan (we didn’t have those in my day!) and at just 13 weeks you can already see that’s it’s all there - head, body arms, legs and toes. The way God creates and grows this life from the moment of conception to a single cell and then through to a fully formed human body is just so amazing, such a miracle of design and function.
Some of the facts and figures relating to the human body are truly staggering. For example, the body contains 60,000 miles of blood vessels; the average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells; an average human scalp has 100,000 hairs. (I’m probably down to about half that!), there’s about 9,000 taste buds on the tongue; it takes the interaction of 72 different muscles to produce human speech; the average human heart will beat 3,000 million times in its lifetime and pump 48 million gallons of blood; there are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being; 15 million blood cells are destroyed in the human body every second; during a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times etc. etc. I’ve often thought that it must be difficult to look at the true makeup of the human body and see it as just coming about by chance – even for an atheist that must be quite a challenge.
In this beautiful psalm, David writes in the context of his very life being in danger. He doesn’t know what the next day will bring – maybe life, maybe death. It’s because of this that he feels compelled to declare the true reality of his life – that his existence is no twist of fate, no accident of circumstances but rather he’s been ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’; a definite decision by God to make him the way he is. And then he goes on to declare something about God’s omniscience – not only has God created him, but He knew everything about him even while he was in his mother’s womb – physically, mentally, emotionally – God knew it all. David then proclaims this deeply profound statement, that ‘all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be’. Now much could be said about this statement but suffice to say that here David acknowledges that his life is completely in God’s hands. God knows the end from the beginning – whatever happens to him, both good and bad, his life is secure and death won’t come to him until God decrees it.
Personally, I know I’m not quite at that place of security yet although I think I’m gradually getting there. Hopefully, during my Grandad years, the reality of being a child of God will really sink in.
DetailsLarry
October 28th, 2007
4 Responses to “Down2Earth: 8. So Wonderfully Made”
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January 14th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Hi Larry
Please can you help me to understand this part.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
is this saying that our life is writern and that we simply live playing it out, almost like a dvd?
i am confused? the things that happern to us in life like david s is under threat! are they ment too, because it was writern long before. how can having your life under threat in danger bring you to a place where you say?
fearfully and wonderfully made’; a definite decision by God to make him the way he is.
interested but confused
sozah
congrats by the way on the gandchild
January 26th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
As you’ve highlighted Sozah, there are some quite thought-provoking verses here.
Regarding your first point ‘all the days ordained for me…’ (and there are numerous other verses in the Bible on a similar idea) – this aspect is sometimes referred to as ‘God’s Providence’, ‘Predestination’ or ‘Election’ – a doctrine on which there has been substantial disagreement among Christians since the early history of the church, particularly with respect to the causes of evil, man’s free-will, salvation, willing choices etc. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to go into any detail here as it would end up being very long and probably very boring! Also, I don’t consider myself even remotely an authority on this complex subject.
So extremely simplified, there are two main views: the Calvinist view (from John Calvin, a French Protestant theologian during the Protestant Reformation) and the Arminian view (from Jacob Arminian, a Dutch professor in theology) who is known for his opposition to some of Calvin’s ideas. The Calvinist view affirms that God has pre-ordained everything to happen while, at the same time, does so in such a way that He somehow upholds our ability to make willing, responsible choices, choices that have real and eternal results and for which we are held accountable.
The Arminian view on the other hand, affirms that in order to preserve the real human freedom and choices that are necessary for genuine human personhood, God cannot cause or plan our voluntary choices. Therefore they conclude that God’s providential involvement in or control of history must not include every specific detail of every event that happens, but that God instead simply responds to human choices and actions as they come about and does so in such a way that his purposes are ultimately accomplished in the world.
Interwoven into both these views is the issue of ‘free-will’ and is complicated by the fact that people have many interpretations as to what true freedom and free-will is exactly. Some argue that absolute freedom, totally free of God’s control is simply not possible in a world created, sustained and directed by God Himself while others argue that the ability to make personal willing choices is central to our relationship with God.
That’s all I’m going to say now on this question. Some years ago I embarked on a journey of reading and study on this subject and, while I found it very interesting, I also found it to be quite difficult, even disturbing at times. I didn’t arrive at any great revelations or conclusions although I did find that it got me thinking a lot about many of life’s important questions. If you’re brave enough to embark on a similar journey then I wish you ‘bon voyage’!
Regarding your second point, and I think you’re asking about how David’s life being in danger can bring him closer to God and the same with ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I find that going through difficult times often gets me more focused on God and what’s written in the Bible. For example, Proverbs 3:5-8 has helped me on several occasions when I’ve just not known the way forward. When David’s life was threatened, he focused his mind on all that he knew to be true about God which brought him to the conclusion that God’s got His hand on things in so many ways and that fact alone will help him through his difficult situation.
February 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
hi larry
thank you for responding to my quetions and for giving me a start in persuing things. i need to and your amswwers are intreging. i cannot understand how going through hardship can bring a person closer to god. i am in a forign county and feel very much exscluded i am not hear by chose and i wish to retern but cannot unless changes are made outside of my controle. i would like to have faith like David and know no mater what there is more to this but it is the humans who i feel can have powere to change my difficulty can god do this or are they free will and i and my family have to live by their wrong ?
where can a man get safety for family and futuer.
soazh akbarry
February 11th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Dear Larry , Soaza
I am very close to having a David experience myself . I have just been thrown out of my church after ten years because I stood up against sin within the church . David could of murdered those who were pursueing him, he had the oppotunity, and this would of stopped all his problems , but he chose not to , because he knew the holiness and rightiouness of God, he knew he was created in God’s image, maybe this will bring some answers to you Soazh. Kind regards Sarah