Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:14
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made: marvelous [are] thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.
14. I will praise thee ] I will give thanks unto thee.
I am fearfully and wonderfully made ] The Ancient Versions represent the second person, thou art fearfully wondrous.
marvellous ] Wonderful, the same word as in the preceding clause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will praise thee – I will not merely admire what is so great and marvelous, but I will acknowledge thee in a public manner as wise, and holy, and good: as entitled to honor, love, and gratitude.
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made – The word rendered fearfully means properly fearful things; things suited to produce fear or reverence. The word rendered wonderfully made means properly to distinguish; to separate. The literal translation of this – as near as can be given – would be, I am distinguished by fearful things; that is, by things in my creation which are suited to inspire awe. I am distinguished among thy works by things which tend to exalt my ideas of God, and to fill my soul with reverent and devout feelings. The idea is, that he was distinguished among the works of creation, or so separated from other things in his endowments as to work in the mind a sense of awe. He was made different from inanimate objects, and from the brute creation; he was so made, in the entire structure of his frame, as to fill the mind with wonder. The more anyone contemplates his own bodily formation, and becomes acquainted with the anatomy of the human frame, and the more he understands of his mental organization, the more he will see the force and propriety of the language used by the psalmist.
Marvellous are thy works – Fitted are they to excite wonder and admiration. The particular reference here is to his own formation; but the same remark may be made of the works of God in general.
And that my soul knoweth right well – Margin, as in Hebrew, greatly. I am fully convinced of it. I am deeply impressed by it. We can see clearly that the works of God are wonderful, even if we can understand nothing else about them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 139:14
I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Man adoring his Maker
I. The expressive declaration–I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
1. The wonders and mysteries of the human frame are little thought of, or understood, by the children of men; yet surely we may say, The finger of God is here. Our body is a congeries of wonders from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. The different parts are so finely, delicately, and exquisitely made that it seems as if the least thing must disjoint, disorder, or derange them. Our life is an affair of beauty, symmetry, utility, and of mystery. The configuration and the construction, the composition and the articulation, the perforations, the compressions, the expansions, the attrition, the compensation, the exhaustion, the restoration, the secretion, and the excretions of the body all prove it to be fearfully made. The mouth, the eye, the ear, the head, the brain, and the lungs, with the heart contracting four thousand times in an hour, and sending out with unerring accuracy at every contraction one ounce of blood, are all proof of the fact. The varied apparatus for breathing, for nourishing the system, for moving the limbs, for the reception of aliment, and for the ejection el waste, all demonstrate the truth of the text. The varied secretions of the system, and the gastric juice, all of them being different in consistency, in colour, in taste, in smell, and in their uses in the animal economy; some of them thick, others transparent, some bitter and others sweet, all adapted either to cleanse, to lubricate, to defend, to digest, or to nourish, are so many confirmations of the statement that we are fearfully made.
2. The language of the text also applies to the soul. Man is not only an animal, but also a spirit. That spirit is in the body, but not of it. So different from it, it yet influences it, and is influenced by it. It is lodged in it for an appointed time, and then to leave it, to be again reunited indissolubly to it, and there to abide for ever. This is the most wonderful part of man; it is mind, spirit, soul; the breath of God breathed into his nostrils, and man become a living soul. The first man, Adam, was made a living soul. Mentally, he is fearfully and wonderfully made. As a spirit he possesses the power to think, to learn, to know; he is capable of intermeddling with all wisdom, of receiving continuous supplies of wisdom and knowledge. What a power is this! It allies us to angels, to Deity! Do we value sufficiently our mental endowment? Are we careful to improve our power of reflection? Do we act as thinking beings–as creatures who must go wrong unless we exercise our minds in relation to the past, the present, and the future?
3. Socially; we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We are linked one to another, all the world round, and from generation to generation. We are ever being brought under the influence of others, and in our turn influence those around us. We may forget it, may doubt it, or deny it, and neglect it, yet it is so; all through our existence, in childhood, youth, manhood, or old age. This influence is being ever exerted, wherever we are, whatever we do, wherever we go–at home, abroad, in quiet or in active life. Oh! how it becomes us to be guarded, lest our being shall be a curse to any immortal spirit instead of a blessing; lest we lead them astray, and cause them suffering here and hereafter; or lest it be thus with ourselves! Let us indeed watch and pray, lest we lead or fall into temptation.
4. Morally, man is fearfully and wonderfully made. These natures of ours are distinguished by a moral sense, as well as by a mental power and a social influence. We are gifted with a sense of right and wrong, of which we can never be divested to all eternity. We can understand the difference; can choose the evil and reject the good; or we are at liberty to choose the good and repudiate the evil. The choice is our own act; the praise, the blame our own. We may be driven to choose between conflicting duties; never obliged to choose between criminal acts, or to act criminally at all. We may be virtuous or vicious; range ourselves on the side of heaven or hell; walk with the wise, or choose to be the companions of fools. Do we regard aright this fearful responsibility? Do we live as if thus distinguished from the rest of the terrene creation?
II. A becoming resolution. I will praise Thee. Let us not forget that we have much to praise God for. He is our Maker, He has blessed us with existence, and it will not be His fault if that blessing be turned into a curse. He it is that has so long held our souls in life. He has rightly framed us. He has endowed us with reason, He has favoured us with health, He has provided for our comfort, and supplied our ever-recurring necessities. We should praise Him for His marvellous wisdom, skill, power, and benevolence in thus building our house of clay; and endowing us with such mental powers, and for putting us into such social relations with each other, and in blessing us with such astounding spiritual possibilities for time and eternity; fully meeting and providing for the wants of our fallen spiritual natures as He has done also for the physical. We should praise Him for opening up to us through Jesus Christ His Son all the stores of Divine wisdom and knowledge, and giving us through Him free and constant access, the fulness of the Godhead, the unsearchable riches, the riches of His grace, the treasures of His love, and the immensity and eternity of His love. (Thomas Lord.)
The growth and perfection of the natural mans body and mind
I. The progress of mans natural and intellectual life from its first principles to maturity.
II. Practical lessons.
1. Here, then, you will find, if you have hearts to perceive, overwhelming proofs of the power, the providence, the wisdom, and the goodness of God.
2. If God has made these wonderful provisions for the formation and growth, the perfection and happiness of man; if He has endowed him with talents for comprehending the excellence of the work and the glory of its Maker, with a principle of self-action, deliberation, and choice of measures, man is bound to employ his parts and properties of body and mind with a special regard to Gods glory, as the main end and purpose of His own creation.
3. The formation, increase, and maturity of our bodily parts and intellectual faculties, the provisions that are made for their sustenance and development, and the wondrous processes by which they attain to their measure of perfection are strong presumptions of the truth of what the Scriptures teach us of the resurrection of the body: and may be considered as a pledge and assurance that this portion of Gods counsels and prophecies will be fulfilled. (Bishop Bethell.)
Man fearfully made
1. The expression imports the dignity of man in comparison with other creatures in this lower world. Man is so made that the sight of him impresses a terror on the beasts of the earth. Many of these are superior to man in strength and activity; and, were it not for this dread of man which is impressed on them, our life would be a state of anxiety and terror. Now, if God has given us dominion over the beasts of the earth, we ought to exercise it with justice and humanity. And if man is made superior to the beasts, he should conduct himself in a manner becoming his natural superiority. Reason is the dignity of man. Then only we maintain our dignity when we act as reasonable beings. If passion and appetite triumph over reason, we lose our superiority to the beast, and become as the horse or mule, which has no understanding.
2. We are fearfully made, as our frame demonstrates the power, wisdom, and presence of God. Such a wonderful composition as man could not be the effect of chance. It must be the work of an infinite, independent, all-wise Creator. And God demands, will ye not tremble at My presence? Ye have a revolting and a rebellious heart. But we need not go out of ourselves. Shall we not tremble at His presence, when we see Him around us, and feel Him within us? He is not far from every one of us. Shall not His excellency make us afraid? Let us fear, love, and obey Him. This is our whole duty.
3. We are fearfully made, as the Creator has impressed upon us evident marks of our immortality and accountableness. In the present state we find ourselves capable of progress and improvement: but we never rise to the perfection to which, in a longer space, we might attain. Must there not, then, be another state in which we may reach the perfection of which our nature is capable, but which is unattainable here?
4. In respect of our frailty. Such is the tenderness of our frame, that in this rough and dangerous world in which we live, we are always exposed to casualties and wounds, diseases and death. It may, therefore, with much propriety be said, we are fearfully made. Let religion possess our hearts, and peace will attend our path, and hope will brighten our prospect. We may take pleasure in infirmities, for the power of Christ will rest upon us. For us to live will be Christ, and to die will be gain. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The fabric of the human body
Wonderful as a piece of architecture, as Solomons Temple was, the fabric of the human body is far more wonderful and far more exquisite in its beauty. It is passing strange that while men can be passionate enthusiasts in the matter of being collectors and students of moths, of first editions of books, or even of postage stamps, such vast numbers of them are content to remain in ignorance of that cabinet of marvels which is nearer to them than anything else, which they carry about with them everywhere, and upon the well-being of which depends not only so much of their comfort, but also the highest effectiveness of their lives. (R. G. A. Bennets, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made] The texture of the human body is the most complicated and curious that can be conceived. It is, indeed, wonderfully made; and it is withal so exquisitely nice and delicate, that the slightest accident may impair or destroy in a moment some of those parts essentially necessary to the continuance of life; therefore, we are fearfully made. And God has done so to show us our frailty, that we should walk with death, keeping life in view; and feel the necessity of depending on the all-wise and continual superintending care and providence of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am fearfully and wonderfully made; thy infinite power and wisdom, manifested in the rare and curious structure of mans body, doth fill me with wonder and astonishment, and with the dread of thy majesty.
Marvellous are thy works; both in the lesser world, man, and in the greater.
My soul knoweth right well; I am well assured, both by thy word, and by the contemplation and study of thy works, to which I have much addicted myself, that they are wonderful, although I do not so accurately understand all the particulars of them as I would do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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
Ps 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 l, as the word may be rendered, that he is in various surprising instances a wonder of nature; see
Isa 45:9. 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, Isa 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 Ps 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” m, 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 Ps 111:2; 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.
l “confitebor tibi”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; “confiteor”, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Michaelis. m “tremendis modis separatus sum”, Cocceius; so Gussetius, p. 676, 677.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(14) For I am . . .Literally, because I am fearfully separated or distinguished (see Note on Psa. 26:7; Psa. 40:5), which might mean separated from the womb, i.e., born. (Comp. Gal. 1:15; Psa. 22:10.) Or if the reference is national rather than individual, it would imply, as so frequently, the choice of Israel by Jehovah in distinction to other races.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made: marvellous [are] thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.
Ver. 14. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made ] Mirificatus sum mirabilibus operibus tuis, saith Montanus; neither can I wonder enough at thy workmanship. The greatest miracle in the world is man; in whose very body (how much more in his soul!) are miracles enough (between head and feet) to fill a volume. Austin complaineth that men much wonder at high mountains of the earth, huge waves of the sea, deep falls of rivers, the vastness of the ocean, the motions of the stars, et relinquunt seipsos nec mirantur, but wonder not at all at their wonderful selves. Galen, a profane physician, writing of the excellent parts of man’s body, and coming to speak of the double motion of the lungs, could not choose but sing a hymn to that God, whosoever he were, that was author of so excellent and admirable a piece of work, Fernel. de abdit, rerum causis.
And that my soul knoweth right well
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
fearfully and wonderfully. Hebrew = fears and wonders. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for the feelings produced by the works.
my soul = myself. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Gods Thoughts and Ours
Psa 139:14-24
Gods creative power, Psa 139:14-18. The psalmist goes back to the beginning of life and describes the weaving of our physical nature. Here we may discover a suggestive analogy; for the Church, which is the Body of Christ, has been wrought in secret from its earliest beginnings, and its development continues preparatory to the manifestation in complete beauty and glory at the Lords coming. When He shall be manifested, we shall be manifested with Him in glory, Col 3:1-4. Remember, also, that the Christ-life in our hearts is subject to the same secret processes.
The psalm closes with the saints antagonism to evil, Psa 139:19-24. The more they meditate on the precious thoughts of God, the more they desire to be freed from the tyranny of evil, whether it shows itself in the ways of evil men or in the inward evil of the heart. Our one cry should be that God would lead us in the way, which is based on eternal principles and which winds ever upward from the lowland valleys, where we have dwelt too long, to those glorious uplands, where God Himself is Sun.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
for I am fearfully: Gen 1:26, Gen 1:27
marvellous: Psa 92:4, Psa 92:5, Psa 104:24, Psa 111:2, Job 5:9, Rev 15:3
right well: Heb. greatly
Reciprocal: Gen 2:7 – formed man Job 10:10 – poured Job 31:15 – did not one fashion us in the womb Psa 98:1 – for he Psa 119:73 – Thy hands Ecc 11:5 – nor Mar 7:37 – were Luk 9:43 – amazed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 139:14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made Thy infinite wisdom and power, manifested in the singular and curious structure of mans body, fill me with wonder and astonishment, and with the dread of thy Majesty. Marvellous are thy works Both in the lesser world, man, and in the greater; and that my soul knoweth right well I am well assured, both by thy word, and by the contemplation and study of thy works, that they are wonderful, although I do not so accurately understand them in all their parts as I wish to do.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
139:14 I will praise thee; for I am {i} fearfully [and] wonderfully made: marvellous [are] thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.
(i) Considering your wonderful work in forming me, I cannot but praise you and fear your mighty power.