Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:15
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
15. my substance ] R.V. my frame, lit. my bones or skeleton.
in secret ] i.e. in the womb ( Psa 139:13).
curiously wrought ] i.e. fashioned with skill and care. ( Curious = Lat. curiosus, ‘wrought with care.’ Cp. Exo 28:8, “the curious girdle of the ephod,” R.V. “the cunningly woven band.”) The word which means literally woven or embroidered with threads of different colours, is applied by a natural metaphor to the complex and intricate formation of the body.
in the lowest parts of the earth ] In the womb, as dark and mysterious as the nether world. The formation of the body is meant, and there is no reference to the doctrine of the pre-existence of souls, which is found in Wis 8:20 ; cp. Verg. Aen. vi. 713 ff., 884. See Schultz, O.T. Theology, Vol. ii. p. 251, E.T.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My substance was not hid from thee – Thou didst see it; thou didst understand it altogether, when it was hidden from the eyes of man. The word substance is rendered in the margin, strength or body. The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, the Arabic, and Luther render it, my bone, or my bones. The word properly means strength, and then anything strong. Another form of the word, with different pointing in the Hebrew, means a bone, so called from its strength. The allusion here is to the bodily frame, considered as strong, or as that which has strength. Whatever there was that entered into and constituted the vigor of his frame, the psalmist says, was seen and known by God, even in its commencement, and when most feeble. Its capability to become strong – feeble as it then was – could not even at that time be concealed or hidden from the view of God.
When I was made in secret – In the womb; or, hidden from the eye of man. Even then thine eye saw me, and saw the wondrous process by which my members were formed.
And curiously wrought. – Literally, embroidered. The Hebrew word – raqam – means to deck with color, to variegate. Hence, it means to variegate a garment; to weave with threads of various colors. With us the idea of embroidering is that of working various colors on a cloth by a needle. The Hebrew word, however, properly refers to the act of weaving in various threads – as now in weaving carpets. The reference here is to the various and complicated tissues of the human frame – the tendons, nerves, veins, arteries, muscles, as if they had been woven, or as they appear to be curiously interweaved. No work of tapestry can be compared with this; no art of man could weave together such a variety of most tender and delicate fibres and tissues as those which go to make up the human frame, even if they were made ready to his hand: and who but God could make them? The comparison is a most beautiful one; and it will be admired the more, the more man understands the structure of his own frame.
In the lowest parts of the earth – Wrought in a place as dark, as obscure, and as much beyond the power of human observation as though it had been done low down beneath the ground where no eye of man can penetrate. Compare the notes at Job 28:7-8.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 139:15-16
My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret.
Daily growth
God, being one, the author of nature as of grace, worketh harmoniously in both His kingdoms. And as in other ways, so in this: in both He createth and hath created by a single act; in both He carrieth on His work, silently yet in majesty. God created us, gave us life once, and then preserves it. Men grow in stature (blessed are they if in wisdom, too), they know not how; they eat, they drink, they sleep, are nourished, they know not how; and so day by day, and year by year, pass through the stages of life, through childhood, youth, to manhood, and mature years. So should it be in our re-creation. In Holy Baptism He re-creates us in His own image; passes His hand upon us, puts the first germ of spiritual life within us, to grow, be nourished, expand, flower, bear fruit, until it take into itself all our old nature, and we become wholly new. Fearfully indeed and wonderfully are we made; a marvel to the blessed angels and to ourselves. Strange, through what variety of accidents, griefs, joys, terrors, fears, death, life, His encircling providence girding us round shall have fenced in our way; and He who has all creation at His command shall have made all creation, good and bad, great and small, natural and moral, the holiness of angels and men and the malice of Satan, work together to the salvation of His elect. And this amazing everlasting work is going on continually. Which day by day were fashioned. It is the very marvellousness of Gods works in nature, in the Church, in each single soul, that they go on so noiselessly. Axe and hammer are not heard, but the house of the Lord is raised without hands. Day by day we rise, and night by night tie down, and see not, except rarely, the growth of others or our own. Did we make ourselves, we might well be concerned that we see not what we are becoming; now we may trust that, although in secret, still we are being fashioned into a vessel fit for the Masters use. Still, although we know not where we are, how much has been, or is being, wrought in us; what our progress, we must know that something is being wrought. We may not be conscious that we are growing in grace, but we must be that we are acting under grace. We may not see how direr our path is (that we shall see as it becomes straighter), but if we are moving upward we must make efforts, and feel them. Pray we for the grace of God to do each single act, as He shall will, to His glory, and He will lead us whither as yet we know not. But although God forms us day by day, yet are there, from time to time, seasons of larger growth, as in nature so in grace. God, in His mercy, gives us fresh starting points in our Christian race. Some such most of us perhaps have passed; too many, it is to be feared, have wasted. Such are childhoods earliest trials. The bitter fruits we have felt in ourselves from some one sin of childhood, some neglect of Gods loud warning or His call, may make us sorrowfully estimate the deep value of such calls, had we obeyed. Such periods, again, when used aright, are Holy Confirmation and the first Communion. Yea, so full is this of the richness of Gods treasure, that thoughtful persons have said that none ever went far astray whose first Communion was diligently prepared for, and received and treasured holily. And when these and other seasons have been wasted, God in His mercy visits us anew, but mostly in an austere form. A mighty and strong wind must rend the rock of our stony heart before the Lord ere He can speak to us in the still small voice. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. My substance was not hid from thee] atsmi, my bones or skeleton.
Curiously wrought] rukkamti, embroidered, made of needlework. These two words, says Bishop Horsley, describe the two principal parts of which the human body is composed; the bony skeleton, the foundation of the whole; and the external covering of muscular flesh, tendons, veins, arteries, nerves, and skin; a curious web of fibres. On this passage Bishop Lowth has some excellent observations: “In that most perfect hymn, where the immensity of the omnipresent Deity, and the admirable wisdom of the Divine Artificer in framing the human body, are celebrated, the poet uses a remarkable metaphor, drawn from the nicest tapestry work: –
When I was formed in secret;
When I was wrought, as with a needle,
in the lowest parts of the earth.
“He who remarks this, (but the man who consults Versions only will hardly remark it,) and at the same time reflects upon the wonderful composition of the human body, the various implication of veins, arteries, fibres, membranes, and the ‘inexplicable texture’ of the whole frame; will immediately understand the beauty and elegance of this most apt translation. But he will not attain the whole force and dignity, unless he also considers that the most artful embroidery with the needle was dedicated by the Hebrews to the service of the sanctuary; and that the proper and singular use of their work was, by the immediate prescript of the Divine law, applied in a certain part of the high priest’s dress, and in the curtains of the tabernacle, Ex 28:39; Ex 26:36; Ex 27:16; and compare Eze 16:10; Eze 13:18. So that the psalmist may well be supposed to have compared the wisdom of the Divine Artificer particularly with that specimen of human art, whose dignity was through religion the highest, and whose elegance (Ex 35:30-35) was so exquisite, that the sacred writer seems to attribute it to a Divine inspiration.”
In the lowest parts of the earth.] The womb of the mother, thus expressed by way of delicacy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
My substance; or, My bone, as the LXX. and others render the word. And bone may be here taken collectively for bones, as is usual in such words, or for the whole fabric of the bones And the bones may be very fitly mentioned here, because they are inward and invisible, as being covered with skin, and flesh, and sinews. Or the bones may be put synecdochically for the whole body, as being the most substantial part of it, as they are Psa 35:10.
In secret; in the dark vault of my mothers womb.
Curiously wrought, Heb. embroidered; exquisitely composed of bones, and muscles, and sinews, and veins, and arteries, and other parts, all framed with such wonderful skill, that even heathens, upon the contemplation of all the parts of mans body, and how excellently they were framed, both for beauty and use, have broken forth into pangs of admiration and adoration of the Creator of man, as Galen particularly did.
In the lowest parts of the earth; or, as it were in the lowest parts of the earth. So there is only an ellipsis of the note of similitude, which is very frequent in Scripture, as hath been often said and proved. In a place as secret and remote from human eyes as the lowest parts of the earth are, to wit, in my mothers womb. And so what is said in the former clause is repeated in this in other words.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret,…. Or “my bone” n; everyone of his bones, which are the substantial parts of the body, the strength of it; and so some render it “my strength” o; those, though covered with skin and flesh yet, being done by the Lord himself, were not hid from him; nor the manner of their production and growth, which being done in secret is a secret to men; for they know not how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child, Ec 11:5; but God does;
[and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth; or formed in my mother’s womb, as the Targum, and so Jarchi, like a curious piece of needlework or embroidery, as the word p signifies; and such is the contexture of the human body, and so nicely and curiously are all its parts put together, bones, muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, and fibres, as exceed the most curious piece of needlework, or the finest embroidery that ever was made by the hands of men; and all this done in the dark shop of nature, in the “ovarium”, where there is no more light to work by than in the lowest parts of the earth. The same phrase is used of Christ’s descent into this world, into the womb of the virgin, where his human nature was curiously wrought by the finger of the blessed Spirit, Eph 4:9.
n “os meum”, V. L. Vatablus, Gejerus, “ossa mea”, Piscator; “apparatio ossium meorum”, Cocceius. o “Robur meum”, Tigurine version; “vis mea”, Junius Tremellius. p “velut opere phrygio effingerer”, Tigurine version “velut acupictur sum”, Grotius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. My strength was not hid from thee That nothing is hid from God David now begins to prove from the way in which man is at first formed, and points out God’s superiority to other artificers in this, that while they must have their work set before their eyes before they can form it, he fashioned us in our mother’s womb. It is of little importance whether we read my strength or my bone, though I prefer the latter reading. He next likens the womb of the mother to the lowest caverns or recesses of the earth. Should an artizan intend commencing a work in some dark cave where there was no light to assist him, how would he set his hand to it? in what way would he proceed? and what kind of workmanship would it prove? (213) But God makes the most perfect work of all in the dark, for he fashions man in mother’s womb. The verb רקם, rakam, which means weave together, (214) is employed to amplify and enhance what the Psalmist had just said. David no doubt means figuratively to express the inconceivable skill which appears in the formation of the human body. When we examine it, even to the nails on our fingers, there is nothing which could be altered, without felt inconveniency, as at something disjointed or put out of place; and what, then, if we should make the individual parts the subject of enumeration? (215) Where is the embroiderer who — with all his industry and ingenuity — could execute the hundredth part of this complicate and diversified structure? We need not then wonder if God, who formed man so perfectly in the womb, should have an exact knowledge of him after he is ushered into the world.
(213) “The figure,” says Walford, “is derived from the darkness and obscurity of caverns and other recesses of the earth.”
(214) “ רקם is ‘to embroider.’” — Phillips. Mant translates the verse thus: —
“
By all, but not by thee unknown, My substance grew, and, o’er it thrown, The fine-wrought web from nature’s loom, All wove in secret and in gloom.”
And after observing that the foetus is gradually formed and matured for the birth, like plants and flowers under ground, he adds — “The process is compared to that in a piece of work wrought with a needle, or fashioned in the loom: which, with all its beautiful variety of color, and proportion of figure, ariseth by degrees to perfection, under the hand of the artist, framed according to a pattern lying before him, from a rude mass of silk, or other materials. Thus, by the power and wisdom of God, and after a plan delineated in his book, is a shapeless mass wrought up into the most curious texture of nerves, veins, arteries, bones, muscles, membranes, and skin, most skilfully interwoven and connected with each other, until it becometh a body harmoniously diversified with all the limbs and lineaments of a man, not one of which at first appeared, any more than the figures were to be seen in the ball of silk. But then, which is the chief thing here insisted on by the Psalmist, whereas the human artificer must have the clearest light whereby to accomplish his task, the divine work-master seeth in secret, and effecteth all his wonders within the dark and narrow confines of the womb.” Bishop Lowth supposes that the full force and beauty of the metaphor in this passage will not be understood, unless it is perceived that the Psalmist alludes to the art of embroidery as consecrated by the Jews to sacred purposes, in decorating the garments of the priests and the curtains at the entrance of the tabernacle. “In that most perfect ode, Psa 139:0,” says he, “which celebrates the immensity of the omnipresent Deity, and the wisdom of the divine artificer in forming the human body, the author uses a metaphor derived from the most subtle art of Phrygian workmen:
‘
When I was formed in the secret place, W h en I was wrought with a needle in the depths of the earth.
Whoever observes this, (in truth he will not be able to observe it in the common translations,)and at the same time reflects upon the wonderful mechanism of the human body, the various amplifications of the veins, arteries, fibres, and membranes; the ‘indescribable texture’ of the whole fabric; may indeed feel the beauty and gracefulness of this well-adapted metaphor, but will miss much of its force and sublimity, unless he be apprised that the art of designing in needle-work was wholly dedicated to the use of the sanctuary, and by a direct precept of the divine law, chiefly employed in furnishing’ a part of the sacerdotal habits, and the veils for the entrance of the tabernacle. (Exo 28:39; Exo 26:36; Exo 27:16; compare Eze 16:10.) Thus the poet compares the wisdom of the divine artificer with the most estimable of human arts — that art which was dignified by being consecrated altogether to the use of religion; and the workmanship of which was so exquisite, that even the sacred writings seem to attribute it to a supernatural guidance. See Exo 35:30 ” — Lowth’s Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, volume 1.
(215) “ Que sera-ce donc quand on viendra a contempler par le menu chacune partie ?” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Substance.Aquila bones, LXX. and Vulg. bone, Symmachus strength. Perhaps, generally, body. But the common Hebrew word for bone differs only in the pointing.
In secret.Comp. sch. Eum. 665.
Curiously wrought.From the use of the verb in Exo. 26:36; Exo. 27:16, it plainly refers to some kind of tapestry work, but whether of the nature of weaving or embroidery is matter of controversy. The English sufficiently suggests the figure.
In the lowest parts of the earth.This figurative allusion to the womb is intended no doubt to heighten the feeling of mystery attaching to birth. There may also be a covert allusion to the creation from dust as Sir. 40:1, From the day that they go out of their mothers womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all things. This allusion falls in with the view which meets us in other parts of the Old Testament, that the creation of Adam is repeated at every birth (Job. 33:6, and see above, Psa. 139:13).
Others, since the expression lowest places of the earth is used of the unseen world (Psa. 63:9; comp. Psa. 86:13), see here a confirmation of the view that the state before birth and after death are in this poem regarded as the dark void of night, with all the recesses of which, however, God is acquainted. (Comp. the expressions Womb of Shel, Belly of hell, Jon. 2:2; Sir. 51:5.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15, 16. Substance Literally, My strength; referring to the bones, or osseous system, as the solid basis of muscular strength. Their growth is a mystery. Ecc 11:5.
Made in secret “Made” is the same word here as in Gen 1:26, and the mediate making here is no less a mystery and the work of God than the immediate creative making there.
Curiously wrought Literally, embroidered. Here is the variegated network of the human frame referred to.
Lowest parts of the earth A delicate description corresponding to the “in secret,” just mentioned. The idea, not the word, is that of a sheol of darkness. Psa 63:9. Perhaps it has also a pointing to “the dust of the ground,” Gen 2:7.
My substance The word denotes something rolled up, as a ball, literally, my infolded, or undeveloped substance.
Thy book A figure conveying the minute accuracy of divine knowledge.
All my members Hebrew, all of them. There is no better way of explaining this obscure passage than by referring the suffix pronoun them, (in , kullam,) to the parts of that “substance,” or threads of that rolled up ball, just mentioned. Our version has it “members,” which is the idea, though not a translation.
Which in continuance were fashioned Literally, During the days when they were fashioned.
When as yet there was none of them Hebrew, And not one of them, or, not one amongst them. That is, not one member of the complicated arrangement failed, or was omitted. All was accomplished as it had been written in God’s book. The descriptions of Psa 139:13-16 belong to a region of thought on human existence the most mysterious and difficult, whether viewed in the light of physiology or theology. The student in church history will at once recall the controversy on “traducianism” and “creationism,” and will observe the leaning of the psalmist toward the latter. The statements are as delicately and beautifully given in poetry as they are true to science. While the laws of antenatal physiology, as guarding the species, are admirably recognised, the presiding forethought of the Divine Creator, stamping individuality and adjusting it to a graciously proposed destiny, is equally confessed. The subject belongs to the abstrusest domain of theological anthropology, and the passage stands as a perpetual rebuke of the shameless atheism of modern evolutionists. See Lecture vii of Bishop Alexander, Bampton Lectures, 1876
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 139:15. Curiously wrought Bishop Lowth, speaking of images in the Hebrew poetry, taken from things sacred, has the following observation: “In that most perfect hymn, where the immensity of the Omnipresent Deity, and the admirable wisdom of the Divine Artificer in framing the human body, are celebrated, the poet uses a remarkable metaphor, drawn from the nicest tapestry work:
When I was formed in secret; When I was wrought, as with a needle, in the lowest parts of the earth.
He who remarks this, (but the man who consults versions only will hardly ever remark it,) and at the same time reflects upon the wonderful composition of the human body, the various implication of veins, arteries, fibres, membranes, and ‘the inexplicable texture’ of the whole frame, will immediately understand the beauty and elegance of this most apt translation. But he will not attain the whole force and dignity, unless he also consider that the most artful embroidery with the needle was dedicated by the Hebrews to the service of the sanctuary; and that the proper and singular use of this work was, by the immediate prescript of the divine law, applied in a certain part of the high-priest’s dress, and in the curtains of the tabernacle. Exo 26:36; Exo 27:16; Exo 28:39 and compare Eze 13:18; Eze 16:10. So that the Psalmist may well be supposed to have compared the wisdom of the Divine Artificer, particularly with that specimen of human art, whose dignity was, through religion, the highest, and whose elegance (Exo 35:30-35.) was so exquisite, that the sacred writer seems to attribute it to a divine inspiration.” See his 8th Prelection. The expression, in the lowest parts of the earth, means no more, says Mr. Mudge, than low down in the earth, as opposed to that height of heaven, where God sits, and inspects and orders every thing. Some render the words, In these lower regions of the earth.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Ver. 15. My substance was not hid from thee ] Ossatio mea, id est, ossium et artuum compages, the structure of my bones and joints. But was not he a wise man (and yet wise enough otherwise) who, being asked upon his death bed what his soul was? seriously answered, that he knew not well; but he thought it was a great bone in the middle of his body? (Pemble’s Mischief of Ignorance).
Was not hid from thee
When I was made in secret
And curiously wrought
In the lowest parts of the earth
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
substance = frame. Hebrew = bone, as in Gen 2:21, Gen 2:22.
curiously = skillfully. Hebrew = embroidered. Compare Exo 26:1; Exo 35:35.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
substance: or, strength, or body
when I: Psa 139:13, Job 10:9-11, Exo 11:5
in the lowest: Psa 63:9, Eph 4:9
Reciprocal: Gen 2:7 – formed man Psa 22:9 – that took Psa 71:6 – thou art Ecc 11:5 – nor Eph 4:16 – fitly Col 2:19 – by
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 139:15. My substance was not hid from thee Hebrews , my bone. So the LXX. . Bone may be here taken collectively for bones, or, rather for the whole fabric of the bones: or may be put synecdochically for the whole body, as being the most substantial part of it, as in Psa 35:10. When I was made in secret In the womb; termed, in the next clause, in the lowest parts of the earth, in a place as remote from human eyes as the lowest parts of the earth are. He seems to allude to plants and flowers, the roots and first rudiments of which are formed under ground. And curiously wrought Exquisitely composed of bones, muscles, sinews, arteries, veins, nerves, and other parts, all framed with such wonderful skill, that even heathen, upon the contemplation of the human body in all its parts, and observing how admirably they were formed for beauty and use, have broken forth into admiration and adoration of the Creator. The word , here rendered, curiously wrought, signifies, embroidered, or, wrought with a needle. The process, says Dr. Horne, whereby the ftus is gradually formed and matured for the birth, is compared to that of a piece of work wrought with a needle, or fashioned in the loom; which, with its beautiful variety of colour, and proportion of figure, ariseth, by degrees, to perfection, under the hand of the artist.
Thus also Bishop Lowth, speaking of metaphors in the Hebrew poetry, taken from things sacred, observes, In that most perfect hymn, where the immensity of the Omnipresent Deity, and the admirable wisdom of the Divine Artificer, in framing the human body, are celebrated, the poet uses a remarkable metaphor drawn from the nicest tapestry work; When I was wrought as with a needle, &c. He who remarks this, and at the same time reflects on the wonderful composition of the human body, the various implication of veins, arteries, fibres, membranes, and the inexplicable texture of the whole frame, will immediately understand the beauty and elegance of this most apt expression. But he will not attain the whole force and dignity of it, unless he also considers that the most artful embroidery with the needle was dedicated, by the Hebrews, to the service of the sanctuary; and that the proper and singular use of this work was, by the immediate prescript of the divine law, applied in a certain part of the high- priests dress, and in the curtains of the tabernacle. So that the psalmist may well be supposed to have compared the wisdom of the Divine Artificer particularly with that specimen of human art, whose dignity was, through religion, the highest, and whose elegance was so exquisite, that the sacred writer seems to attribute it to a divine inspiration. Lowths Eighth Prelection.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought {k} in the lowest parts of the earth.
(k) That is, in my mother’s womb: which he compares to the inward parts of the earth.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
These verses stress selected features of God superintending the process of human fetal formation in the womb. The reference to "frame" means skeleton of bones. The "depths of the earth" is a figure of speech for the womb. When God was forming David in his mother’s womb he was as far from human view as if he were in the depths of the earth. His "unformed substance" is his embryo. The Lord’s book is the book of the living. David said God predetermined the length of his life before birth. In view of Psa 139:1-4, this probably included his activities as well.
God’s knowledge of all things actual and possible-His omniscience-does not mean mankind’s choices are only illusions. God knows what we will do, even though He gives us freedom to make decisions in some situations.
Psa 139:13-16 give strong testimony to the fact that human life begins at conception rather than at birth. This is a fact that should weigh heavily in the debate against abortion on demand.