Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:13
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
13. For it was thou that didst form my reins] Thou is emphatic. The connexion of thought expressed by for is not obvious; but it appears to give a reason for the intimate knowledge of which the preceding verses have spoken. ‘Thou knowest me, for Thou didst create me.’ Psa 139:14 will then be a parenthetical exclamation of adoring wonder. The transposition of Psa 139:13-14, proposed by some critics, removes the difficulty and gives a clearer connexion of thought, but poetry does not bind itself by forms of logic.
my reins ] The inmost seat of the emotions, which God ‘tries’ (Psa 7:9).
thou hast covered me ] Better, thou didst knit me together, with bones and sinews. Cp. Job 10:8-11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
13 18. God must know the Psalmist perfectly, for He ordered the first beginnings of his life, and foresaw all his destiny.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For thou hast possessed my reins – The word here rendered possessed means properly to set upright, to erect, and hence, the derivative of the verb is applied to a cane or reed, as being erect. Then the word means to found, to create, Gen 14:19, Gen 14:22 – as the heavens and the earth; and then, to get, to gain, to purchase, etc. Here the word seems to be used in its original sense, to make, create, etc. The idea is, not as in our translation, that God possessed or owned them but that he had made them, and that, therefore, he knew all about them. The word reins means literally the kidneys; and then, it comes to denote the inward part, the mind, the soul, the seat of the desires, affections, and passions. Jer 11:20. See Psa 7:9, note; Job 19:27, note. The meaning here is, that God had made him; that the innermost recesses of his being had been constituted as they are by God; and that, therefore, he must be able to see all that there is in the very depths of the soul, however it may be hidden from the eye of man.
Thou hast covered me in my mothers womb – The word here rendered cover means properly to interweave; to weave; to knit together, and the literal translation would be, Thou hast woven me in my mothers womb, meaning that God had put his parts together, as one who weaves cloth, or who makes a basket. So it is rendered by DeWette and by Gesenius (Lexicon). The original word has, however, also the idea of protecting, as in a booth or hut, woven or knit together – to wit, of boughs and branches. The former signification best suits the connection; and then the sense would be, that as God had made him – as he had formed his members, and united them in a bodily frame and form before he was born – he must be able to understand all his thoughts and feelings. As he was not concealed from God before he saw the light, so he could not be anywhere.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 139:13-18
For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mothers womb.
God as the Creator of man
I. He created man, who is a wonder to mans self (verses 13, 14).
II. He created man, who comes by the process of evolution (verses 15, 16). The oak is not less a Divine creation because it came out of the acorn, nor the acorn a less Divine production because it is composed of various substances of the earth: and man is not less the creation of God because he came by a process of evolution.
III. He created man, who appears by a Divine plan (verse 16). Everything in the universe, from the smallest to the largest, is constructed on a fixed and unalterable type. In truth, the whole creation existed in His mind in archetype millions of years before it took its present form. In Thy book, metaphorically, God is represented as having written a book; it is the book of an architect, full of plans. There are the plans of worlds and systems that have all been and are no more. The plans of all that now exist, and the plans of all that are yet to appear.
1. Because God works by method, we should study all His works as revelations of Himself.
2. Conformity to His methods should be the supreme aim of all our activities. Whatever we do out of keeping with His plans will come to ruin, and involve us in distress.
IV. He created man, who is capable of appreciating his thoughts (verses 17,18). Gods thoughts are indeed absolutely precious. They are original, all comprehensive without succession, infinitely beneficent, immutable, and essentially holy. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. Thou hast possessed my reins] As the Hebrews believed that the reins were the first part of the human fetus that is formed, it may here mean, thou hast laid the foundation of my being.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou hast possessed; or, thou dost possess; thou dwellest in them, thou art the Owner and Governor of them, and therefore must needs know them. Or,
thou hast formed, as some of the ancients and others render it.
My reins; the most inward and hidden part of the body, supposed also to be the seat of mens lusts and passions.
Thou hast covered me; either,
1. With that covering called the after-birth, wherein the infant is wrapped and preserved in the womb by the wonderful care of Divine Providence. Or,
2. With skin and flesh, as it is expressed, Job 10:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For thou hast possessed my reins,…. His thoughts and counsels, the reins being the seat of instruction and counsel; hence God is called the trier of the reins, and searcher of the hearts of the children of men; he is the possessor or master of their most secret thoughts, and thoroughly knows them; see Ps 7:9; they are also the seat of the affections, which are naturally sinful and inordinate, and set upon carnal and earthly things; but the Lord possesses and engrosses the affections of his people in the best sense, Ps 73:25; moreover the reins are the seat of lust, the bed in which it is conceived and brought forth, and God knows the first motions of it there; and that the imagination of the thought of man’s heart is evil continually, Ge 6:5;
thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb; with the secundine, or afterbirth, in which he carefully wrapped him, a proof of his knowledge of him, and care for him in the womb; or with skin and flesh he covered his bones with as they grew there; see Job 10:11; or the sense is, he protected and defended him in his embryo state, and when ripe for birth took him out from thence, and held him up ever since, Ps 22:9; he had his eye on him when no other eye could see him, not even his mother that bare him, and before ever he himself saw light. The Targum is,
“thou hast founded me in my mother’s womb.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The fact that man is manifest to God even to the very bottom of his nature, and in every place, is now confirmed from the origin of man. The development of the child in the womb was looked upon by the Israelitish Chokma as one of the greatest mysteries, Ecc 11:5; and here the poet praises this coming into being as a marvellous work of the omniscient and omnipresent omnipotence of God. here signifies condere ; and not: to cover, protect, as in Psa 140:8; Job 40:22, prop. to cover with network, to hedge in, but: to plait, interweave, viz., with bones, sinews, and veins, like in Job 10:11. The reins are made specially prominent in order to mark the, the seat of the tenderest, most secret emotions, as the work of Him who trieth the heart and the reins. The becomes in Psa 139:14 the : I give thanks unto Thee that I have wonderfully come into being under fearful circumstances, i.e., circumstances exciting a shudder, viz., of astonishment ( as in Psa 65:6). (= ) is the passive to , Psa 4:4; Psa 17:7. Hitzig regards (Thou hast shown Thyself wonderful), after the lxx, Syriac, Vulgate, and Jerome, as the only correct reading; but the thought which is thereby gained comes indeed to be expressed in the following line, Psa 139:14, which sinks down into tautology in connection with this reading. `otsem (collectively equivalent to , Ecc 11:5) is the bones, the skeleton, and, starting from that idea, more generally the state of being as a sum-total of elements of being. , without being necessarily a conjunction (Ew. 333, a), attaches itself to the suffix of . , “to be worked in different colours, or also embroidered,” of the system of veins ramifying the body, and of the variegated colouring of its individual members, more particularly of the inward parts; perhaps, however, more generally with a retrospective conception of the colours of the outline following the undeveloped beginning, and of the forming of the members and of the organism in general.
(Note: In the Talmud the egg of a bird or of a reptile is called , when the outlines of the developed embryo are visible in it; and likewise the mole ( mola ), when traces of human; organization can be discerned in it.)
The mother’s womb is here called not merely (cf. Aeschylus’ Eumenides, 665: , and the designation of the place where the foetus is formed as “a threefold darkness’ in the Koran, Sur. xxxix. 8), the e of which is retained here in pause (vid., Bttcher, Lehrbuch, 298), but by a bolder appellation , the lowest parts of the earth, i.e., the interior of the earth (vid., on Psa 63:10) as being the secret laboratory of the earthly origin, with the same retrospective reference to the first formation of the human body out of the dust of the earth, as when Job says, Job 1:21: “naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither” – , viz., , Sir. 40:1. The interior of Hades is also called in Jon 2:2, Sir. 51:5. According to the view of Scripture the mode of Adam’s creation is repeated in the formation of every man, Job 33:6, cf. Job 33:4. The earth was the mother’s womb of Adam, and the mother’s womb out of which the child of Adam comes forth is the earth out of which it is taken.
Psa 139:16 The embryo folded up in the shape of an egg is here called , from , to roll or wrap together (cf. glomus , a ball), in the Talmud said of any kind of unshapen mass (lxx , Symmachus ) and raw material, e.g., of the wood or metal that is to be formed into a vessel ( Chullin 25 a, to which Saadia has already referred).
(Note: Epiphanius, Haer, xxx. 31, says the Hebrew signifies the peeled grains of spelt or wheat before they are mixed up and backed, the still raw (only bruised) flour-grains – a signification that can now no longer be supported by examples.)
As to the rest, compare similar retrospective glances into the embryonic state in Job 10:8-12, 2 Macc. 7:22f. ( Psychology, S. 209ff., tr. pp. 247f.). On the words in libro tuo Bellarmine makes the following correct observation: quia habes apud te exemplaria sive ideas omnium, quomodo pictor vel sculptor scit ex informi materia quid futurum sit, quia videt exemplar . The signification of the future is regulated by , and becomes, as relating to the synchronous past, scribebantur . The days , which were already formed, are the subject. It is usually rendered: “the days which had first to be formed.” If could be equivalent to , it would be to be preferred; but this rejection of the praeform. fut. is only allowed in the fut. Piel of the verbs Pe Jod, and that after a Waw convertens, e.g., = , Nah 1:4 (cf. Caspari on Oba 1:11).
(Note: But outside the Old Testament it also occurs in the Pual, though as a wrong use of the word; vide my Anekdota (1841), S. 372f.)
Accordingly, assuming the original character of the in a negative signification, it is to be rendered: The days which were (already) formed, and there was not one among them, i.e., when none among them had as yet become a reality. The suffix of points to the succeeding , to which is appended as an attributive clause; is subordinated to this : cum non or nondum (Job 22:16) unus inter eos = unus eorum (Exo 14:28) esset. But the expression (instead of or ) remains doubtful, and it becomes a question whether the Ker (vid., on Psa 100:3), which stands side by side with the Chethb (which the lxx, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, the Targum, Syriac, Jerome, and Saadia follow), is not to be preferred. This , referred to , gives the acceptable meaning: and for it (viz., its birth) one among them (these days), without our needing to make any change in the proposed exposition down to . We decide in favour of this, because this does not, as , make one feel to miss any , and because the which begins Psa 139:17 connects itself to it by way of continuation. The accentuation has failed to discern the reference of to the following , inasmuch as it places Olewejored against . Hupfeld follows this accentuation, referring back to as a coil of days of one’s life; and Hitzig does the same, referring it to the embryos. But the precedence of the relative pronoun occurs in other instances also,
(Note: The Hebrew poet, says Gesenius ( Lehrgebude, S. 739f.), sometimes uses the pronoun before the thing to which it referred has even been spoken of. This phenomenon belongs to the Hebrew style generally, vid., my Anekdota (1841), S. 382.)
and is devoid of all harshness, especially in connection with , which directly signifies altogether (e.g., Isa 43:14).
It is the confession of the omniscience that is united with the omnipotence of God, which the poet here gives utterance to with reference to himself, just as Jahve says with reference to Jeremiah, Jer 1:5. Among the days which were preformed in the idea of God (cf. on , Isa 22:11; Isa 37:26) there was also one, says the poet, for the embryonic beginning of my life. The divine knowledge embraces the beginning, development, and completion of all things ( Psychology, S. 37ff., tr. pp. 46ff.). The knowledge of the thoughts of God which are written in the book of creation and revelation is the poet’s cherished possession, and to ponder over them is his favourite pursuit: they are precious to him, (after Psa 36:8), not: difficult of comprehension ( schwerbegreiflich, Maurer, Olshausen), after Dan 2:11, which would surely have been expressed by (Psa 92:6), more readily: very weighty ( schwergewichtig, Hitzig), but better according to the prevailing Hebrew usage: highly valued ( schwergewerthet), cara.
(Note: It should be noted that the radical idea of the verb, viz., being heavy (German schwer), is retained in all these renderings. – Tr.)
“Their sums” are powerful, prodigious (Psa 40:6), and cannot be brought to a summa summarum. If he desires to count them ( fut. hypothet. as in Psa 91:7; Job 20:24), they prove themselves to be more than the sand with its grains, that is to say, innumerable. He falls asleep over the pondering upon them, wearied out; and when he wakes up, he is still with God, i.e., still ever absorbed in the contemplation of the Unsearchable One, which even the sleep of fatigue could not entirely interrupt. Ewald explains it somewhat differently: if I am lost in the stream of thoughts and images, and recover myself from this state of reverie, yet I am still ever with Thee, without coming to an end. But it could only perhaps be interpreted thus if it were or . Hofmann’s interpretation is altogether different: I will count them, the more numerous than the sand, when I awake and am continually with Thee, viz., in the other world, after the awaking from the sleep of death. This is at once impossible, because cannot here, according to its position, be a perf. hypotheticum . Also in connection with this interpretation would be an inappropriate expression for “continually,” since the word only has the sense of the continual duration of an action or a state already existing; here of one that has not even been closed and broken off by sleep. He has not done; waking and dreaming and waking up, he is carried away by that endless, and yet also endlessly attractive, pursuit, the most fitting occupation of one who is awake, and the sweetest (cf. Jer 31:26) of one who is asleep and dreaming.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
13. For thou hast possessed my reins Apparently he prosecutes the same subject, though he carries it out somewhat farther, declaring that we need not be surprised at God’s knowledge of the most secret thoughts of men, since he formed their hearts and their reins. He thus represents God as sitting king in the very reins of man, as the center of his jurisdiction, and shows it ought to be no ground of wonder that all the windings and recesses of our hearts are known to him who, when we were inclosed in our mother’s womb, saw us as clearly and perfectly as if we had stood before him in the light of mid-day. This may let us know the design with which David proceeds to speak of man’s original formation, tits scope is the same in the verse which follows, where, with some ambiguity in the terms employed, it is sufficiently clear and obvious that David means that he had been fashioned in a manner wonderful, and calculated to excite both fear and admiration, (212) so that he breaks forth into the praises of God. One great reason of the carnal security into which we fall, is our not considering how singularly we were fashioned at first by our Divine Maker. From this particular instance David is led to refer in general to all the works of God, which are just so many wonders fitted to draw our attention to him. The true and proper view to take of the works of God, as I have observed elsewhere, is that which ends in wonder. His declaration to the effect that his soul should well know these wonders, which far transcend human comprehension, means no more than that with humble and sober application he would give his attention and talents to obtaining such an apprehension of the wonderful works of God as might end in adoring the immensity of his glory. The knowledge he means, therefore, is not that which professes to comprehend what, under the name of wonders, he confesses to be incomprehensible, nor of that kind which philosophers presumptuously pretend to, as if they could solve every mystery of God, but simply that religious attention to the works of God which excites to the duty of thanksgiving.
(212) “ Fearfully and wonderfully made Never was so terse and expressive a description of the physical conformation of man given by any human being. So fearfully are we made, that there is not an action or gesture of our bodies, which does not, apparently, endanger some muscle, vein, or sinew, the rupture of which would destroy either life or health. We are so wonderfully made, that our organization infinitely surpasses, in skill, contrivance, design, and adaptation of means to ends, the most curious and complicated piece of mechanism, not only ever executed ‘by art and man’s device, but ever conceived by the human imagination.” — Warner.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) For . . .The mystery of birth regarded as one of the greatest mysteries (see Ecc. 11:5), is a proof of Gods omniscience.
Possessed.The context seems to require formed, fashioned, as, according to Gesenius, in Deu. 32:6, (Authorised Version bought) (Comp. Gen. 14:19, where maker should be read for possessor.)
For reins see Psa. 16:7.
Covered me.Most critics render here didst weave me. (Comp. Job. 10:11.) But the usual sense of the word cover or protect, suits equally well. The prime thought is that every birth is a divine creation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13, 14. From God in universal space and material nature, the psalmist returns to contemplate God, in his own mysterious origin and personal being. The creative power and wisdom of God, operating according to his absolute knowledge of the formative atoms and occult laws of embryonic life, are a further mystery, and a ground of praise and thanksgiving.
Possessed The Hebrew will bear the meaning “formed;” it may also indicate possession and control.
Reins In Hebrew psychology, the soul or mind, as it relates to the power of acutest sensibility.
Covered It is more common, modernly, to translate the word woven, thou hast interweaved me, that is, with bones, sinews, nerves, muscles, vascular ducts, etc. But it is better here to take the usual rendering, “covered,” that is, sheltered, protected, which suits the idea of the extreme delicacy of the parts, as in Psa 140:7. See on Psa 139:15.
Fearfully wonderfully made The Niphal participial form of the word “fearfully” usually takes the sense of terrible, dreadful. Psa 45:4; Psa 65:5. There is no such word as wonderful or made in the original. The Hebrew word simply means, distinguished, equal to favoured, honoured. “I will praise thee, for I am fearfully distinguished,” namely, by my rank of being, and this amazing care and contrivance of God in my origination.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David now describes the creative power and providence of God and adds a prayer extolling the Lord and appealing for a just trial.
v. 13. For Thou hast possessed my reins, v. 14. I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, v. 15. My substance, v. 16. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, v. 17. How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! v. 18. If I should count them, v. 19. Surely Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, v. 20. For they speak against Thee wickedly, v. 21. Do not I hate them, O Lord, v. 22. I hate them with perfect hatred, v. 23. Search me, O God, and know my heart, v. 24. and see if there be any wicked way in me,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Psa 139:13. Thou hast possessed my reins, &c. Or, Thou hast formed my reins; thou hast compacted me.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
Ver. 13. For thou hast possessed my reins ] The seat of mine affections. Thoughts kindle affections, and these cause thoughts to boil; they are causes one of another, and both well known to God. For who possesseth lands or houses, but he knoweth the right title and rooms thereof? saith an expositor.
Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb] But not from thine all-piercing eyes, though in so dark a place, and wrapt up in secundines .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 139:13-16
13For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
16Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
Psa 139:13
NASB, NKJV,
NRSVformed
TEV, NJB,
JPSOAcreated
REBfashioned
LXXpossessed
The verb (BDB 888, KB 1111, Qal perfect) normally means to buy but it is used of God’s creative activities several times (cf. Gen 14:19; Gen 14:22; Deu 32:6; Pro 8:22). Here it denotes God’s special, personal care in the formation of the human person. As He created Adam (Gen 2:8) and Eve (Gen 2:18; Gen 2:21-22) with special care and purpose, so too, each human made in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26-27). Humans are special!
inward parts This Hebrew term (BDB 480) denotes the lower viscera of mankind (esp. kidneys), which is a Hebraic idiom for a person’s emotions and will. This creation by God implies prenatal formation (cf. Jer 1:5) of the person and his personality.
You did weave me in my mother’s womb The term weave (BDB 697 II, KB 754 II) is literally the rare Hebrew word knit. It is found in only a few places.
1. Qal – Psa 139:13
2. Niphal – Pro 8:23 (possibly related term)
3. Poel – Job 10:11
The same root (KB 754 III) is translated cover (cf. Lam 3:43-44). The word is rare and ambiguous but from the context the meaning is clear. Hebrew parallelism is very helpful in interpreting these rare terms.
Psa 139:14-16 The UBS Handbook (p. 1130) says The translation of Psa 139:14-16 is full of difficulties, and very few commentators or translators are dogmatic about the exact meaning of the Masoretic text. This being so, no doctrine that is not clearly taught in other Scriptures should be based on these verses. ANE poetry is slippery stuff. It is for emotional impact and does not lend itself to grammatical and lexical analysis. Remember, context, context, context is crucial. Hebrew parallelism is also a better guide than cognate Semitic roots! See Special Topic: Hebrew Poetry .
Psa 139:14 I give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made The Septuagint and the RSV make God, not man, the object of this statement. Today’s English Version, following the Dead Sea Scrolls, seems to agree with this understanding. The MT has I.
The two terms
1. fearfully – BDB 431, KB 432, Niphal participle
2. wonderfully – BDB 811, KB 930, Nipahl perfect
If these two terms refer to God, then they are parallel with the next line of poetry, wonderful are Your works (Psa 139:14 b).
The JPSOA translates this strophe (Psa 139:13-16) as if it refers to God’s creation of a human and not a description of God in Psa 139:14.
Psa 139:15
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV, JPSOAframe
TEVbones
REBbody
The Hebrew noun (BDB 787, KB 870) usually means might (cf. Deu 8:17). Only here does BDB have bones (see NIDOTTE, vol. 3, pp. 499-500), although the root is used of the bones of a sacrifice (cf. Num 9:12) or human bones (cf. Num 19:16; Num 19:18). The sense here is human skeleton.
When I was made in secret There are several understandings of this verse:
1. relates the term secret (BDB 712) and the parallel phrase, in the depths of the earth, another name for Sheol (cf. Psa 63:9; Job 14:13; Job 40:13; Isa 45:19)
2. relates this to the creation of Adam from the dust (cf. Gen 2:7) and our creation from the dust being personified as the depths of the earth (cf. Sir 40:1)
3. another possibility is to use the hiddenness of the womb and the hiddenness of the nether world as poetic imagery, not theological assertions
NASB, NKJVskillfully wrought
NRSVintricately woven
TEVput together
NJBbeing formed
JPSOAshaped
REBformed
The Hebrew root, (BDB 955), means variegated. The Pual is found only here. The NRSV is literal. But the root could refer to kneading clay or dough (AB, p. 294; TEV, NJB, JPSOA, REB).
Psa 139:16 Your eyes The OT often uses anthropomorphic language to describe God. Humans have no other language to use but it is always only analogous. See SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD DESCRIBED AS HUMAN (ANTHROPOMORPHISM) .
unformed substance This hapax legomenon has also been understood in two different ways:
1. of fetal development which is known by God (cf. Psa 139:13-16 a; AV, RV, NEV, JPSOA
2. of all of life being known by God, even before birth (cf. LXX, REV, JB, NASV, TEV), based on the contextual link with Psa 139:16 b
The unformed (BDB 166) is from the root to roll up (cf. 2Ki 2:8) but here in the Aramaic sense of unfinished vessel. AB (p. 295) translates it as life stages, from Ugaritic root.
NASBordained
NKJV, REBfashioned
NRSV, JPSOAformed
TEVallotted
NJBinscribed
The verb (BDB 427, KB 428; Owens, Analytical Key to the OT, calls it a Pual perfect, while OT Parsing Guide calls it a Qal passive) denotes the creations of a potter (cf. Jer 1:5). This verb, like so many in this Psalm, denotes God’s sovereign acts and will.
in Your book were all written This refers to the two books mentioned in Dan 7:10 and Rev 20:12 : (1) the Book of Life (cf. Exo 32:32; Psa 69:25; Luk 10:20) or (2) the Book of Remembrances (cf. Psa 56:8; Mal 3:16). See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TWO BOOKS OF GOD .
YHWH knows our lives, thoughts, and deeds before they are done in time (Rev 13:8).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
covered = woven me together. Compare Job 10:8, Job 10:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 139:13-18
Psa 139:13-18
OMNIPOTENCE
“For thou didst form my inward parts:
Thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:
Wonderful are thy works;
And that my soul knoweth right well.
My frame was not hidden from thee,
When I was made in secret,
And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance;
And in thy book were they all written,
Even the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was none of them.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me,
O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand:
When I awake, I am still with thee.”
“Thou didst form … me … in my mother’s womb” (Psa 139:13). In this division, “The psalmist praises the miracle of conception and birth as a marvelous work of the omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God.
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psa 139:14). There is no more wonderful work of God in the whole universe than a human being. Each human body has trillions of cells falling into some five classifications, and recent research into the mysteries of the DNA, the effective element in conception, has added almost incredible dimensions to the wonder which men already had identified, but which is a million times more wonderful than anyone ever dreamed it was until recent discoveries by such noted medical doctors as Dr. Elton Stubblefield, a director of such research at the M. D. Anderson Hospital in Houston.
He recently declared in a public address that each cell (and, remember there are trillions of them) at the moment of conception is supplied with a library of one quarter of a million words commanding that cell exactly how many times to multiply, and when to die. That is the reason one’s nose is not as long as that of an elephant! In view of this knwoledge, and it is only beginning to be unraveled and deciphered, one must admit that the words that stand at the head of these two paragraphs in Psa 139:14 are the greatest understatement on earth.
“The lowest parts of the earth” (Psa 139:15), “depths of the earth” in the RSV. “This is an idiom for the darkness of the womb and does not carry any mythological implications. Kidner agreed with this, writing that, “`Depths of the earth’ is a metaphor for the deepest concealment, in the hiddenness of the womb. Psa 139:15 b here is connected closely in thought with Psa 139:13 b where we have `knit together.’ Here the words `curiously’ or `intricately wrought’, take the image a bit further, suggesting the complex patterns and colors of the weaver or the embroiderer.
“In thy book they were written … even the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psa 139:16). This should be read in connection with the statement of Dr. Stubblefield quoted under Psa 139:14. Another pertinent reference is that of Heb 9:27, “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment.” There is nothing accidental about man’s mortality. If it depended merely upon chance, now and then, there would be someone to live a thousand years, but it is not a matter of “chance” at all. It is the ordained will of God for men to die.
“This passage declares that the psalmist’s days were preordained by God and visible to Him long before they had actual existence.
Miller’s warning against any unscriptural view of rigid fatalism falsely based upon these words should be noted. “Any such view that robs man of his personal responsibility is biblically untenable.
Concerning the foreknowledge of God, it has the same relationship to human events that the knowledge of them after those events has. Thus, a man’s knowledge of “what happened yesterday” is in no way related to those events as cause. In the same way God’s knowledge of “what will happen tomorrow” is unrelated to those events as cause.
“How precious thy thoughts … unto me” (Psa 139:17). “David moves on in this verse from contemplating the nakedness of his own thoughts before God to the consideration of God’s innumerable thoughts toward him.” It should be noted here that Kidner discerned the Davidic authorship of the psalm.
“More in number than the sand” (Psa 139:18). Read this verse in the light of the cellular statistics of a human body under Psa 139:14, above. Multiply 7,000,000,000,000 cells (the estimated number in a single human body) times 250,000 words for each cell.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 139:13. Reins is from a word that signifies the mind or controlling faculty. It means that the Lord had taken possession of the Psalmist and was guiding his thoughts and actions. Not that he was deprived of personal responsibility in his conduct, but all of his faculties had been the work of the Lord. That is why he credits the Lord with all of his possibilities, even back to the time he was in his mother’s womb.
Psa 139:14. Made has no original as a separate word. Fearfully is from the same Hebrew word as “reverend” in Psa 111:9, and I ask the reader to consult my comments at that place. Wonderfully is from PALAH and Strong defines it, “to distinguish.” The whole clause means that God respected and honored man by creating him a distinct living being, different from all others in the whole universe. For this great reason the Psalmist felt constrained to praise God thereby expressing his appreciation.
Psa 139:15. Secret and lowest part are used to denote that which is invisible to or unknown by the human mind. But although unknown to finite beings, God knew all about him and how to give distinction as described in the way of strength (here called substance) necessary to meet the purposes of the Creator.
Psa 139:16. God’s foreknowledge is infinite and he has performed his works after his own will. He intended to make man just as he is made, and that his substance (strength) would be unperfect; that is, that man was to have the frailties of a human creature and not the absolute perfection of a divine one. And after making man in that form and nature, He has made his requirements of that creature accordingly. That is why the Psalmist made the statement in ch. 103:14.
Psa 139:17. The thoughts of God were precious to David because he knew that they made all due allowances for the frailties of humanity.
Psa 139:18. A familiar church song says, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one.” According to David that would be almost out of the question. Even some of those blessings came when he was asleep, for he said that when he awoke he realized he was still with God; that is, he had been receiving the favors of God during sleep.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
For thou: Job 10:9-12
covered me: Psa 22:9, Psa 22:10, Psa 71:6, Job 31:15, Isa 44:2, Isa 46:3, Jer 1:5
Reciprocal: Job 3:11 – when I came Psa 100:3 – it is he Psa 139:15 – when I Isa 44:24 – and he Rom 1:20 – from the 1Co 12:17 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 139:13. Thou hast possessed Or, thou dost possess, my reins The most inward and hidden part of my body, supposed also to be the seat of mens lusts and passions: thou dwellest in them, thou art the owner and governor of them, and therefore must needs know them. My most secret thoughts and intentions, and the innermost recesses of my soul, are subject to thy control. Thou hast covered me in my mothers womb With skin and flesh, as it is expressed Job 10:11. Dr. Waterland renders this verse, Thou hast formed my reins; thou hast compacted me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
139:13 For thou hast {h} possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
(h) You have made me in all parts and therefore must know me.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. God’s omnipotence 139:13-18
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The word "For" indicates that what follows explains what precedes. Since God creates people, He knows them intimately, and He is always with them. The idea of God creating David arose from Psa 139:11-12. Forming as a potter and knitting as a weaver describe the gestation process figuratively (Psa 139:13). "Thou" or "You" is again in the emphatic first position in the Hebrew text. David marveled at God’s amazing power in creating him by the embryonic process of fetal development.