Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

For you formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
My soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
When I was being made in secret,
Intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance,
In your book were written, every one of them,
The days that were formed for me,
When as yet there was none of them.
(Psalm 139:13-16 ESV).

It is so important to remember that we are creatures. “Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, [and not we ourselves] and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” (Psalm 100:3 ESV, footnote added). We are created beings. We did not create ourselves. We have not always existed. There was a time when we did not exist at all, then God brought us forth into existence by His own creative power. “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.“ There is mystery in God’s creation. “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works… when I was being made in secret.” So God is our Creator, and we are His creature. That is a profound and humbling thought. God made us simply by His own will, for His own purpose and pleasure, and by His own wisdom and design. “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” This Psalm shows in many ways how beautifully Sovereign the Lord GOD, YAHWEH, is over His creation of man. Of course, Jesus, being the Son of David and God in human flesh, is also prophesied in this Psalm. So it is all about Jesus, but applies just as well to us, who are the work of His hands. It causes me to be in awe of the One who “formed my inward parts” as well as “my frame.” And it is He who wrote beforehand in His book the details of each day, “when as yet there was none of them.”

Just as it is important to remember that we were created by God, we also need to remember that we did not cause ourselves to be born again, but it was only through the Sovereign will and power of God. "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfuits of his creatures." (James 1:18). "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," (1 Peter 1:3 ESV). This happened when we received Christ as our Life. "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13 ESV). "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and [here is our evangelistic call] gave us the ministry of reconciliation;..." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18).

My friends who believe in grace, are you new creatures in Christ by grace? Because if that is what we are, then we have been reconciled to God our Creator through His Son, and are now commissioned to minister this grace to others by His Spirit's work through us. And for all this I praise and adore Yahweh!