“GOD MADE US”
Psalm 139:13-24
Have you ever seen a potter fashion a piece of pottery? It’s a fascinating thing to see. He puts this lump of clay on a circular table and he starts the table spinning. And looking at that soggy piece of mud, you have no idea of what it will eventually turn out to be. But the potter can see in his mind’s eye what the end product will look like. So he begins to work the clay. Slowly but surely that mass of clay starts to take shape. The table spins around and his hands move skillfully up and down, inside and out, until eventually you see the shape of a piece of pottery.
And once the potter is satisfied with the shape, then he takes the piece of pottery and puts it in a kiln (an oven). It’s quite an interesting process. Two of my children took pottery in high school, and I’ve brought some of their work to church this morning. I’ve also brought another piece of pottery that was given to us when we left our church in Colorado Springs. This was made by Ed Shrock and has on it one of my favorite verses, Psalm 32:8.
Why do I bring this to church today? Is this show and tell Sunday and I didn’t’ tell you? No, I brought these in because the Bible likens God to a potter. And our lives to a lump of clay. That’s not very flattering, is it? But it’s a clear picture of how things are.
God fashions each one of use just exactly as He pleases for His own perfect purposes...the purposes He has planned for our lives.
Now, that bothers some people. Maybe it bothers you. Some people resist it and rebel against the God who made them.
They don’t like the way He did His job. They would like for Him to have done it differently. They want to be something other than what they are. Or somebody other than who they are.
And, as a result, they are absolutely miserable. And there doesn’t seem to be anything they can do to change that. Even an extreme makeover doesn’t help too much. They are in bondage.
And the only way they will be able to be free from that bondage is to understand this truth of the potter and the clay.
Psalm 139 is a good place to begin to understand more about God who is the potter. This Psalm is all about God!
(Recap here) In the first six verses (139:1-6), we learned that God knows us. He is omniscient. He is All-Knowing. He knows everything! He knows absolutely everything about us down to the very tiniest details of our lives. He knows everything.
In the next six verses (139:7-12), we learned that God is always with us. He is omnipresent. He is holy present everywhere all at the same time. And so He’s always with us, wherever we go.
He is there with us. He goes with us.
Some might be thinking, “Well, this is all fine and good. These are nice thoughts. But how do we know they are true?”
David answers by saying, “We know they are true because God made us. Only a God who made us can know us so completely and thoroughly and want to be with us all the time.”
These truths lead us to the next aspect of God, His omnipotence. He is All-Powerful. So after talking about God’s omniscience, and God’s omnipresence, now we look at God’s omnipotence.
And one particular aspect of His omnipotence...and that is His power in creating each one of us. He made us! He made us personally and individually. God made us! That’s the major theme of the rest of Psalm 139 (139:13-24).
David begins by simply stating the fact....
I. THE SOURCE OF OUR BEING (v. 13)
The source of our being: we were made by God.
Psalm 139:13
“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Notice the first word of v. 13 “For...” This introduces a reason... A reason why God knows us and why God is with us.
How do we know God is All-Knowing? How do we know God is always with us?
Because He made us.
Because He created us.
Because He formed us.
“...inmost being...” is actually the Hebrew word for “kidneys.”
The Hebrews considered the kidneys to be the seat of the emotions and the will. But that’s not all God did, He also “knit me together in my mother’s womb.” “Knit” can also mean “to cover, or to weave together.” David is saying that God actually wove us together inside our mother’s womb. Our lives are like a tapestry, with every muscle, tendon, nerve, artery, vein, capillary, and everything else all interwoven together. And God was the artist that created the tapestry. While we were but embryos in our mother’s womb, God was creating us, weaving us together to create a masterpiece.
We are NOT biological accidents!
We are not products of some impersonal force.
We are not creatures of mere chance.
We are not creatures that just happened to appear on the scene of human history.
We are not creatures that have somehow evolved from some slime somewhere.
We are here because GOD MADE US!
God made us personally and individually! He made us from the moment of our conception, long before our birth. He was superintending our developing while we were yet in our mother’s womb.
It’s interesting that a Gallup poll taken a few years ago indicate that close to 50% of us believe that. 50% of us, according to this Gallup poll, believe that God created mankind in our present form just as the Genesis record reveals.
That kind of surprised me to read that. 38% believe that man evolved from lower life forms, but that God directed the whole process. Only 9% believe in an evolution in which God had no part whatsoever. Only 9%!!!
Interesting, isn’t it, with evolution being taught in our public schools, that deep down, when push comes to shove, the majority of us believe that God created us?
You couldn’t tell it from the media, could you? We are told, and it is implied that people just don’t believe anymore that God made us. We are led to believe that is outdated, it’s passé. We are led to believe that those of us who believe that God actually made us are in the vast minority. Not so!
Now, we don’t decide doctrine by Gallup polls. We decide truth by what God’s Word says. But it is interesting that deep down, so many people agree with what the Bible teaches...that God made us!
So where do we come from? What is the source of our being?
We were made by God. God made us.
Second, David talks about...
II. THE WONDER OF OUR BEING (vv. 14-15)
The wonder of it all is that we were created and fashioned by the Master Craftsman.
David is so overwhelmed by the thought that He was created by God that He can’t continue without first praising the Lord.
Psalm 139:14
“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.”
And that’s the same response we should all have when we consider that God made us. I mean, just to think that God made me! And that God loves me! God loves you so much that He fashioned you, He shaped you, He created you.
Oh, the wonder of it all!
But, let’s read on... “...because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
“...fearfully made...” does not mean that there is anything to be afraid of. The idea behind the word is that we are unique and distinct. We are distinguished from any other created being.
You are unique in God’s plan and program.
We are also “...wonderfully made” which refers to the marvel of the human body. David recognized it even though he hadn’t taken Biology 101. Even though he hadn’t taken Anatomy and Physiology. He knew that the human body was an amazing organism. More than even amazing. It is downright miraculous!
The King James Version translates it as “marvelous are Thy works.” And it truly is marvelous. With what we know today of the human body, we should say a hearty “Amen!” to that.
Wilbur Nelson wrote a book, “If I Were An Atheist” in which he includes a chapter entitled, “If I Were A Medical Doctor.” And in it he includes a whole list of “think ofs.” That’s what he calls them. He wants us to think of these things, ponder them, and meditate on them. Here are a few...
“Think of the human body composed of more than one hundred trillion cells. Think of the skin. While water penetrates the skin outwardly, it cannot penetrate inwardly. Aren’t you glad about that? I mean, if not, you would have blown up and exploded in the shower this morning! Think of the bones, capable of carrying a load 30 times than brick will support. Think of the liver, it breaks up blood cells into bile and neutralizes poisonous substances. Think of the blood. 10-12 pints of syrupy substances distributes oxygen and carries away waste from tissues and organs. It also regulates the body’s temperature. Think of the heart. Weighing less than a pound. It’s a real work horse. On the average, it pumps a hundred thousand times every day, circulating 2,000 gallons through 60,000 miles of arteries, capillaries and veins.” Wow! And that’s only a fraction of the wonder!
Our brains are another thing to consider. “It has 10 billion nerve cells, to record what it sees and hears and feels. Can you imagine! 10 BILLION nerve cells! The brain’s capabilities surpass any manmade computer.
And then consider the chromosomes...
Did you know that a single microscopic human chromosome contains 20 billion bits of information?! How much information is 20 billion bits? Let me try to put it into perspective for you...
Let’s assume that there are six letters in an average word.
That same information (20 billion bits) would correspond to about 500 million words. Assuming 300 words a page as an average, that would translate to 2 million pages. And assuming 500 pages a book, that would correspond to 4,000 books! So, do you get the picture? Imagine a library of 4,000 500-page books. One microscopic human chromosome contains as much information as in all of those books! Incredible, isn’t it?!
It shows the intricacy of our bodies, the exquisitely designed construction of our bodies. We are a very complex and wonderfully functioning organism.
“Your works are wonderful, I know that full well”
Oh, the wonder of our being! And to think it all works without a thought. Your heart is pumping right now. You don’t have to tell it to pump. It’s pumping life-giving oxygen into every cell of your body and keeping you alive right now. Imagine if we had to consciously tell our hearts to pump! That’s all we would do!
How about your breathing? We breathe in, breathe out. You didn’t think about that a minute ago, did you? You just did it.
It’s automatic. You did it without thinking about it. Even while we sleep! Aren’t you glad about that?
Psalm 139:15
“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,”
Our frame is the bony skeleton of our bodies. The muscles and sinews hold it all together. Without it we would be nothing but soft blobs! God made each of us with a frame. Aren’t you glad about that?
“...the secret place...” refers to the womb where we were put together.
“...woven together...” actually means “embroidered.” This is almost identical to v. 13 “...knit together”
But what a beautiful way to describe how God put us together!
He embroidered us! Like a work of fine needlepoint, woven together by a skilled artist!
But what is this about being “...woven together in the depths of the earth”? Does this mean that I emerged from some sort of slime pit? That’s what the evolutionists would have us believe.
How do we explain this?
We need to know something about Hebrew poetry. That’s what this is here. And a technique that is often used in Hebrew poetry is parallelism where the second line says the same thing as the first line, only using different words. That helps us understand a number of difficult passages in the poetic books. So, this last phrase, “the depths of the earth” refers to the same thing as the line above it “the secret place.”
So, this refers to the womb. Maybe David used these words to remind us that we are made of dust.
But in the deep, dark womb, God was embroidering us.
Isn’t that beautiful?
But the point is: God did it! God put us together! God made us!
We’ve seen THE SOURCE OF OUR BEING, we’ve seen
THE WONDER OF OUR BEING, let’s look next at...
III. THE PLAN FOR OUR BEING (v. 16)
The plan is that we have a significant purpose to fulfill.
Psalm 139:16
“your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.”
“...unformed body...” is really one Hebrew word which refers to something “rolled up” or “rolled together.” Sounds pretty much like a human fetus, doesn’t it? Our natural eyes cannot see the human fetus in the womb, but God can.
What David is saying is that even while we were in our rolled up state, in the very beginning of our lives, God was there watching over me. He saw me! He saw you! He was watching over us!
And He was superintending our development all along.
Even from day one!
Read on in v. 16...
What did God ordain for you, for me? All the days of my life!
Before they ever existed!
And here we have another wonderful Bible doctrine, seen over and over in Scripture. And that is, God’s sovereign control over every detail of our lives.
“All the days” refers not only to the 24 hour days, but every circumstance within those 24 hours. Each individual day with all that it brings. It was all wonderfully planned by God.
Now this doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility for how we act,
But it should reassure us that anything out of our control is in His control. And we can trust Him. His purposes are good. We might not always understand and see that, but they are.
When you think about it, it just doesn’t make sense for God to create us, to save us, just to walk away from us. It would be absurd! He will not do that for a minute!
We can have the confidence that He always does what’s best.
If we look at our lives like a tapestry, we may see the underside, with all it’s gnarls and tangles, but God sees the beauty of the upper side.
There’s a poem to that effect. As far as I know the author is anonymous. It goes like this...
My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me.
I may choose the colors, but He works it steadily.
So oft He weaves in sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I, the underside.
I choose my strands, all golden, and cry for woven stars.
I murmur when the pattern is set in blurs and mars.
I sometimes don’t remember whose hand the shuttles guide,
And that my stars are shining upon the upper side.
I choose my threads all crimson and wait for flowers to bloom,
For warp and woof to blossom upon the mighty loom.
So oft I seek them vainly and fret for them denied,
Tho flowering wreaths and garland may deck the upper side.
My life is but a weaving between my God and me.
I see the seams and tangles, the fairer side sees He.
Then let me wait in patience and blindness satisfied
To make the pattern lovely upon the upper side.
It’s hard, isn’t it? To wait in patience, satisfied with what God is doing on the upper side even though we can’t see it.
You see, our lives are more than what Shakespeare described it in one of his plays, “A tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” That’s a very poor description of human life.
We can say with the Psalmist in Psalm 31:15
“My times are in your hands”
My life, my days, are all in your hand, O Lord!
Our days are good, they are known by God. He has established them for a worthwhile purpose. He has designed us for a purpose.
We’re going to be finding out more about that in the coming months in our 40 Days of Purpose.
You are important to your Creator. That’s where David moves next in this Psalm in vv. 17-18...
IV. THE JOY OF OUR BEING (vv. 17-18)
We are vitally important to our Creator.
Psalm 139:17-18
“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.”
The thoughts David mentions here are all the things he has been talking about in this Psalm. The intricate details of his body,
the many circumstances of his life, God has it all in His mind at every moment. Amazing, isn’t it? If you could count them all up they would be even more than all the grains of sand. God has that many thoughts about each one of us! Amazing, isn’t it?
And even when we wake up in the morning, God is still thinking about us. God is still caring for us. Because God does not slumber, nor does He sleep. Even in the night, God is thinking about you!
When David wakes up He is still enjoying God’s presence.
David doesn’t rebel at such close scrutiny by God. You don’t see any bitterness or resentment at all here. On the contrary, David sees God’s thoughts of him one of his most valuable treasures.
They are precious to him. They are one of his greatest assets.
See v. 17 “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!”
If I would ask you to list some of your most valuable assets this morning, what would you say? Where would you start?
I suppose most of us would start with our house, material possessions of some kind. Maybe some antiques you have, maybe some stamps or coins, maybe some precious family photos.
Those are things most of us would think of.
But if you are a child of God, one of your most precious possessions is that God is thinking about you right now.
Maybe you feel insignificant and unimportant to yourself right now. Maybe you feel insignificant and unimportant to your family. Maybe you feel insignificant and unimportant to this world. But, you know what, you are valuable to God!
You are His unique and special creation. He made you!
He cares about you deeply!
And He never stops caring about you. Never!
You are so important to Him that He never puts you out of His mind! Not even for an instant!
And He wants you to believe it, and accept it, and enjoy His presence with you.
And rest in His sovereign control of your life, and in the assurance that everything He does is for the best.
And cultivate your relationship with Him.
Get to know Him intimately and trust Him fully!
The Psalm takes a dramatic turn in the last six verses in which we see...
V. THE INVENTORY OF OUR BEING (vv. 19-24)
Where in the world does this come from? This seems so contrary to the spirit of this passage, doesn’t it? All of a sudden we take this turn. What’s going on here?
Well, it’s not too difficult to understand. After reviewing how great God is, and remembering how much he appreciates Him, David realizes that not everyone feels that way about God. Some people actually despise God. They blaspheme Him. They want no part of Him. They oppose Him and His people. And that bothers David. That’s why he takes this turn in the Psalm. And the feelings of hatred David has for these enemies of God causes David to become introspective. David concludes the Psalm by asking God to take inventory of his life.
Most of what is deep down inside of us is not visible to us. A large part of who we are and what we’re like is not seen by others and my even be hidden from us. We don’t always know why we do the things we do or why we say the things we say, or why we think the thoughts we think. And sometimes our motives are less than pure. Are you willing to let God take inventory and bring those things to light so you can deal with them?
There’s a saying in the business world that the business that takes not inventory finally goes bankrupt. I wonder how many of us right here today are on the brink of bankruptcy because we haven’t taken inventory of our lives. When’s the last time you asked God to take a thorough inventory of your life? This is what David is asking God to do in his life in Psalm 139:23-24.
You know it’s good to pause once in awhile and take inventory.
And we need God’s help in doing it. To cry out to God, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
We need to take stock every once in awhile to see where we are.
I heard an interesting story about a boy named Jimmy who stopped at the neighborhood store and asked the owner if he could use the telephone. Given permission, he began to make his call. The owner couldn’t help but overhear his end of the conversation which went something like this, “Hello, Mr. Brown? I was just wondering if you needed someone to mow your lawn for you. Oh... you already have someone? Is he doing a good job? He is? Are you sure you don’t want to hire someone else? Well, thank you. Good bye!”
When he was done with the phone call, the owner of the store said, “Oh, Jimmy, I’m sorry you weren’t able to get the job.”
Jimmy replied, “Oh, don’t worry. I already work for Mr. Brown. I was just checking up on myself!”
You know, that might be a good thing for all of us to do...to check up on ourselves. Don’t call Mr. Brown! Check in with the Lord!
Dial through to God. “Lord, how am I doing? What’s deep down in my heart, my soul, that might displease you, that might bring dishonor to your name? What are some of those ugly things in my life that I haven’t dealt with? Those things that are deep down inside of me?”
We don’t always understand ourselves, so we need God’s help.
Are you willing to ask for God’s help like David does here in Psalm 139? Are you willing to pray this prayer with David? Psalm 139:23-24
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24See if there is any offensive way in me, (way of pain in me)
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
“Please, Lord, bring those things to my mind, those things that bring pain, pain to you, pain to others, pain to myself. Then I can acknowledge it as sin and turn from it. Help me to understand my own heart, so I can grown in your likeness, and reflect your holiness.
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
The way everlasting is the way of righteousness and has eternal value. The way that counts forever! The way of holiness, godliness, and righteousness, truth...
”Lead me in the way everlasting.”
That’s what God wants from us...
...Total devotion to Him.
...Absolute and complete surrender to His will.
He’s not going to get it from the godless people mentioned in vv. 19-22. The question is: Will He get it from us? That’s the thought that confronts us as we conclude Psalm 139 today.
Will He get it from us? Are you willing to let God expose all those thoughts and attitudes, feelings, ambitions, desires, and motives? Will you tell Him so?
Will you pray with David: Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
And then will you let Him do just that by getting into His Word? You see, it’s God’s Word that is the searchlight that exposes the thoughts and intents of our hearts. Let God use His Word to change us so that He produces in us His own holiness so that when the world sees us, they see Jesus. Let’s let God take inventory of our lives. Let’s let God do His work in our lives, shall we?
