139:13–16 You formed my inward parts: David affirms that the work of God in his life extended back to his development in his mother’s womb. You covered me may also be translated as “You wove me together,” a description of the work of God creating the person in the mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made might be rephrased as “I am an awesome wonder” (Ps. 8). skillfully wrought: The development of the fetus was something quite mysterious to the ancients. To them, it was as though the fetus were being developed in the middle of the earth. The Hebrew word my substance indicates the embryo. in Your book: The idea is that the life of a person, and the structure and meaning of that person’s life, are all established from the beginning by God.

Psalm 139. No escape, no regrets, no compromise

Certainly this psalm teaches the Lord’s omniscience (1–6), omnipresence (7–12), creatorship (13–18) and holiness (19–24) but such abstractions are far from its heart. For to the psalmist omniscience is God’s complete knowledge of me; omnipresence, God with me in every place; creatorship, God’s sovereign ownership of every part of me; and holiness, God’s will that I be like him. The psalm is not written by one who would escape this God if only he could, or fly from him as a sinner, but one who knows he cannot escape and finds nothing to regret in such a truth.

The psalm is a unity. For, v 13, makes 13–18 an explanation of 1–6, 7–12 and identical wording in vs 1, 23 binds the whole together. This means that the tension between the psalmist and the wicked in 19–24 must be the setting from which the psalm sprang. Some situation of moral conflict, evil in its most culpable (19) and outrageous (20–21) forms, made David not only take sides (19–24) but also re-explore his shelter and security in God (1–18). Traces of Aramaic and other hints of later language in the psalm have suggested to some a date later than David. But these hints are insufficient to support a later date. Its theology is undatable and perfectly at home in the mouth and experience of David.

1:27 So God created man: The third time the verb for create is used in ch. 1 (see vv. 1, 21); here it is used three times. The language of vv. 26, 28 is elevated prose; this verse is pure poetry. The 12 words of the original Hebrew are arranged in three lines that have their own poetic repetition and cadence. The term for man is likely associated with the term for the red earth. Here the word is generic, including male and female. These words are sexual. Some have thought that the “discovery” of human sexuality was the forbidden fruit of ch. 3. However, these words indicate that human sexuality was a part of the original creation (5:2). Although the misuse of human sexuality is soundly condemned in Scripture (Lev. 18), its proper use is celebrated (2:24, 25; Song). Verses 26–28 include the woman no less than the man in the story of creation.