The Creation. I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.

Transcription

1 The Creation The Miracle of fetal development. How the cells know what they are going to become How the cells know to slow down in their reproducing so the baby doesn t get to big For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Psalms 139:13-15 Vacation Bible School, 2017 The theme this year is Maker Fun Factory. Built for a Purpose Why are we here? How did we get here? Science has more than a few opinions Asteroids o Piggy backed on them o The carbon & elements mixed with earth s own materials & reacted Aliens put life on here through Crystals Heat, pressure, & then a miracle started life on earth

2 They don t know. They have hypothesis. They have strong opinions. What they don t have are clear answers. The Bible has answer. Plain as day. Simple. Eloquent. God Made You. The God of Universe wanted a creation to interact with. To Love. To be loved by. God doesn t need us. The Lord lacks nothing & needs nothing. Before the creation of time he was complete. Whole. But he wanted to bless us. To love us. o So God made man. Not some cosmic accident A Divine love What s beautiful for us to remember though is that David isn t just talking about how God made humanity. He is talking about how God made YOU. For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother s womb. 14 I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. V God Made You. o He designed you. o He didn t break you. o He didn t corrupt you. Yes, sin has infected us all. But because of God s love someday you will be perfect. o The insecurities you feel.

3 o The inadequacies you feel you possess. Those aren t from the Lord. o He made you. He loves you. He made you unique. Special. Loved. Beautful. Remarkably & wonderfully made. o THAT is YOU. I fear as a culture we are losing that though. We are losing the appreciation & love for each other that God has for us. o We let false ideologies dehumanize the unborn. o We tell those who are sick & elderly that if they don t have a purpose then they should be discarded. a. Illustration. Pastor and author Max Lucado tells in his book, The Applause of Heaven, about a sweater that hangs in his closet. He says he seldom wears it it's too small, the sleeves are too short, the shoulders too tight, some of the buttons are missing, the thread is frazzled. Logically, he says, he should throw out that sweater since he has no use for it and will never wear it again. It simply takes up space in his closet. That's what logic says. But love, he reports, won't let him. Why not? What's unusual about that sweater? To start with, it has no label, no tag telling you "Wash in cold water." That's because it wasn't made in a factory, produced on an assembly line as the product of a nameless employee earning a living. Rather, it was the creation of a devoted mother expressing her love his mother. That sweater is unique, one of a kind, irreplaceable. Each strand was chosen with care, each thread selected with affection. And so, even though that sweater has lost all of its use, it has lost none of its value. It is valuable not because of its function, but because of its MAKER. So is each life.

4 God s character goes into the creation of every person. When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God s Spirit is ready and willing to work within you. We should have as much respect for ourselves as our Maker has for us. (Life Application) You shouldn t harm ourselves because you are special. You shouldn t harm others because they too are loved by God. All life is sacred. God Made You. God Made Me. God Made Them. God Made Us. Because of our Maker...because we Love God. We Lover Others. We have VBS to tell others about God. Because life is sacred, we love all! o No racism. o No sexism. God Made You. Next week we will be learning about why God Made You.

5 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well (vv ). In describing his creation the psalmist uses an unusual verb for create (qânâh). It only occurs five times in this sense in the Old Testament, rather than the more common verb (bârâʾ) of Genesis 1:1 and many other places. Abram used it when speaking to Melchizedek and the king of Sodom, when he called God, Creator of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19, 22). From conception we are God s creation, with a body carefully constructed and woven together. Hence, when the psalmist considers himself, he stands amazed at this creative work. The use of the words wonderfully and wonderful draw attention to the divine activity that brought him into existence (cf. the comments on Pss. 71:17 and 72:18 for the use of this Hebrew word). 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, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be (vv ). His life was open before God even from before birth. The womb is called the secret place and the depths of the earth, because it shares with those areas the idea of separation from the normal realm of life. It is dark and hidden from human vision, but quite open to God s sight. The length of life is sovereignly determined by God, and with foreknowledge he knows the life history as if it was written beforehand. God does not need a written record, but the idea of a book is used in the Old Testament as a reassuring way of speaking of God s knowledge of, and care for, his people (Exod. 32:32; Pss. 56:8; 69:28; Mal. 3:16). These thoughts are very comforting to a believer, who sings: Whate er my God ordains is right; Here shall my stand be taken; Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, Yet I am not forsaken; My Father s care is round me there: He holds me that I shall not fall, And so to Him I leave it all. (Samuel Rodigast ) 1 1 Harman, A. (2011). Psalms: A Mentor Commentary (Vol. 1 2, pp ). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor.

6 139: The theme of verses is announced here: the Lord (You is emphatic in Heb.; cf. v. 2) created him in his mother s womb. The language is figurative in that creating and knitting describe God s sovereign superintendence over the natural process of reproduction (on knitting; cf. Job 10:11). This fact prompted the psalmist to break forth in praise over the thought of how marvelously he had been made. Even David s rudimentary knowledge of the marvels of the human body led him to be in awe and wonder. The words wonderfully and wonderful are mindful of God s marvelous knowledge (Ps. 139:6). 139: Then David stressed certain features of God s superintendence over him. In the womb he was woven together (lit., embroidered ; cf. knit, v. 13, suggesting his veins and arteries). When he was being formed in the womb he was as remote to the human eye as the lower part of the earth (cf. comments on Job 1:21). But God saw every detail. David s frame means his skeleton and his unformed body is his embryo. Moreover, God prerecorded all the days of the psalmist before he was even born. This statement may mean that God determined how long he would live, but in view of verses 1 4, it more likely refers to everyday details. God marvelously planned out his life. 2 Verses No veil can hide us from God s eye, no, not that of the thickest darkness, v. 11, 12. If I say, Yet the darkness shall cover me, when nothing else will, alas! I find myself deceived; the curtains of the evening will stand me in no more stead than the wings of the morning; even the night shall be light about me. That which often favours the escape of a pursued criminal, and the retreat of a beaten army, will do me no kindness in fleeing from them. When God divided between the light and darkness it was with a reservation of this prerogative, that to himself the darkness and the light should still be both alike. The darkness darkeneth not from thee, for there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. No hypocritical mask or disguise, how specious soever, can save any person or action from appearing in a true light before God. Secret haunts of sin are as open before God as the most open and barefaced villanies. II. Because he is the work of his hands. He that framed the engine knows all the motions of it. God made us, and therefore no doubt he knows us; he saw us when we were in the forming, and can we be hidden from him now that we are formed? This argument he insists upon (v ): Thou hast possessed my reins; thou art Master of my most secret thoughts and intentions, and the innermost recesses of my soul; thou not only knowest, but governest, them, as we do that which we have possession of; and the possession thou hast of my reins is a rightful possession, for thou coveredst me in my mother s womb, that is, thou madest me (Job 10:11), thou madest me in secret. The soul is concealed from all about us. Who knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man? 2 Ross, A. P. (1985). Psalms. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 892). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

7 1 Co. 2:11. Hence we read of the hidden man of the heart. But it was God himself that thus covered us, and therefore he can, when he pleases, discover us; when he hid us from all the world he did not intend to hide us from himself. Concerning the formation of man, of each of us, 1. The glory of it is here given to God, entirely to him; for it is he that has made us and not we ourselves. I will praise thee, the author of my being; my parents were only the instruments of it. It was done, (1.) Under the divine inspection: My substance, when hid in the womb, nay, when it was yet but in fieri in the forming, an unshapen embryo, was not hidden from thee; thy eyes did see my substance. (2.) By the divine operation. As the eye of God saw us then, so his hand wrought us; we were his work. (3.) According to the divine model: In thy book all my members were written. Eternal wisdom formed the plan, and by that almighty power raised the noble structure. 2. Glorious things are here said concerning it. The generation of man is to be considered with the same pious veneration as his creation at first. Consider it, (1.) As a great marvel, a great miracle we might call it, but that it is done in the ordinary course of nature. We are fearfully and wonderfully made; we may justly be astonished at the admirable contrivance of these living temples, the composition of every part, and the harmony of all together. (2.) As a great mystery, a mystery of nature: My soul knows right well that it is marvellous, but how to describe it for any one else I know not; for I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the womb as in the lowest parts of the earth, so privately, and so far out of sight. (3.) As a great mercy, that all our members in continuance were fashioned, according as they were written in the book of God s wise counsel, when as yet there was none of them; or, as some read it, and none of them was left out. If any of our members had been wanting in God s book, they would have been wanting in our bodies, but, through his goodness, we have all our limbs and sense, the want of any of which might have made us burdens to ourselves. See what reason we have then to praise God for our creation, and to conclude that he who saw our substance when it was unfashioned sees it now that it is fashioned. 3 For his omnipotence (vv ) God s power is evidenced by his creation of each individual. God created our reins (our innermost being, that is, those things that control us minds, hearts, wills). He covered us while we were in the womb. The word covered may also be translated knit or wove. By using this term the psalmist pictures himself as a fine piece of art and God as a skilled craftsman. The psalmist s conclusion is that he is fearfully and wonderfully made. Henry writes: we may justly be astonished at the admirable contrivance of these living temples, the composition of every part, and the harmony of all together. Some of the newer translations render this phrase as a description of God You are fearfully wonderful, that is, a God who is so marvellous and wonderful that the only thing one can do is stand in awe of him. It isn t all that important which of the two translations we follow. A fearfully wonderful God can only do fearfully wonderful works. 3 Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 942). Peabody: Hendrickson.

8 David would have us know he is not just getting carried away with his own writing. He is not indulging in poetic licence. He says it is the deep conviction of his soul that all God s works are marvellous (v. 14). 4 4 Ellsworth, R. (2006). Opening up Psalms (pp ). Leominster: Day One Publications.