Psalm 139:14: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; / Marvelous are Your works, / And that my soul knows very well.”

May 24th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

We humans are made in both fearful and marvelous ways. We have all been given that fearful quality called volition or freewill, which allows us to ignore God and resist His will for our lives. And we are also marvelous, incredibly designed organisms that can distinguish between 8 million colors, hear 350,000 different tones, and are so sensitively perceptive to touch that we can feel the weight of a single hair on our eyelid.

Although the author of this psalm, David, knew nothing of the modern-day branch of biology called embryology, he knew enough about the human body to be astounded. The mechanisms of conception and gestation have given us ample reason to praise God for His astounding design. Modern science has amplified David’s conclusion of “marvelous” many times over. It is no wonder that David wrote of the Creator: “I will praise You.” Only a conceited, arrogant bigot could dissect even a portion of the human anatomy without marveling at its design and function. But those kinds of people have been around for centuries. In 398, Augustine observed in his Confessions:

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.

All these wonders are fingerprints of our God, and when we see them, it should lead us to seek Him. God desires us to come to know Him personally. In the mid-1600s, pastor and poet John Donne wrote, “You just can’t get away from God. If you run from Him, He runs after you. If you run to Him, He embraces you. But wherever you are, and wherever you go, His eyes of love will follow you.”

“LORD, we recognize that You first loved us and have faithfully pursued us whenever we turned from You. Use us this day we ask in Jesus’ name.”