When my seventy-year-old mother
experienced severe knee and leg pain, her doctor told her ‘people take their
legs for granted until they can’t walk’. In the same way, you and I do not
realize the wonder of us and we take our bodies for granted. We also do not fully understand how our bodies were knit by God and assembled for
maximum efficiency. More than that, we forget that as of now we are primarily
souls with bodies, and we don’t apprehend how the soul functions. The body and
soul are extraordinary individual creations and gifts of God and yet we are not
good stewards of them. Also we abuse and misuse our bodies even though we are told
that the body is the temple of God.
In the 1970s I read an article
–explaining how the human body is full of elements that can actually be used to
make bombs. (I do not remember the writer’s name or profession.) Also, I
occasionally read how people cannot explain some emotions especially
guilt. The human mind also is complicated to understand fully how it works. Even though I
don’t understand everything, I am grateful my Creator knows.
So the human body is a mystery
even in the 21st century. It is a mysterious and complex combination
of bones, organs, muscles, nerves, tendons, fluids etc. And that thought should create
awe in our hearts. It should also humble us because only God knows how we are
made and how we function.
I hope this helps. Any
questions please contact me.
IF YOU ARE
INTERESTED AND HAVE TIME, BELOW IS A NARRATION OF MY WORK, THOUGHT PROCESS AND CONCLUSIONS (LONG)
Yesterday
Randall Kelly commented ‘You
have me needing more info on "fearfully made”’.
A) Normally how I prepare for my blog. (Steps
after prayer).
Step
1: I read the text in my ESV Bible.
The text for the day 14 post
is Psalm 19:13-18 and the comment was specifically about verse 14 “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made” In my ESV Bible there is a
footnote which would make us read verse 14 as “I praise you, for I am fearfully set apart” but that footnote refers only to the wonderfully
part not the fearfully part.
Step
2: After I read the ESV text, I normally refer to two of my study Bibles.
In both Study Bibles noted (1)
no clear explanation (footnote) and (2) the avoidance coming to fearfully.
Step
3: Then I look at my 4-in-1 Parallel Bible, where I compare the ESV text with NKJV, NLT(rare), The Message and separately refer to the NIV.
ESV, NKJV and NIV say “fearfully and wonderfully made”.
NKJV
has a footnote and using that verse 14 would read “I will praise You, You are fearfully wonderful.” That did not help much because David is
using his body as it applies to himself and praises God; but with the footnote
the focus shifts from his body to God- I do not agree with that translation.
Also, if the footnote words and thought are correct, why are they in a footnote
and not the main text?
Then
the Message – it did not help coming to fearfully.
However, NLT which
I do not normally consult, says “Thank
you for making me so wonderfully complex!”
Step 4:
Refer to Hebrew-English Interlinear texts
Normally I look at one but I
went to three to understand fearfully
– and in all three I encountered the “fearfully made” and no other interpretation.
The Hebrew word for fear is transliterated yare’
and some of its meanings are: to cause astonishment and awe; to
inspire reverence or Godly fear
Step 5:
Read Commentaries and other related Bibles and texts.
For the text I read two of the
five commentaries I can access. The two I read are the latest among the five.
Both of them briefly explained the “fearfully part.”
Step 6:
Read other literature if necessary.
Read articles about human
anatomy, biochemistry etc. Have to admit; I did not understand even half of
what I read.
So with the above in mind I
formed the idea that David is praising God for making David a complex and
wonderfully set apart individual, meaning God created David as a unique person
and David is born with a Body and Soul and is set apart from the rest of God’s
creation – i.e., there is no other person like David.
And after all of that I posted -
“So how does King David talk about God’s omnipotence? He tells
how he was made or created in his mother’s womb. He writes, God ‘formed his inward parts’ and ‘knitted
him together in his mother's womb’ (v.13). And then in this ‘psalm of
praise and worship’ David praises God’s ‘wonderful works’ (v. 14) and
tells us how God creates us individually. Then there is this bewildering phrase
of David – “ I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.”(v.14). You and I might comprehend the concept that we
are God’s wonderful creation – but fearful? Basically, David is saying – we are
composed of fearful (complex) material(s) and at the same time we are wonderful
because we are individuals - not a bunch of robots coming off an assembly line.
Then comes Randy’s comment.
B) So what did I do to prepare a response?
(1)
Opened three
books The Bible Background Commentary
–Old Testament and Hard Sayings of the Bible both by IVP,
and Zondervan’s Encyclopedia of Bible
Difficulties. None of them touch
verse 14.
(2)
Next IVP’s Dictionary of Biblical Imagery –
no help there.
(3)
I
looked at three more Bibles - The Cultural Background Study Bible, The
Archaeological Study Bible and The Chronological Study Bible – Result? In the
notes there is no explanation.
(4)
Went to
the other three commentaries I did not consult prior to the post.
Results: (a) Geoffrey Grogan talks about “awe and wonder”. In the Bible, awe and awesome refer to the work
of God.
(b) Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of David (published 1885) “even in the act of creation he created
reasons for our praising his name, For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Who
can gaze even upon a model of our anatomy without wonder and awe? Who could
dissect a portion of the human frame without marvelling at its delicacy, and
trembling at its frailty? The Psalmist had scarcely peered within the veil
which hides the nerves, sinews, and blood vessels from common inspection; the
science of anatomy was quite unknown to him; and yet he had seen enough to
arouse his admiration of the work and his reverence for the Worker” and
later “They are works within
my own self, yet are they beyond my understanding, and appear to me as so many
miracles of skill and power. We need not go to the ends of the earth for
marvels, nor even across our own threshold; they abound in our own bodies.”
(c) Franz
Delitzsch’s Eerdmans Commentary (German
published 1867) “ I give thanks unto Thee
that I have wonderfully come into being under fearful circumstances, i.e. circumstances
exciting a shudder.”
(5)
Went to
the other three other texts I did not consult prior to the post- not much help.
So what is my response?
When my seventy-year-old mother experienced severe knee and
leg pain, her doctor told her ‘people take their legs for granted until they
can’t walk’. In the same way, you and I do not realize the wonder of us.
We do not fully understand how our bodies were knit by God and assembled for
maximum efficiency. More than that, we forget that as of now we are primarily
souls with bodies, and we don’t apprehend how the soul functions. The body and
soul are extraordinary individual creations and gifts of God and yet we are not
good stewards of them. Also we abuse and misuse our bodies even though we are
told that the body is the temple of God.
In the 1970s I read an article –explaining how the human body
is full of elements that can actually be used to make bombs. (I do not remember
the writer’s name or profession.) Also, I occasionally read how people cannot
explain some emotions especially guilt. The human mind also is
complicated to understand fully how it works. Even though I don’t understand
everything, I am grateful my Creator knows.
So the human body is a mystery even in the 21st century.
It is a mysterious and complex combination of bones, organs, muscles, nerves,
tendons, fluids etc. And that thought should create awe in our hearts. It
should also humble us because only God knows how we are made and how we
function.
I hope this helps. Any questions please contact me.
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