GROUP GUIDE: Psalm 139

In the first six verses of Psalm 139 David addresses the omniscience of God. God knows absolutely everything there is to know. God is all knowing. In verses 7-12 David addresses the omnipresence of God. God is fully everywhere at the same time. God is all present. In verses 13-18 David addresses the omnipotence of God. God is all powerful. There is nothing that God cannot do within the nature of His character.

As David contemplates the omnipotence of God, it isn’t God’s creative power in nature that amazes him but God’s creative power in making man, in making him. David is in awe of the fact that God not only knows him, is ever present with him, but that God also made him.

David states in verse 13 that God “formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.” He says in verse 14 that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” And in verse 15 “My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.” What is even more amazing to David is stated in verse 16; “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

Certainly, David is acknowledging that God made him body and soul. But David also is acknowledging that

God made him in the womb. David realizes that he had personhood even before He was born.

We know today things that David did not know when he wrote Psalm 139. We now know about DNA. We know that everything that makes us who we are, all came together at the moment we were conceived. In that moment, we received our unique DNA that continues to make us who we are. From our shape, height, skin color, eye color, fingerprint, personality, gifting, abilities, etc. all that makes us who we are began at the moment of conception. And all of this was done by God. This, David did know; “Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well” (verse 14).

David also knew that his life had purposed. God had a blueprint for David’s life even before God gave him life.David states that all of his days were ordered or ordained by God even before he lived any of those days. David got a sense of worth, of value, of purpose from this truth. His life did not happen by chance. God intentionally made David, gave him life, and gave him purpose. David knew this and thanked God for it.

Psalm 139 holds so many wonderful truths for those who follow God. It tells us that we are fully known by God yet fully loved by God. It tells us that there is no place, no season, no situation of life in which we are alone. In our darkest moments, God is with us, leading us with His capable hands. And it tells us that we are His. He has made us. We are the works of His hands. He formed us in our mother’s womb and He ordered all of our days before we had lived a single one of them. He made us in His image and with purpose and nothing can come between us and His love. What amazing truths to live in. Like David, “may our souls come to know this quite well.”