March 19thPsalm 139
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
A slight man with graying hair…He apologized for the blood on his lab coat, explaining he had been dissecting armadillos, the only non-human species known to harbour leprosy bacilli. He wore outdated clothes, lived in a rented bungalow, drove an old rundown automobile….
The man was Dr. Paul Brand. When he began his pioneering work, he was the only orthopedic surgeon in the world among fifteen million victims of leprosy, members of the Untouchable class in India. He told me of his patient’s histories, the rejection they had experienced as the disease presented itself, the trial and error treatments of doctor and patient experimenting together. Almost always his eyes would moisten and he would wipe away tears as he remembered their suffering. To him - the lepers of India where he spent over half his life – among the most neglected people on earth, were not nobodies, but people made in the image of God, and he devoted his life to try to honour that image.’
The key word in Psalm 139 is ‘knowledge’ (v.1,2,4,6,14,23) used seven times, the number of fullness or completion! The psalmist is fully and completely known by God.
To ‘know’ means we are completely naked in God’s sight and therefore no longer belonging only to ourselves. ‘I am [not] the master of my fate, the captain of my soul’ [R. Kipling].
For someone to say, ‘I don’t believe in God’ it is possible to reply, ‘But that is not the first issue. The first issue is that God believes in you.’
Verses 13-18 – are an especially eloquent statement that the beginning and the end of life are known and determined by God. We, in the biblical view, are not here by a biological accident but are the result of the will and work of a benevolent Creator.
Philip Yancey went to visit Dr. Brand as he lay dying in a Seattle hospital. He writes, ‘Paul was unconscious but his left hand grasped out for something to hold and I put my hand in his. Incredibly, almost eerily, he began examining it with his fingers, running his own fingers up and down mine, squeezing, testing, analyzing… The instincts of fifty years of hand surgery [even in his unconscious state] remained. Often he had told me that he could remember his patients hands better than their faces… Now, barely breathing, he reached out with hands that had brought healing to so many.’ [1]
Each of us was formed and framed by God. God’s eyes beheld our unformed substances. Each of us was reverently, wondrously, strikingly, remarkably, differently made – in ways that are beyond human explanation. In any time, in any place where the faithful face wickedness, bloodshed, and deceit, the words of Psalm 139 provide comforting assurance of God’s sovereign creation of, and care for, each person.
Where I wander – You!
Where I ponder – You!
Only You, You again, always You!
You! You! You!
When I am gladdened – You!
When I am saddened – You!
Only You, You again, always You!
You! You! You!
Sky is You, Earth is You!
You above! You below!
In every trend, at every end,
Only You, You again, always You!
You! You! You! [Martin Buber]
[1] Yancey, P. – In the Likeness of God, p.12-26.