Psalm 139:14 NKJV
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
Understanding Divine Craftsmanship in Creation
My Notes
“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.” — Psalm 139:14 (NKJV)
David lifts his heart in wonder and gratitude as he reflects on God’s creative power. “I will praise You,” he writes — not simply because of the vastness of creation, but because of how personally and intimately God formed him. Before microscopes, before anatomy books, before DNA sequencing, David perceived this truth: we are living miracles.
When he says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” the word “fearfully” conveys reverence and awe — literally, “to set apart with wonder.” It’s the kind of awe that makes you step back and say, “Only God could have done this.” Every heartbeat, every breath, every neuron firing in your brain is sustained by divine craftsmanship.
From the dust of the ground, God shaped Adam and breathed life into him (Genesis 2:7). And in the same way, God still personally designs each new life:
“Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?” — Job 31:15, NKJV
The process of conception, growth, and birth is not just biology — it’s theology. God is present in the quiet darkness of the womb, weaving life with purpose and intention. He doesn’t delegate creation to chance or nature’s machinery; He is Artist, Engineer, and Father intertwined in every cell.
Spurgeon once observed that even if David had only seen the surface of creation, without modern science, that was enough to make him tremble with reverence. Today, we know even more — the DNA blueprint mapping every detail of a person, the intricate systems working in harmony — and still, with all our knowledge, our response should be the same: worship.
David goes on to say, “Marvelous are Your works.” Notice the shift from observing himself to beholding God’s wider handiwork. The human body is a masterpiece of divine creativity, but it’s only a glimpse of the greater wonder — God’s power, wisdom, and love embedded in all creation. And David closes with confidence: “And that my soul knows very well.” He isn’t guessing; he’s sure. This praise flows from experiential knowledge — a soul deeply convinced that God’s works are good.
If we are made so wonderfully in the physical sense, how much more awe-inspiring is God’s work in the new creation—when He redeems hearts, restores lives, and renews minds? The God who knit you together in your mother’s womb is still weaving grace into the fabric of your spiritual journey.
This verse isn’t just about biology; it’s about ownership. While our parents are the instruments of our birth, God is the “Chief Parent” and the Master Architect. You are His work. When you criticize yourself, you are critiquing the Workman. When you feel insignificant, you are forgetting that the Creator of the galaxies personally knit your sinews together. David’s soul knew this “very well”—not just as a head fact, but as a deep-seated conviction. May our souls come to know it just as deeply today.
Key Takeaways
- Divine Craftsmanship: You are not a product of random chance or just a biological byproduct of your parents. You are an intentional, hand-crafted work of God.
- Awe-Inspiring Design: The phrase “fearfully made” suggests that our very existence should produce a sense of reverence for the Worker who made us.
- Distinguished by God: You are “set apart” from the rest of creation. God has endowed you with a soul and a frame that are unique and marvelous.
- A Resolve to Praise: Praise is the only right response to discovering how much care God took in creating you. We should bless the Maker who began blessing us before we were even born.
Cross References (NKJV)
- Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
- Job 10:11–12 “You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit.”
- Psalm 100:3 “Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
- Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Prayer
Abba, I praise You today because I am a marvel of Your creation. Forgive me for the times I have looked at Your handiwork—myself—and seen only things to complain about. Open the eyes of my soul to see the ‘fearful and wonderful’ way You have knit me together. Thank You for being the Architect of my life and the Lord of my secret self. Help me to live today in the confidence that I am Your workmanship, designed with purpose and loved beyond measure. I thank You for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Things to Think About
- The Architecture of Me: Take a moment to think about one physical or mental trait you have (your eyesight, your ability to solve problems, your unique laugh). How does it change your day to view that trait as a “marvelous work” of God?
- The “Soul Knowing”: David said his soul knew “very well” that he was wonderfully made. On a scale of 1-10, how much does your soul believe that right now? What is one “marvelous” thing God has done in your life that can help move that number higher?
- The New Creation: If our natural birth is a miracle, how much more is our “new birth” in Christ? Reflect on how God has “re-fashioned” your heart since you came to know Him.
- Rejecting the Mirror’s Lies: Write down one negative thought you often have about yourself. Now, write Psalm 139:14 next to it. How does God’s perspective change that negative thought?
Proverb for Today
Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, And years of life will be added to you. Proverbs 9:9-11 NKJV
Daily Scripture
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Matthew 25:37-40 NKJV
Bill
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Summary of Commentaries:
Psalm 139:14 celebrates God’s intimate craftsmanship in creation. Commentators like Spurgeon, Barnes, Gill, and Henry emphasize that humanity is God’s masterpiece—“fearfully and wonderfully made.” David’s awe acknowledges both physical and spiritual complexity as reflections of divine wisdom. The verse invites continual praise, recognizing each life as a miracle wrought by God’s intentional design. From the womb to new birth in Christ, every person and soul reveal God’s marvelous power, worthy of reverence and thanksgiving.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“I will praise thee:” a good resolve, and one which he was even now carrying out. Those who are praising God are the very men who will praise him. Those who wish to praise have subjects for adoration ready to hand. We too seldom remember our creation, and all the skill and kindness bestowed upon our frame: but the sweet singer of Israel was better instructed, and therefore he prepares for the chief musician a song concerning our nativity and all the fashioning which precedes it. We cannot begin too soon to bless our Maker, who began so soon to bless us: 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 marveling 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.
“Marvelous are thy works.” These parts of my frame are all thy works; and though they be home works, close under my own eye, yet are they wonderful to the last degree. 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.
“And that my soul knoweth right well.” He was no agnostic—he knew; he was no doubter—his soul knew; he was no dupe—his soul knew right well. Those know indeed and of a truth who first know the Lord, and then know all things in him. He was made to know the marvelous nature of God’s work with assurance and accuracy, for he had found by experience that the Lord is a master worker, performing inimitable wonders when accomplishing his kind designs. If we are marvelously wrought upon even before we are born, what shall we say of the Lord’s dealings with us after we quit his secret workshop, and he directs our pathway through the pilgrimage of life? What shall we not say of that new birth which is even more mysterious than the first, and exhibits even more the love and wisdom of the Lord.
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Enduring Word
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: David the son of Jesse was a remarkable man. He was a shepherd, a special forces soldier, a hero, a poet, and a king. In some respects, here he also added scientist to his accomplishments. With the mind of a trained biologist but the skill of a poet, David declared that he was fearfully and wonderfully made. (Guzik)
i. The workings of the human body are stunning in their design and execution. We know far more than David ever did about how we are made, and it should make us full of more awe and praise than David ever had. (Guzik)
ii. “Thy infinite power and wisdom, manifested in the rare and curious structure of man’s body, doth fill me with wonder and astonishment, and with the dread of thy majesty.” (Poole)
iii. “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.” (Spurgeon)
iv. “The greatest miracle in the world is man; in whose very body (how much more in his soul!) are miracles enough (between head and feet) to fill a volume.” (Trapp)
v. “If we are marvelously wrought upon even before we are born, what shall we say of the Lord’s dealings with us after we quit his secret workshop, and he directs our pathway through the pilgrimage of life? What shall we not say of that new birth which is even more mysterious than the first, and exhibits even more the love and wisdom of the Lord.” (Spurgeon)
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Albert Barnes
I will praise thee – I will not merely admire what is so great and marvelous, but I will acknowledge thee in a public manner as wise, and holy, and good: as entitled to honor, love, and gratitude.
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made – The word rendered “fearfully” means properly “fearful things;” things suited to produce fear or reverence. The word rendered “wonderfully made” means properly to distinguish; to separate. The literal translation of this – as near as can be given – would be, “I am distinguished by fearful things;” that is, by things in my creation which are suited to inspire awe. I am distinguished among thy works by things which tend to exalt my ideas of God, and to fill my soul with reverent and devout feelings. The idea is, that he was “distinguished” among the works of creation, or so “separated” from other things in his endowments as to work in the mind a sense of awe. He was made different from inanimate objects, and from the brute creation; he was “so” made, in the entire structure of his frame, as to fill the mind with wonder. The more anyone contemplates his own bodily formation, and becomes acquainted with the anatomy of the human frame, and the more he understands of his mental organization, the more he will see the force and propriety of the language used by the psalmist.
Marvelous are thy works – Fitted are they to excite wonder and admiration. The particular reference here is to his own formation; but the same remark may be made of the works of God in general.
And that my soul knoweth right well – Margin, as in Hebrew, “greatly.” I am fully convinced of it. I am deeply impressed by it. We can see clearly that the works of God are “wonderful,” even if we can understand nothing else about them.
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John Gill
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made,…. the formation of man is not of himself, nor of his parents, but of God, and is very wonderful in all its parts; it has been matter of astonishment to many Heathens, as Galen and others, who have, with any carefulness, examined the structure and texture of the human body, the exact symmetry and just proportion of all its parts, their position and usefulness; holy every bone, muscle, artery, nerve and fibre, are nicely framed and placed to answer their designed end; particularly the eye and ear, the exquisite make of them for sight and sound, have filled the most diligent inquirers into nature with amazement and wonder, and are a full proof of the wisdom and knowledge of God; see Psalm 94:9; no man has cause to reproach his parents, nor blame the Former of all things for making him thus, but on the contrary should praise the Lord, as David did, who has given him life and breath, and all things; or own and confess, as the word may be rendered, that he is in various surprising instances a wonder of nature; see Isaiah 45:9. R. Moses in Aben Ezra thinks David is speaking of the first father, or the first Adam; who was wonderfully made of the dust of the earth, and had a living soul breathed into him; was made after the image of God, holy and upright: but rather he speaks of Christ, the second Adam, his antitype, who as man is a creature of God’s make, and was wonderfully made, even of a virgin, without the use and knowledge of man; is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, the tabernacle which God pitched and not man; was produced by the power of the Holy Ghost, was born without sin, which no man is, and united personally to the Son of God, and is the great mystery of godliness; and his name is justly called Wonderful, Isaiah 9:6. Cocceius interprets this passage of God’s separating act of David, and so of others in election; which is a wonderful setting apart of than for himself, as the word is used Psalm 4:3; it is the effect of amazing love, and to be ascribed to the sovereignty of God, and the unsearchable riches of his grace; but this seems not to be intended here, though it is a marvelous act, as all the works of God are, as follows; rather, since the word may be rendered, “I am wonderfully separated”, it may be interpreted of his being separated in his mother’s womb from the rest of the mass and matter of her blood, and formed from thence; which was done in a secret, unknown, and marvelous way and manner;
marvelous [are] thy works; of creation, providence, sustentation of all creatures, the government of the world, the redemption of mankind, the work of grace and conversion, the perseverance of the saints, and their eternal salvation;
and [that] my soul knoweth right well: having diligently sought them out, and having such a distinct knowledge of them as to be capable of talking of them, and of showing them to others, and pointing out the wonders, beauties, and excellencies of them; see Psalm 111:2; however, he well and perfectly knew, or knew so much of them that they were very wonderful and amazing: some connect the word rendered “right well,” which signifies “greatly,” or “exceedingly,” not with his knowledge, but with the marvelous works known; and take the sense to be, that he knew them to be greatly or exceedingly wonderful; so R. Moses in Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech.
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Matthew Henry
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.
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.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Never was so terse and expressive a description of the physical conformation of man given by any human being. So “fearfully” are we made, that there is not an action or gesture of our bodies, which does not, apparently, endanger some muscle, vein, or sinew, the rupture of which would destroy either life or health. We are so “wonderfully” made, that our organization infinitely surpasses, in skill, contrivance, design, and adaptation of means to ends, the most curious and complicated piece of mechanism, not only ever executed “by art and man’s device,” but ever conceived by human imagination.
—Richard Warner, 1828.
Moses describes the creation of man (Gen 2:7): “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Now what God did then immediately, he doth still by means. Do not think that God made man at first, and that ever since men have made one another. No (saith Job), “he that made me in the womb made him:” Job 31:15. David will inform us: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works,” etc. As if he had said, Lord, I am wonderfully made, and thou hast made me. I am a part or parcel of thy marvelous works, yea, the breviate or compendium of them all. The frame of the body (much more the frame of the soul, most of all the frame of the new creature in the soul) is God’s work, and it is a wonderful work of God. And therefore David could not satisfy himself in the bare affirmation of this, but enlargeth in the explication of it in Psa 139:15-16. David took no notice of father or mother but ascribed the whole efficiency of himself to God. And indeed David was as much made by God as Adam; and so is every son of Adam. Though we are begotten and born of our earthly parents, yet God is the chief parent and the only fashioner of us all. Thus graciously spake Jacob to his brother Esau, demanding, “Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant:” Gen 33:5. Therefore, as the Spirit of God warns, “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves” (Psa 100:3); which as it is true especially of our spiritual making, so ’tis true also of our natural.
—Joseph Caryl.
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