"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." – Psalms 139:13-16
One of the most important human needs we all have is the need to know what our purpose is. What is the meaning of our lives? What makes life significant?
Volumes of books have been written on this subject. Some people are able to find their life’s purpose early while others search and never seem to perceive it.
If you are a believer, you have the privilege of approaching this subject differently from the world. You know that God is your Creator therefore you can go to your Creator and ask Him to show you the purpose of your life.
God told Jeremiah the reason for His life in Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Paul said in Galatians 1:15-16 – "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen."
Believers should be the most purposeful people on earth, carrying out exploits for the glory of God – yet there are many things that hinder the fulfillment of our purpose.
Fear stops us, we let people talk us out of our purpose, and Satan works to steal our destiny.
One of the greatest secrets to discovering your purpose is in growing in your understanding of the nature of God, and developing intimacy with him because He knows the reasons for our lives. And this, in part, is what David sings about in this next section of Psalm 139.
We've been talking about anchoring our lives in the attributes of God and David writes about what we call the "3 Omni’s of God." The word omni means “all” and David teaches us first that God is omniscient, which means he is all knowing. Then David sings about the fact that God is omnipresent which means he is everywhere or all present.
But it’s the last attribute that David highlights the attribute that not only gives us a deeper understanding of the nature of God, but also holds the answer to our deepest question – our unique purpose and calling in life.
So, let’s look at this attribute of God and what happens when we anchor our lives in it.
God is omnipotent.
This means God is all-powerful. He is completely self-sustaining. He doesn’t need anyone or anything to be God.
He created everything from nothing by the word of His mouth.
He is totally and completely sovereign and supreme over all of His creation.
As David writes about this attribute of God his lyrics are an unfolding revelation.
As David meditates of the omnipotence of God, He begins to see the attention God used in creating him.
Look at Psalm 139: 13–14 again.
"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."
David said God you created my inward parts. Other translations say you created my ‘reins’ (meaning my innermost being. David is talking about those things that control us – our mind, will and emotions).(Ps 139:13a)
Then David said you knitted me together in my mother’s womb (Ps139:13b)
David is seeing himself as a work of art and God as a skilled craftsman.
His conclusion is that he is ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.”
David’s song reveals that God is intimately involved in every individual person He creates. He created every part of your body and your innermost being.
You are not the outcome of selection, or evolution, or chance.
The Omnipotent God took formless matter and spirit and created you with His own hands.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
The human body is so complex that even the strongest proponents of evolution have conceded that natural selection has no answers for the human body.
In his book entitled Does God Believe in Atheists? John Blanchard described just how complex just one part of the human body is … the human eye.
The human eye is a truly amazing phenomenon. Although accounting for just one four-thousandth of an adult’s weight, it processes some 80% of the information received by its owner from the outside world. The tiny retina contains about 130 million rod-shaped cells, which detect light intensity and transmit impulses to the visual cortex of the brain by means of some one million nerve fibres, while nearly six million cone-shaped cells do the same job, but respond specifically to colour variation. The eyes can handle 500,000 messages simultaneously, and are kept clear by ducts producing just the right amount of fluid with which the lids clean both eyes simultaneously in one five-thousandth of a second.
Charles Darwin struggled with the problem of how to explain how such a complex organ as the eye could have “evolved” through naturalistic processes. In "On The Origin of Species," he wrote:
“To suppose that the eye with all its contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest sense."
David is overwhelmed when he thinks about the awesome power of God to create his life and how intentional and deliberate God was in his forming of his very being.
Who can form a baby in the womb, but God?
Who can knit a soul together?
Who puts the breath of life in a body, only the hands and wisdom of a God who is beyond comprehension.
His power is beyond imagination, and yet He is intimately acquainted with me. Such power is too great.
John Wesley said:
But now notice what this revelation did for David…
"My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!"
David sees the purpose of his life in God – David writes if I want to know the reason for my life, all I need to do is come to You because You have written it down in your book.
David said Your thoughts about me are too many to count, they are like the sand on the seashore.
He has a revelation of the omnipotence of God and he finds himself in his Creator’s intentionality.
And the same can happen for you and me.
It simply begins with a revelation of the attributes of God that are unchangeable – God is omnipotent, all-powerful, He is still the all-mighty and is completely sovereign in all His ways. This revelation should prompt praise and wonder in our lives.
When you want to regain your since of purpose and vision for your life, you don’t have to look to someone of something other than God himself. He is your creator and he knows why he created you. As we meditate on David’s revelation of the omnipotence of God, we regain our assurance that God is intimately aware of the details of our lives and created us with a divine purpose in mind.
The next section of Davids song reveals three clues about finding and fulfilling one’s God given purpose in life. I’ll explain those in the next blog.
Until then, Stay Strong in the Lord!
Pastor Bob
About Pastor Bob Moya
Pastor Bob Moya has served as the lead pastor with his wife Candace at City Chapel in Arlington, Texas for over 22+ years. He is currently wrapping up his dissertation at Regent University and will graduate in the spring of 2024 with a doctorate degree in Spiritual Renewal and Leadership. When not serving at the church, you'll find Bob enjoying a good read at Barnes & Noble, sipping a nitro cold brew or black coffee at Starbucks, or spending time with his family.
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