Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2003
Psalm 139

Do promiscuous people take seriously the psychological trauma of abortion? Couples who have aborted their babies attest to the emotional hell that results. A young woman describes what happened to her one evening several years after her abortion. "All of a sudden, I was thinking about the abortion, and I couldn't understand why I was thinking about it. I started to become very anxious and just totally depressed. I cried a lot and had a lot of guilt feelings. And it shocked me that this is what happened, that I had actually interrupted a pregnancy. I think that what was so hard was my denial through the whole thing. I had a lot of physical symptoms related to this, like dizziness. My pulse was very rapid, and I was short of breath when I'd get so upset. I can remember crying a lot, and just a deep sense of hurting."

The grief of abortion does not end with the mother. The man is affected too. According to one study, close to one-third of young men suffer from post-abortion syndrome. They experience guilt, remorse, sadness and nightmares. For instance, when the word fetus was used in an interview with a young man, the man's eyes filled up with tears. He tried to correct the interviewer: "It's not a fetus we're talking about. It's my son. He would be three years old now."

Why do people ache over the death of unborn children? Psalm 139 provides part of the answer. We studied the first half of this Psalm last week, and we will examine four more verses today. Last week the majesty of God came out in His omniscience and omnipresence. Today, we want to appreciate God's majesty in creation and providence. God's concern for tiny embryos and unborn babies will be our starting point. Reading now Psalm 139:13-15. [Read them.]

In verse 13 David sings about the fact that God has created him. "For You formed my inward parts: You covered me in my mother's womb." The word rendered "inward parts" means simply "the kidneys." Why would David give special mention to his kidneys? In Hebrew thinking the kidneys were conceived as the seat of the emotions and will. It is a strange expression, but in several cultures internal organs symbolize strong emotions. For example, the Berbers of Northern Africa speak of the liver. A young man was recently struck by the beauty of a Berber woman. He told her, "You have captured my liver." Since the liver is where love resides, it is a perfectly good expression. Unfortunately, the pretty lady brushed him off, and walked away. The young man responded, "Oh, come back! You've burned my liver." The point is this: when David tells God, "You formed my kidneys" he is simply referring to the source of his pains and pleasure: "You have formed my kidneys. You have formed all my pains and pleasures. Your control reaches to the inmost part of my being. You govern my entire life."

The second part of the verse says, "You wove me in my mother's womb." God had woven him together in the womb. David is speaking of the embryo. When he was still in the matrix of his mother, he was in God's control. God was weaving together the parts of his body so that he was wholly under God's control. Even in this unborn stage David was in God's hands.

The last line of verse 15 provides us another sewing metaphor. David sings, "[I was] skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." The verb "skillfully wrought" means literally "embroidered." I was embroidered in my mother's womb. It refers to the mysterious manner in which the bones and sinews of the human body are knit together. In David's day, embroidery was a high art. It was a type of needlework. Wall hangings and ceremonial garments were designed with colorfully dyed silks and threads. Some tapestries achieved gorgeous intricacy. The same intricacy applies to the human body. Its development from conception to adulthood is a work of art.

How awe-inspiring is the birth of a child! In the mother's womb the strange act of conception has taken place. Life has come into existence. A growth occurs. And this embryo will come forth one day from the body of the mother and a human being will be born. We were all once embryos. God brought you as an embryo into existence, and from the beginning you have been in God's hands. You are not a creature of chance, merely happening in some inexplicable way. You are here for a purpose, for God has created you, and from the first instant of your creation, even before our birth, you have been totally in His care.

The connection to abortion is clear to see. Does the Bible regard the human embryo as a mass of tissue? As something subhuman and easily discarded like a toenail? No! Scripture considers the fertilized egg, fetus, premature infant or whatever you want to call it as a human being created in the image of God. Such a life must be protected by law. To kill this being is a heinous act. Those who do so suffer guilt and judgment. The unborn infant is so precious that God is intimately involved with it, forming him or her in the womb. God is thus the Author of life, not in an abstract, philosophical sense but in a very dynamic way. Therefore, whenever we become aware that a human being has been conceived, whether planned by the parents or not, we know that God is the Author of that life, and humble gratitude is the proper response. Terminating it is unthinkable.

In verse 14 David's amazement shifts from the mystery of birth to an astonishment at creation in general. "Marvelous are all Your works!" David erupts in praise. He gives God the glory for the wonderful works of nature. Not everyone gives God the glory. Once while backpacking in the Andes Mountains, I ran into a couple other Chilenos doing the same thing. We decided to hike together. After a while the subject came around to religion. We were sitting next to a gorgeous lake, under a cobalt blue sky; snow-capped mountains rose up in several directions, and the scent of pine sap delighted our nostrils. One of the guys extended his arm toward these things in a dramatic sweep: "See all this surrounding us. This is God. This is my church. I don't need anything else." Well, such pantheism is becoming more common these days. One can almost understand the sentiment behind it. Doesn't the stunning splendor of nature look divine? The loveliness of rivers, trees, and mountains are so mesmerizing, why not indulge one's religious instincts? Why not deify creation? What is wrong with adoring it? Here is another area where we must submit to the Word of God. He knows what is best for us; we don't. To idolize nature is a monumental mistake.

The Psalmist shows us the proper attitude towards nature. "[O LORD,] Marvelous are Your works!" Unlike the unbeliever David acknowledges that these are works of God. He does not succumb to pantheism. David is a true theist. He is drawn to all God's works, and marvels at their beauty. The ten thousand foot tall Mount Herman, the Arabian deserts, the Sea of Galilee, the Mediterranean, the shores of Jordan, the green pastures and still waters, the beasts of the forest, and the cedars of Lebanon. You can be sure that David delighted in these wonders. Yet, rather than worship the creature, he gave glory to the Creator. That also is also our response to the natural beauty we encounter.

Verse 16 moves on to the subject of God's providence. It speaks about a book of days. What is that about? "Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them." God has a book about David, and about everybody. In the Psalm the thought is that the entirety of David's being, even including the days of his life, are inscribed in the book that belongs to God.

By the days of his life the Psalmist has in mind all the chances and changes of human experience. All of his life, each individual day with all that day will bring, is written down by God in His own book. Before any of these days had actually occurred God had fashioned them. David has here reached a peak in his exaltation of the all-knowing and all-powerful God. Not only does God know all things, but God has also foreordained all things. In other words, the Psalmist has introduced us to the doctrine of predestination. David regards his life not as a chance happening, but as a life already planned by God even before he was born. All the days that David would live and all the events of each day had been written down in God's book before David himself had come into existence.

The doctrine of providence also comes into play here. Though the word providence does not appear in Scripture it is nevertheless a biblical concept. Divine providence refers to how God governs history. A formal definition goes like this: Providence is the work of God by which He preserve all His creatures, is active in all that transpires in the world, and directs all things to their appointed end.

When we speak this way about the all-controlling activity of God, when David declares that the entirety of his life is written in God's book, the question naturally arises, "Does God's foreknowledge, does His providence eliminate human freedom? Does the omniscience of God mean the end of all human freedom? R.C. Sproul puts the question this way: "If human actions are known by God in advance, is it not certain that they will come to pass exactly as God has foreknown them? If God knows today what I will do tomorrow, then there is no doubt that when tomorrow comes, I will do what God already knows I will do. With respect to the mind of God my future behavior is absolutely certain, But, does that mean that my future actions are absolutely determined or coerced by God?" (Character of God. p. 94.)

Apparently, the Hindus conclude that human freedom is obliterated. In India, almost nobody wears seatbelts. Indian dashboards regularly boast little statues of Ganesha, an elephant-headed god who might offer some protection. Or might not, because karma ­ loosely translated fate ­ determines who dies when. In most Hindu beliefs no prayer can affect anything in this life. [M. Olasky in recent WORLD.] So how do Christians resolve the question of human freedom and God's providence?

There are two images of God that illustrate the errors that Christians must avoid. First, is the image of God as a Puppeteer. Here God manipulates the strings of marionettes. The feet and the arms of the puppets jerk and dance as God pulls the strings. Puppets have no will. They have no freedom. If one puppet cracks the head of another puppet, the guilty puppet is not responsible, the Puppeteer is. Are we puppets? No. This model of God destroys human freedom and human responsibility.

The second image of God is that of a spectator. Here God sits on the sidelines of world history. He sits in a cushy box seat next to John Madden and Al Michaels. He observes the game closely. He roots for the good guys but he is basically powerless to affect the outcome in any way. Was the Cross of Christ an accident? Does God sit and cheer for the triumph of the Church? Does He root for the New Heavens and New Earth unable to do anything about it? No, of course not! This model of God destroys God's sovereignty. The Spectator-God observes history, but is not Lord over history.

The proper view of God and man strikes a balance. The Bible does not present God as a spectator, nor does it present man as a puppet. We must be careful not to so zealously maintain the sovereignty of God that we end up denying human freedom and responsibility. At the same time we must be careful not to so zealously preserve human freedom that we reduce God to an impotent spectator of world affairs.

"The correct approach is to insist that God foreordains all things and that all future events are under His sovereignty. The future is absolutely certain to God. He knows what will take place, and He foreordains what will take place. Foreordain does not mean coerce. It simply means that God wills that something take place. He may will future events through the free choices of creatures." How God works out these matters is a great mystery. The fact remains: God is sovereign. Man is free. Neither teaching is false. We can trust God and leave the question of harmonization to Him. (Sproul pp. 96.)

The more we search the Scriptures the deeper we should move in our understanding of God. Psalm 139 goes a long way in helping us comprehend the majesty of God. The more we know the Lord, the more we understand how worthy He is of our worship, and how much we can trust Him. What a wonderful thing it is to know that the very days of our lives have been written down in His book even before these days come into existence! Life is filled with difficulty. The world seems to be in turmoil. We see people in desperation and agony, for they have nothing to live for. Is life, after all, just chaos? Is it senselessness? We know better; we know that our days are in God's hands.

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