Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 (NRSV)
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 RCL context (BCP)
This psalm reveals God's omniscience and familiarity with all his creation.
3 "Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, / but you, O LORD, know it altogether."
In a world where the spoken world held considerable importance, the fact that God knows what we will speak before we speak it means that he can see right to the depths of our character and intentions.
What are the ramifications of this knowledge?
In
5, the psalmist proclaims that this knowledge is "too wonderful" and "so high that I cannot attain to it."
And taking this a step further, God knows more than just who we are now. He knew us before we were born.
12-15 of the psalm are a creepy ultrasound.
12 Literally reads: "You yourself created my kidneys." The psalm places the fetus both in the "mother's womb" and in the "depths of earth."
Most people who read this part of the psalm more than once will probably start thinking about abortion. For me, it's impossible to read the phrase "you knit me together in my mother's womb" and not hear it as a rallying cry of pro-lifers.
Interestingly, (and perhaps relevant to the writing of this psalm) is the fact that
abortion is not a modern phenomenon.
We might have a little better understanding of embryo development than the psalmist does, but we certainly don't really have a better understanding of Life (i.e., what it is, when it starts, how is it made, etc.).
And as much as we debate with each other over when life begins and when it should end and whose stem cells we can use for what research and all of these other "gray" biological/moral issues, we all know that we are basing our arguments on our own superior understanding of the facts.
The end of the psalm,
16-17, help put our knowledge into context, and I think they particularly speak to our obsession with these big questions.
