Five-minute study · Day 125 · Psalms 139
Psalm 139:14
A word worth stopping on: fearfully יָרֵא yare
Count the number of times Scripture uses a particular word to describe God's own works, the parting of the Red Sea, the plagues of Egypt, the creation of the heavens. Now find that same word in Psalm 139:14, applied to you. 'I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' The word fearfully translates yare, and yare is the language of trembling before something so far beyond human scale that the only honest response is awe. David used the vocabulary of divine acts to describe the construction of a single human body.
Word study: fearfully
- Hebrew
- יָרֵא
- Pronounced
- yare
- Strong's
- H3372
- Definition
- To fear, to revere, to stand in awe. Used of the human response to divine power, extraordinary events, and overwhelming acts.
Yare is the standard Hebrew word for the fear that stands at the foundation of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). It covers a spectrum from terror to reverence, but its core meaning is the physical and emotional response to encountering something vastly greater than yourself. When Israel stood at Sinai and the mountain burned with fire, they were yare (Exodus 20:18). When the sea split and the waters stood as walls, the people were yare (Exodus 14:31). When Solomon dedicated the temple and fire fell from heaven, the response was yare (2 Chronicles 7:3).
David uses the niphal form, noraot, translated 'fearfully' in the KJV. The niphal is a passive-reflexive construction. The idea is that the human body has been made in a way that inspires yare in the one who examines it. You look at your own construction and the appropriate response is the same trembling reverence you would feel watching God split the sea.
Hans-Joachim Kraus observes in his commentary on Psalms that the pairing of noraot (fearfully/awesomely) with nifleiti (wonderfully) combines two word families normally reserved for theophany, direct encounters with God's manifest power. Nifleiti comes from the root pala, meaning to be extraordinary, to be beyond human capacity. The niphal participle niflaot (wonderful works) describes God's acts in Exodus 15:11, Psalm 77:14, and Psalm 78:12. David is saying the human body belongs in the same category as the plagues of Egypt and the crossing of the sea.
This is creation-level reverence directed at human physiology. The psalm moves from the knitting of bones in the womb (verse 13) to the full catalog of days written in God's book before any of them existed (verse 16). The scope is staggering. David sees the human body as a divine work of the same order as the cosmos itself, and yare is the only adequate response.
Historical context · Israelite monarchy, circa 1000 BC
The Body as Divine Workmanship
Psalm 139 is attributed to David and addresses God's exhaustive knowledge of the individual. The psalm moves through four themes: God's omniscience (verses 1-6), God's omnipresence (verses 7-12), God's creative work in forming the human body (verses 13-18), and a plea for God to judge the wicked and search the psalmist's own heart (verses 19-24). Verse 14 sits at the center of the creation section.
Ancient Israelite understanding of human anatomy was limited compared to modern medicine, but the awe was genuine. The Egyptians, through their embalming practices, had the most advanced anatomical knowledge in the ancient Near East. The Edwin Smith Papyrus (circa 1600 BC) describes surgical procedures and identifies the brain's role in controlling the body. The Ebers Papyrus catalogs over 700 remedies. Israel, without an embalming tradition, had less direct anatomical knowledge, which makes David's language all the more striking. He marvels at what he can observe from outside: the intricacy of bone, sinew, and skin assembled in the darkness of the womb.
The phrase 'in the lowest parts of the earth' (verse 15) uses the womb as a metaphor for hidden depths where God's creative work occurs unseen. The image parallels Job 10:8-12, where Job describes God shaping him 'like clay,' clothing him 'with skin and flesh,' and knitting him 'together with bones and sinews.' Both passages present human formation as hands-on divine craftsmanship.
Modern embryology has only deepened the force of David's language. By the eighth week of human development, a fetus has all major organ systems in place. The heart begins beating around day twenty-two. The complexity of neural development alone, with over 86 billion neurons forming precise connections, makes the language of yare seem, if anything, understated. David wrote without a microscope, yet the vocabulary he chose has aged with remarkable precision.
For reflection
David used the vocabulary of divine miracles, Red Sea vocabulary, burning mountain vocabulary, to describe your body. Look at your hands right now. Flex your fingers. The same God who parted the sea assembled those tendons in the dark. Where has the familiarity of living in your own body caused you to lose the yare David said was the only proper response?
Yare is the trembling you feel before something vastly beyond your scale. David felt it while thinking about his own bones and skin. He did not need a microscope. He needed honesty.
Sources: BDB Lexicon; Kraus, 'Psalms 60-150' (Continental Commentary); Tate, 'Psalms 51-100' (WBC)