The Knowledge of God in Psalm 139

Tim McMahon & Bob Hill

Boettner wrote, “[God’s] foreknowledge of what is yet to be, whether it be in regard to the world as a whole or in regard to the detailed life of every individual, rests upon His pre-arranged plan.”1 One of the references he cited was Psalm 139:14-16.

This passage, including verse 13, is translated as follows:

(NKJV) For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and [that] my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, [and] skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 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.

(Darby) For thou hast possessed my reins; thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well. 15 My bones were not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my unformed substance, and in thy book all [my members] were written; [during many] days were they fashioned, when [as yet] there was none of them.

(KJV) For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully [and] wonderfully made: marvelous [are] thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.

(NIV) For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

(NRSV) For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

(Young’s Literal Translation) For Thou – Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou dost cover me in my mother’s belly. 14 I confess Thee, because that [with] wonders I have been distinguished. Wonderful [are] Thy works, And my soul is knowing [it] well. 15 My substance was not hid from Thee, When I was made in secret, Curiously wrought in the lower part of earth. 16 Mine unformed substance Thine eyes saw, And on Thy book all of them are written, The days they were formed – And not one among them.

(Rotherham) For thou didst possess thyself of my reins, Thou didst weave me together in the womb of my mother. 14 I thank thee, in that fearfully was my being distinguished, Wonderful are thy works, And mine own soul is observing [them] intently! 15 My substance was not hid form thee, – When I was made in secret, When I was skillfully figured in the lower parts of the earth. 16 Mine unfinished substance Thine eyes behold, And in thy book all the parts thereof were written, – The days they should be fashioned! While yet there was not one among them.

(McMahon) For you possessed my kidneys. You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You because I am awesomely marvelous. Your acts are marvels which my soul knows very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place [when] I was woven in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes watched my fetus [in all its features] (In your book it was fully described in writing) as it was being formed over a period of time. And one of those [features] is His.

Verse 16, especially, is often cited to support the notion that God has predestined the lives and actions of human beings. Confer the NIV and NKJ which are typical. From these translations one might reasonably understand that God, like the Fates of Greek mythology, has determined the individual’s life-span and the course of events within it. Yet, interestingly, the KJV, whose translators’ predestinarian bent is evident throughout their work, viewed this text from a much less fatalistic perspective. In their view, apparently, God was able to foreknow, and perhaps to foreordain, David’s physical characteristics from his embryonic state. One might take this as an anachronistic (disjointed time reference to the) description of genetics by the psalmist (if God had not inspired it) and the translators.

While the Darby, KJV, NRSV, Rotherham, and Young’s Literal Translations offer reasonable concepts, in order to understand them and the McMahon translation more fully, we must examine the original Hebrew text. One caution at the outset: the text of Psalm 139:13-16 is extremely difficult. Notice how different the renderings are and the number of bracketed words supplied by the translators in their attempt to make sense of the original. We2 will attempt a fresh analysis of the text in order to validate the McMahon interpretation of the Hebrew passage.

Let us first view the passage under consideration within the context of Psalm 139 as a whole. Dahood3 points out that the psalm is a declaration of innocence on the part of the author. Yahweh knows that he is pure, that he is not guilty of unfaithfulness or idolatry. His accusers (v. 19) have nothing to stand on. God Himself can vouch for him. God knows everything about him, all his deepest secrets, even what he cannot know about himself.4 Even if he wanted to escape the Yahweh’s providence, that would be impossible. Heaven is not high enough, the sea is not far enough, the winds are not remote enough, Sheol is not deep enough. The breadth and depth of God’s knowledge are “to wonderful for me, too high for me to attain” (v. 6). He concludes the section leading up to our passage by exclaiming: “Even in the darkness He observes me5 and night is daylight all around me. Even the darkness is not too dark for You and at night it shines like daytime for You, as darkness, so is light.”

The imagery in verse 12 of darkness, night, and concealment remind David of that place which in Hebrew thought most typifies the unknown: Sheol, the realm of the dead.6 The Old Testament offers only imprecise descriptions of the nether-world, where humans exist consciously in a shadowy state. In the Hebrew mind, the tentative, undefined existence in Sheol was comparable to another realm of human existence of which men had only the shadow of knowledge: the life of the fetus in his mother’s womb. The association between Sheol and the womb is intensified by the figure of earth as mother.7 Just as the fetus lives within his mother’s body, so Sheol is a chamber within the earth.8 Job declares: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there.”9 Scripture elsewhere affirms that God has intimate knowledge of the nether-world (Job 26:6; Pro 15:11).

Here, in Psalm 139, David declares that He possesses equally comprehensive knowledge of life in the womb. As we approach verses 13-16, then, we must understand that the focus of David’s awestruck praise is not God’s ability to make things happen, but His ability to examine the impenetrable, to see as well in darkness as in light, to know thoroughly and intimately those realms which to humans are mere shadows. Scripture often celebrates Yahweh’s ability to bring about His will (Isa 49:10; Psa 115:3), but here the subject is His wisdom, His understanding, His ability to perceive and know all things.

Verse 13 For you possessed my kidneys. You covered me in my mother’s womb.

ki atah qanita kilyotay tesukkeni bebeten imi

While the sentence structure of this verse is refreshingly straightforward, there is room for discussion on the meaning of several key words. t*yn]q*, qanita hnq, qnh generally means “possess, acquire, purchase”. In Ugaritic it seems to mean “create, bring forth”. Scholars have attempted to assign this sense in Hebrew as well.10 yt*yl=k!, kilyotay tylk, kilayot literally are the kidneys of a human or animal. The word is also used figuratively in a manner similar to the biblical use of heart, to signify a person’s innermost being or mind. This, then, might be a statement to the effect that God knew David intimately from his very beginning. Alternatively, The Theological Workbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) suggests that kilayot is put here by the figure of speech, synecdoche, a part for the body as a whole. If this is true, it would be an indicator of Yahweh’s protective care over the bearer of the messianic lineage. kks, skk normally means “to cover”, as in Exodus 33:22, “I will cover you with My hand,” indicating protection (Nah 2:5), oversight (Ex 25:20) or concealment (Lam 3:44).11 Dahood proposed translating the preposition b- ‘from’, a usage common in Psalms.12 This changes the focus to an affirmation of God’s protection throughout his life: “You have covered me from my mother’s womb.”

Verse 14 I will praise You, High One, for You are marvelously wonderful. odka ‘al nora atah niplaot Marvels, Your acts Yes, You have known my soul from of old. niplaim ma‘aseka wenapsi yada ‘ta mead

The challenge of this verse is the opposite of the previous: here, the vocabulary is relatively simple, but the syntax is difficult. Our translation above departs from the Massoretic Text (MT) in favor of the reading preserved in the Qumran manuscript (1QPs-a) as transcribed by Sanders. The best rendering we can come up with reading MT is as follows:

Verse 14 I will praise You because I am awesomely marvelous. Your acts are marvels which my soul knows very well.

This rendering divides the “marvels” between Yahweh and David, His creation, rather than focusing on Yahweh alone.13 The final clause of this version addresses the psalmist’s knowledge instead of the knowledge of God. This is the overall theme of the psalm.

‘al is normally a preposition, “on, upon”, which would, logically here, be “because” in sense. Dahood sees here, as often in Psalms, a divine title, ‘el, similar to the universally recognized ‘elyon, “Most High”. The preposition, ‘al, here would be superfluous, as the following ki already means “because”.

The MT form noraot is a feminine plural adjective, “awesome”, with no apparent noun to modify. 1QPs-a reads nwr’ ’th, which we have vocalized nora atah, the masculine singular form along with the 2ms pronoun. This yields an exclamation from David to Yahweh, “You are awesome!” serving as an explanation for the preceding verb of praise.14

The form, niplaot (from 1 QPs-a; MT reads nipleti) is a feminine plural adjective meaning “marvelous”. We have interpreted it adverbially: “You are marvelously awesome.”

With Dahood, we have repointed MT yoda‘at (feminine singular qal participle) to yada‘ta (2 ms qal perfect), “You have known”. The final word in the verse, m’d, we have (again with Dahood) chosen to interpret as a dialectal form of meaz, “from of old”. It would be equally valid to retain the MT pointing and render, “You have known my soul so well”. In either case, the important factor is to see it as a description of God’s knowledge rather than the psalmist’s.

David is simply in awe of the extent of Yahweh’s knowledge both of the creation in general and of himself in particular. This dual focus, along with the highly emotional state of the psalmist, explains the somewhat abrupt transitions in the syntax. Even if the entire world is against him, Yahweh knows his innocence; Yahweh will vindicate him, for He has known him intimately since his very conception.

Verse 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place [when] I was woven in the lowest parts of the earth.

lo nikhad ‘ozmi mimeka aser ‘usseti baseter ruqqamti betahtiyot ares

The pointing of ‘ozmi ordinarily would indicate its derivation from ‘osem, “might”, but as this does not fit the sense, a derivation from esem, “bone”, is much more plausible and supported by the versions. While one would normally expect the plural ‘asamay, the singular is apparently used here as a collective (Cf. NKJV, “my frame”).15

The verb form ‘usseti is understood as a form of ‘sh, “to make”, although among over 2,000 occurences, this is the only attestation of the pu‘al conjugation in Scripture. The sense fits well, and we have seen no convincing alternative proposal. Perhapst the pu‘al is used in an intensive sense to depict the duration of the process.

We have rendered seter as “secret place” because of its parallel to “the lower parts of the earth”, a clear designation of Sheol.

The verb rqm and its noun riqmah occur collectively twenty times in the OT, always with the meaning “embroider, weave”. The verb implies great skill on the part of the weaver and usually a variegation of colors in the woven object. This unique usage appears to be an allusion to the marvelous intricacy of the human body, recognized in pre-scientific times.

Verse 15 makes explicit the equation of the womb with Sheol. Since Sheol is “the secret place”, a miscarried fetus is “hidden” there (Job 3:16). Perhaps the view of Sheol as “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16) is prefigured in this usage, for “the secret place” is also used to designate the intimate dwelling of Yahweh (Psa 18:11; 32:7; 91:1).

While David employs passive forms here (“I was made . . . I was woven”), I believe he views Yahweh as the One who brought him forth: “Your hands have made me and stood me upright” (Psa 119:73). The comparison to Sheol, which is in the earth, looks back to God’s original formation of Adam “from the dust of the earth” (Gen 2:7). That God brought forth David from the lower parts of the earth also foreshadows the redemption of Christ, who descended into “the lower parts of the earth” (Eph 4:11) to bring forth the souls of the righteous, such as David, to eternal life.

David’s poetic usage of the expression “embroidered” or “variegated” leads us to pause briefly to reflect upon the ancient biblical writers’ appreciation of the process of conception and fetal development. Ecclesiastes 11:5 reminds us of the limitations of our knowledge: “Just as you do not know the way of the wind, or how the bones develop in the pregnant woman’s womb, so you do not know the action of God who does it all. Again, God’s understanding of fetal development is an indication of the superiority of His knowledge. The most explicit description of the process is found in Job 10:8-11:

Your hands fashioned and made me altogether – yet now You destroy me! Remember that You made me out of clay and to the dust You will return me.16 Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese? You clothed me with skin and flesh and knitted me with bones and muscles.

Verse 16 Your eyes saw my fetus and in Your book they all were written. They were formed [over a period of] days, and one of them is His. Or, and not one is among them.17

golmi rau ‘eneka we‘al sipreka kullam yikkatebu yamim yussaru welo ehad bahem

The difficult text of verse 16 has challenged interpreters throughout the centuries. The LXX renders almost word for word, yielding a translation not much better than the standard English versions: Your eyes beheld my unformed [body] and in Your book all will be written; they will be formed [over a period of] days, and none [is] among them.

toV ajkatevrgastovn mou ei[dosan oiJ ojfqalmoiv sou kaiV ejpiV toV biblivon sou pavnte" grafhvsontai hJmevra" plasqhvsontai kaiV oujqeiV" ejn aujtoi'"

The main problem is determining the antecedent of the plural suffix of kullam, which in turn is the apparent subject of the verbs yikkatebu and yussaru. The only available candidate, golmi, “my fetus”, is singular.18 The usual approach is to find the requisite plural noun in yammim, “days”. From this is derived the notion that the psalmist’s days are written in God’s book; that is to say, his life, or at least its duration, is predetermined. However, we see no solid basis for the notion that the plural suffix is “anticipatory” to a following noun. Further, the verb ysr means “to form, shape”, generally a physical object; rarely used figuratively in the sense of “formulate” a plan of action. The idea of “forming days” has no OT precedent. Finally, in this interpretation, the word ehad, “one”, must refer to one of the days, which yields no perceptible sense from either textual variant of the final clause.19 Modern interpreters generally resort to some sort of emendation (e.g., glmy – gmly, “my actions”, with support from the Syriac) or reanalysis (Dahood reads gilay-m, “my life cycles”), but none of these attempts satisfies us.

Unconvinced by ancient or modern interpretations, we here present our own proposal. We caution the reader that our solution is hypothetical, not resting on empirical evidence, yet we consider it eminently reasonable. We propose that glmy be revocalized as golmay, a plural form representing the diversity of elements in the embryonic human body. The form is then understood in English as a sort of collective noun. Thus, we would translate golmay as “my fetus”, but the plural form would enable us to take this noun as the antecedent of the plural suffix -m, and so also as the subject of the two plural verbs, “were written” and “were formed”. We cite by way of analogy the Hebrew noun panim, “face”, which “always occurs in the plural, perhaps indicative of the fact that the face is a combination of features” (TWOT), and accordingly takes plural verbs (Isa 29:22) and adjectives (Pro 25:23), even when it refers to the face of only one person. In this light, we translate as follows:

Verse 16 Your eyes watched my fetus [in all its features] (In your book it was fully described in writing) as it was being formed over a period of time. And one of those [features] is His.

The second clause is understood as somewhat parenthetical; the third clause is taken as subordinate to the first. The final clause is somewhat abrupt, but such sudden transitions (including the shift between second and third person) occur earlier in the psalm, as noted above.

David marvels at the depths of God’s knowledge and His providence. Throughout David’s gestation, Yahweh watched the unfolding of the marvelous process He had set in motion when He created Adam and Eve with the power of procreation. Yet, surely He was not merely observing, but carefully watching over David, forerunner of the promised Messiah who would sit on David’s throne.

What does it mean – David’s features were written in God’s book? This is usually taken as a reference to the book of life, which is then understood to mean (in light of Rev 21:27) that God determined David’s eternal destiny at the moment of his conception. However, the book of life is not the only book mentioned in Scripture. Revelation 20:12 refers to “the books”, echoing Daniel 7:10. In addition to the book of life, God has other books in which He records People’s deeds and also the experiences of His people (Psa 56:8). There is even a “book of Yahweh” concerning the natural activities of animals (Isa 34:16). We believe that David is referring to God’s careful record keeping concerning His beloved, even numbering the hairs on our heads. As cited above, Ecclesiastes 11:5 infers that fetal development is in some sense “the action of God”, and our verse (16) stresses that it takes place over a period of time (taking yamim adverbially, as in LXX).

We find it remarkable that those who oppose the open view of God and its resultant free agency for man would seek to buttress their argument by attempting to cite this text to support the notion that God made these determinations when David was in utero. This is especially curious since they declare in other places that all such determinations were made “before the foundation of the world.”

What then is the sense of the final clause of verse 16, “And one of those [features] is His.”? What “feature” of the fetus pertains especially to God? We believe this refers to the inner man, the soul-spirit. Yahweh is “the God of the spirits of all flesh” (Num 16:22; 27:16), not merely of the elect. Certainly the spirit of every son of Israel would be His in a special way simply by virtue of the covenant. Paul establishes in Romans 5:18 that through Christ’s righteous act all men are redeemed from the sin of Adam recorded in Romans 5:12. In that sense, the spirit of the fetus would truly be His at least until death ensues from the revival of sin (Rom 7:11). David himself trusted that his deceased child’s soul was where he would be going (2 Sam 12:23). “The spirit [neshamah] of man is Yahweh’s lamp, searching the chambers of the belly” (Pro 20:27). Finally, it must be in the spirit that Jesus Christ illuminates every man who enters the world: “That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9).

In contrast, taking the qere reading l’, “not”, we would render, “and not one of them [yet] existed [in its mature state]”. In other words, God could perceive all of David’s features when they did not possess discrete forms. This would be similar to the statement the Lord made to Jeremiah in 1:4,5: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you (God can read DNA better than we can read a book.); Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.’” He uses anyone He chooses to prophesy, e.g., Baalam.

God, looking upon David as a mere shapeless mass, could view him as the person he would become. To Yahweh, Creator of all, the individual’s genetic makeup is an open book. Certainly, if we mere human beings can reasonably anticipate the results of our efforts, God in His inestimable intelligence, can foresee David’s physical and mental characteristics and so deem him a suitable forerunner of the King. His ability in this regard is the same for each one of us as we are conceived in our mother’s womb. So we can jubilantly exclaim with the psalmist: “And for me, how precious are Your thoughts, O God how mighty their essence.”

1 Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 99.

2 The analysis of the text was done completely by McMahon.

3 Dahood, Mitchell J., The Anchor Bible v. III, Psalms 101-150, p. 284.

4 Here we might compare Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5. An apt comparison may be made also to Christ, the One falsely accused throughout His life by the self-righteous of His day and finally condemned as a criminal. In fact, the majority of this psalm may be read in a quite edifying manner as messianic.

5 Interpreting God as the subject of yesuppeni and taking swp here as equivalent to Arabic safa, ‘to watch, look’. Cf. Job 9:17, “who observes me from the storm cloud.” See Dahood, p. 291.

6 Darkness is associated with Sheol in 1 Sam 2:9; Job 15:22; Psa 88:13; 143:3.

7 This is not in the sense of our extreme environmentalists. The image of Mother Earth does not appear as such in Scripture, probably to differentiate Israelite religion from the fertility cult so dominant in the beliefs of the surrounding peoples, and to emphasize that Yahweh, who sometimes describes Himself with maternal imagery (Job 38:29; Isa 49:15,16), is the source of all creation, including the earth.

8 Sheol is actually called a “womb”, Strong’s 995, in Jonah 2:2,3.

9 Job’s statement is echoed in Ecc 5:15, and, in less metaphorical terms, by Paul in 1 Tim 6:7. Ecclesiastes further equates the pre-birth and post-death states in 6:4,5, indicating his belief in a conscious intermediate state, as opposed to the common but erroneous contrary interpretation of 9:5-10. The imagery of Job is brought out more fully in Ben Sira 40:1, “from the day they go forth from their mother’s womb, till the day they return to the mother of all living.”

10 Primarily in Gen 14:19-22, where Yahweh is called “Creator of heaven and earth” (NIV). However, Possessor is valid. Also see Deu 32:6, which may be translated to the effect that Yahweh created Israel. But this could be understood as a declaration that He redeemed (purchased) His people from Egypt.

11 A homophone meaning ‘knit together’ has been proposed for this text and Job 10:11, cited below.

13It also assumes that the verb nipleti is derived from pl’, ‘marvel’, rather than from plh, ‘separate’, with which the form is more compatible.

14 LXX o{ti foberw'" ejqaumastwvqh", “for You are awesomely wonderful”, is supportive here.

15 LXX toV ojstou'n mou is again sympathetic. 1QPs-a reads ‘sby, “my pain(s), unless this represents a phonetic confusion between the labials b and m.

16 Echoing the words of God to Adam in Gen 3:19.

17 Verse 16 exhibits a textual variant. The ketib, which is the text as written, reads lw, “to him”. The qere, the Massoretic marginal correction, reads l’, “not”. KJV and NKJV, as is their standard, follow the qere. We have chosen in our main exposition to follow the ketib, but also offer an explanation following the qere version.

18 The word glmy only occurs once in the Bible. The only other occurence of the root is the verbal form yglm, in 2 Ki 2:8, where Elijah the prophet “rolled up” his garment. Klein, in A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, defines golem as a “shapeless matter”. In medieval and modern Hebrew, the verb develops meanings of “personify” and “embody”. Rosenberg, in his Psalms: A New English Translation, quotes Rashi and Redaq (David Qimhi) to the effect that glm refers to “the solidified drop of sperm, before the limbs and organs are formed in it. It is called golem just as wood is called golem before it is formed into a utensil.” Klein also compares Aramaic gulma, “shapeless mass”.

19 The rabbis, following the ketib reading lw, have traditionally understood this as a reference to the sabbath: at the original creation, God formed the seven days, and one of them was His. We find this interpretation lovely, but cannot imagine how it would be of any relevance in the context of Psalm 139.