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5.
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Thou hast beset me behind and before. Like the air, all
around, yet not perceived.
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6.
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Such knowledge... as God has... is too wonderful for
me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. But see Eph. 3:19 and 4:13 and
context (in which Paul is quoting this psalm: cp. Eph. 4:9 with v. 15
here).
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7.
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Whither shall I flee from thy presence?
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“Closer is He than breathing,
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And nearer than hands and feet” —
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one of Tennyson’s higher inspirations. This word
“flee” suggests the all-too-common experience of wanting to get away
from God. The impulse to flee from the face of God (“presence” here
= panim, or face) is as old as the Fall (Gen. 3:8). And in this
respect the biggest coward of all is the atheist, who is so determined to get
away from his own personal responsibility to a Higher Power, that he airily
abolishes God and then considers his problems solved. The poor fool! Jonah tried
this (1:3,10), but found the might of God in the storm and the “great
fish” (1:17) too much for him. Like him, most others learn the hard
way.
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8.
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Heaven and hell (Sheol) are the two
vertical extremes of Creation.
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9.
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The morning (sunrise in the east) and the
uttermost parts of the sea (the Mediterranean, to the west) are the
two horizontal extremes of Creation.
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13.
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For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in
my mother’s womb. The RSV has: “For thou didst form my inward
parts; thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb.” This
last verb describes the inwrought intricacy of pattern on the veil of the
Tabernacle. Yet that unique man-made fabric was simplicity itself compared with
the fantastic complexity of every human being coming to birth. David, without
the resources of modern investigation in the field of genetics (see John Morris,
“Science and the Disciple”, The Christadelphian, May 1989,
Vol. 126, No. 1499, pp. 183, 184), was awestruck. Then what would he have had to
say about the way the genes of two parents are knit together to produce, every
time, an absolutely unique human specimen?
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Such a comparison, between a building and a human being, is
fitting to teach us that the true “tabernacle” was the man
Christ Jesus (John 1:14; 2:19; Col. 2:9; Heb. 8:2; 9:8,9,11; Matt. 12:6), and
that every man may be a temple, filled with the glory of
God:
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“Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1
Cor. 6:19; cp. 2 Cor. 6:16).
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14.
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I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully
(palah) made. It is possible that, if Saul of Tarsus took a new name
after conversion, he may have taken such a name, Paul, from this description
(palah) of a marvellous new birth. (With this verse cp. Gal.
1:15: “God, who separated — the Hebrew equivalent is also
palah — me from my mother’s
womb”.)
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15.
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My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in
secret, and curiously wrought. The last phrase describes the embroidery of
the door hangings and the vail of the most holy in the Tabernacle (Exod.
26:31,36; 27:16; 36:37; 38:18 — cp. Heb. 10:20!) and the high
priest’s coat (Exod. 28:39; 39:29). The body of the fetus is described as
woven together of so many differently-colored threads, like an exquisitely
beautiful tapestry (cp. Jer. 1:5).
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In the lowest parts of the earth. ‘In the lowest
parts, even the earth’. A comparison of Isa. 44:23 with 49:13 shows
that this expression is simply an idiomatic way of emphasizing the contrast
between God’s heaven and the human sphere on earth.
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16.
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Thine eyes did see my unformed substance, yet being
imperfect. The physical features were being fashioned in continuance,
day by day, but they were not yet as complete as their Creator meant them to
be.
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In thy book might suggest that all my members
means the days of the new life not yet begun (cp. v. 17). (For God’s
“book” of remembrance, see references, Psalms Studies, Psa.
56, Par. 5, v. 8.)
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When as yet there was none of them. That is, none as
yet have come forth to be marvelled at.
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17.
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This verse and Psa. 40:5 are remarkably similar; but the
context is hardly the same.
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How precious also are thy thoughts unto me. That is,
God’s purposes with the psalmist. The marvel of formation in the womb is
now matched by the equally wonderful Providence with which each day and every
day runs its course according to the unperceived guidance of God. The evidences
of this Providence are not to be counted (v. 18); they are too numerous, too
complex, too “wonderful”.
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21,22.
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A four-fold expression of hatred. Why? See Par. 3.
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23.
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Try me, and know my thoughts, that is, ‘my plans
and purposes’ (v. 17).
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24.
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And lead me in the way everlasting: Psa. 1:6; 16:9-11;
Prov. 4:18.
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1-6.
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Here is the unique intimacy between Father and Son. In the
days of his flesh, even Jesus had to marvel (v. 6).
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7-12.
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Christ’s entire life wrapped round by the care of God
and his consciousness of this. Verse 7 suggests the inherited human nature of
Jesus. He too had to live a life of faith (vv. 9,10). Whether ascending up to
“heaven” (in the mount of transfiguration), or descending into the
waters of baptism or into the grave — in all these experiences, v. 8
stands true: thou art there!
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13-16.
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Christ’s virgin birth. Eph. 4:9 quotes v. 15. Though
Jesus was “from above” in the sense of his divine parentage (John
3:31; 6:33, 50; 8:23,42; etc.), he was actually woven together in the womb of a
woman (see John Carter, The Letter to the Ephesians, pp.
98-115).
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14.
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Marvellous are thy works. The s.w. in Hebrew occurs in
Isa. 9:6: “His name shall be called Wonderful”.
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15,16.
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Do these verses also picture the re-creation of life in the
entombed Christ? (See Eureka, vol. 1, p. 15.) Jesus, born from a virgin
womb and, later, from a “virgin” tomb (John 19:41)! Then all my
members would be all believers, destined to become members of the One
Christ-Body (1 Cor. 12:27; Col. 1:15,18) as a result of the death and
resurrection of the Head.
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17,18.
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Even Jesus marvelled at the Purpose and Providence of his
Father.
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19-22.
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Even Jesus hated the sin of the sinners who surrounded him,
but with a difference. He wept over Jerusalem.
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23,24.
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This self-yielding of Jesus to his Father, is something to
marvel at. And Jesus was not without an inheritance of his Father’s
all-seeing, all-knowing faculties: see Matt. 12:25; 16:8; 17:25; Mark 2:6,8;
3:23; 5:30; Luke 5:22; 6:8; 7:39,47; 9:47; 11:17; John 1:48,49; 2:24,25; 3:7;
4:18,29; 6:61,64; 11:14; 13:38; 16:19,30; 20:27; 21:17; Rom. 8:27; Heb. 4:12;
and the seven-fold “I know thy works” in Revelation
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