David delights in God’s intimate knowledge of him. He opens himself up to God’s searching with the hopes of belonging — body and soul — to him.So you also belong to God. Your body is his because he carefully crafted it at conception. And if you delight in being known by God, your body is doubly his because he redeemed it at great personal cost, at the cost of another body, a body God secretly wove together for his precious Son, a body whose days were formed before birth, and a body that was broken and poured out in death to purchase you and make you his own.

Humanity’s uneasy relationship with the body is a tale as old as time. For thousands of years, God’s people have sought King David’s wisdom from Psalm 139 to inform their view of the body. Today, the ancient hymn still speaks. Whatever your particular struggle with your body, Psalm 139 addresses it by revealing the glory, finitude, and purpose of God’s design.

Glorious Through and Through

Why does the post-labor mother marvel at her newborn? Why admire every toe, survey each nail, note birthmarks and the shape of the ears, and delight at every quiver of the chin? Because she was not privy to the secret processes that brought this child, with all of his unique traits, into her arms.

So, David in Psalm 139 marvels at the miracle of God’s handiwork in crafting his body and soul. The ruddy, handsome king with beautiful eyes (1 Samuel 16:12) isn’t impressed simply with human beauty and strength, as well he might be. Instead, as he contemplates God’s work from embryonic stage to the knitting and weaving together of his frame, personality, and inward parts, his heart overflows in worship to God: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13–16). David rightly senses that he — body and soul — is a work of the Master Craftsman.

And so too are you. Your body, as much as your soul, is one of God’s glorious works. It bears the unmistakable signature of the divine artist so that, like creation, your body “declare[s] the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). When was the last time meditating on your body elicited worship?

Sadly, many men and women who meditate on their bodies compare themselves to cultural ideals and then turn on their bodies with disgust, denigrating them by body-shaming themselves and others. Psalm 139 is here for such a time as this. Not only does it reframe our thoughts about our bodies, teaching us to see them for the glorious works of God that they are, but it trains our hearts to worship God for his artistry.

Finite from Beginning to End

Though the human body has a certain kind of glory, it is undeniably a fading glory. And so, after worshiping God for his glorious origin, David transitions to sing of his own finitude. He describes God’s secret act of creation as occurring in the hidden “depths of the earth” (Psalm 139:15), reminding us that our bodies — glorious as they are — began and now end with the dust of the earth. They are only finite bodies after all: “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (verse 16). As God numbered David’s days, so he has numbered yours, establishing their finite number from conception to the grave.

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