Psalm 139:13 and 16 NIV: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” and “your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
Psalm 139 has such great inspiration; in fact, I already did an art piece on verses 23-24 of this chapter. But this week, this part of the psalm struck me. I love the visual images that come to my mind when I read this first part. God creating my inmost being – the word in Hebrew used for inmost being is Kilyah. Kilyah is actually the kidney, but the word is used poetically to reference our most sensitive parts of ourselves. The ancients thought the Kidney was the place for our inner thoughts, feelings, and consciousness. A Hebrew Word Lessons website described the ancient belief that the Kidneys were the organs responsible for thinking, dreaming, deciding, and feeling.
You were a person in the womb, already the seeds of feelings, dreams, and thoughts taking root. God created and formed that inmost part. Second in the “knitting together”. The word Sakak is to join, knit, and cover. I tried to depict both of these concepts first with a hot molten essence (left leg) forming into bronze (right leg) and then the covering of our knitted skin by the hands of God. I purposefully melded those hands into the womb, into the placenta symbolically. God working through our own natural scientific process of embryonic development.
The second verse I had to pause at was verse 16: All the days ordained for me. That word for ordained is the Hebrew word yatsar. It’s used more often in the Bible as formed, as a potter forms pottery. But just as often, it’s used to mean planned. As someone who does pottery, I can say you must have a plan before attempting to form the clay!
I like to imagine that before I took my first breath, God, who exists in all time saw the map of my life. Not in a predestined, no freedom or choice sort of way, but a dynamic map constantly changing based on my decisions. It doesn’t feel oppressive to think of my days ordained, but more reassuring.
Leave a Reply