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.
For now, your glorious body is earthly and corruptible. Each day hastens death. Aging is inevitable; youth unpreservable. Strength diminishes and beauty fades. If “by reason of strength,” some outlive the average lifespan, it is only because God himself planned it so (Psalm 90:10).
God’s sovereignty over lifespans is an unwelcome truth for those who have never given up the quest to find the fountain of youth or for those who “rage against the dying of the light.” Yet it liberates those who, like David, know God and are known by him.
Set free from futile attempts to lengthen their years, God’s people rage instead against the idolatry of body-obsession. They carefully evaluate all expenditures meant to conform their bodies to current beauty standards, delay the withering effects of age, or escape the ravages of disease. While they nurture and strengthen their bodies in the face of inevitable decline, they do so not in fruitless attempts to prolong their days, but in the hopes of honoring God with every day he gives them.
Purposed by Him and for Him
Far from flinching at his finitude, David perceives an eternal purpose for his finite body. Verse 18 hints at resurrection: “I awake, and I am still with you.” For those who know God and are known by him, the sleep of death will give way to eternal life when they shed their temporary, corruptible bodies and wake in the presence of their Maker.
Until that day, God furnishes each finite body with sufficient strength to endure its numbered days. Your body will persevere until you pass through the veil into God’s presence, where he will transform your body, far more glorious than before. That body will be incorruptible. “Age will not wither” it. And unfading in strength and beauty, it will endure throughout eternity.
But beyond the task of carrying him through his numbered days on earth, David implies a greater purpose for his body and soul: to be searched and known by the God who expertly knitted him together (Psalm 139:1, 23–24). 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.
To such a glorious truth, we can hardly utter, “My body, my choice.” Neither can we indulge lust and fancy or live for worldly pleasure or praise. From start to finish, we are God’s: gloriously created, gloriously sustained, gloriously redeemed, gloriously purposed in this life, and gloriously recreated in the future.
Your Body, His Service
These ancient truths ought to silence both disparaging remarks and vain boasting about the body. Has God strengthened your body to do many good works? Praise him for it! Do not flinch at the toll it requires. Rejoice that he has sustained you thus far.
Has he sidelined you with affliction? Even so, your body is accomplishing God’s glorious, if mysterious, purposes for it.
Has God gifted you with an unusual measure of beauty or strength? Offer these in service to him, attracting others to his unparalleled divine beauty.
Are you stooped from many years of load-bearing? Are your knuckles gnarled with arthritis? Your time may be drawing to its close, but God will grant your body sufficient strength to walk in good works until the end. This is why he made you!
Until that day when you wake in the presence of your Maker, serve God with the strength he supplies. Like Jesus, offer your body in service to those entrusted to your care. Invest your strength in carrying on the work of the One who sacrificed his body for you. Fellowship with Jesus in his life, in his work, in his death; share in his delight of knowing and obeying God. And like Jesus, lay down your body in eager expectation of taking it up again, this time glorified and imperishable.
