Bible Society of South Africa

A New Beginning – Day 8

Praise Him because you are human.

Bible text(s)

14I praise you because you are to be feared;

all you do is strange and wonderful.

I know it with all my heart.

Psalms 139:14GNBOpen in Bible reader

13You created every part of me;

you put me together in my mother's womb.

Psalms 139:13GNBOpen in Bible reader

15When my bones were being formed,

carefully put together in my mother's womb,

when I was growing there in secret,

you knew that I was there —

16you saw me before I was born.

The days allotted to me

had all been recorded in your book,

before any of them ever began.

Psalms 139:15-16GNBOpen in Bible reader

5Yet you made them inferior only to yourself;

you crowned them with glory and honour.

6You appointed them rulers over everything you made;

you placed them over all creation:

7sheep and cattle, and the wild animals too;

Psalms 8:5-7GNBOpen in Bible reader

17Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come. 18All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also. 19Our message is that God was making the whole human race his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19GNBOpen in Bible reader

10God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10GNBOpen in Bible reader

New life remains a work of God – He himself decided to create man in his own image, in his likeness. A birth therefore remains the greatest proof of the only God’s continued involvement with humankind. No wonder David praises him for this magnificent work of creation: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 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. 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 139:13,15-16).  This makes David cry out: ” I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…”

 Enthralled by this beautiful creation that was even exalted above the heavens, the stars and the moon, David asked a rhetorical question: “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet; all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild,” (Psalm 8:5-7). And then he exalts the Lord’s great name for this: “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:9)

The Lord again becomes actively involved with the spiritual birth of a person who chooses to believe in God and Jesus. Because we strayed so far from his original plan for us, he reconciles us to him through Christ, and so we are created as a new person.

(2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

Ephesians 2:10 says we are his handiwork (poiema in Greek), created (poieo) in Christ Jesus. This word refers to workmanship or creation by a master craftsman. And that is exactly what our Creator God is – a Master Artist, incomparable in perfection. What’s more, he is the poet of all times, because the English word “poem” is derived from poiema. What a unique creation we are – people with the nature of God and poetically composed by the masterful hand of our Father!

We praise you Creator! We exalt you, Author of our lives full of rhythm, rhyme and symmetry! We are your human poetry – and want to live lives that honour you!

Bible Society of South Africav.4.18.14
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