Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
Parallel translations
- WEB I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
- KJV I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
- BSB I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.
- NKJV I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
- NASB I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David praises God because he is 'fearfully and wonderfully made,' marveling at the Creator's works. It calls every person to gratitude and awe before God.
Overview
Reflecting on his own formation, David responds with thanksgiving rather than mere self-regard, for the wonder points to the Maker. The phrase 'fearfully and wonderfully made' captures both the awe and the intricate design of human life. Such wonder anticipates the greater wonder of redemption, where God remakes sinners into the image of Christ (Ephesians 2:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Gen 1:26–27God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
- Ps 111:2Yahweh’s works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them.
- Ps 104:24Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
- Ps 92:4–5For you, Yahweh, have made me glad through your work. I will triumph in the works of your hands.
- Job 5:9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;
- Ps 40:5Many, Yahweh, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
- Rev 15:3They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, the Almighty! Righteous and true are your ways, you King of the nations.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 139:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.