What does Psalm 139:13 mean?
Scripture credits God with creating children long before they are physically born. David addresses God as having formed his inner being before birth. Job says something similar: "You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews" (Job 10:11).We know from Genesis 1:27 that we were created in the image of God. This passage also reveals that God wove us together in the womb. We are, therefore, not a product of randomness or nature, but of God's omnipotent handiwork. God crafted each person in his or her mother's womb to be a distinct individual. We owe our existence to Him and not to happenstance.
Because of this, human life both before and after birth is sacred. The unborn child is not simply tissue to be discarded at the mother's discretion. Since every human being is created in the image of God, it is a heinous sin to commit murder, whether by aborting the unborn, killing oneself, or taking someone else's life in an act of rage. Every person, whether male or female, no matter the ethnicity, age, or political persuasion, is someone made in the image of God and known completely by Him. Believers are called upon to love even our enemies (Matthew 5:44); often that begins by first acknowledging their inherent worth as a human knit together by God.
