Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Fall 2022 PDF
    • SUMMER 2022 ARTICLES
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
    • LIBERTY TO DO WHAT? Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno join George McKenna June 1, 2022 in New York
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2022
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2022
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 STUDENT or PREGNANCY CENTER STAFF Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2022
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

A Pastor's Reflections

0 Comment

Woven by God

28 Jul 2017
W. Ross Blackburn
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:13-16).

 

The Scriptures have a way of reducing to absurdity the self-justifying questions we often pose. For instance, when Jesus was asked “Who is my neighbor?” by a lawyer who wanted to know who he was required to love and who he was not, Jesus responded by telling the story of a despised Samaritan—who would be a neighbor.

Here is such a question in our day: When does life begin? And another: When does a fetus become a person? 

Is it at conception? “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”  

Quickening? “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well.”

 Viability? “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.”  

Birth? “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” 

Evidently the psalmist doesn’t appear to be concerned with our timelines and categories. We shouldn’t be surprised, for there is only one reason why we ask whether or not a fetus is a person, or when life begins. Yet the Scriptures are not silent in these matters.

Peter Leithart has written a helpful reflection, available online, having to do with this passage. The Hebrew word roqem is used to describe the intricate embroidery God called for in the weaving of the curtains of the Tabernacle, the magnificent tent where the Lord dwelt before the building of the Temple. The same word, translated “intricately woven,” is used in Psalm 139 to describe God’s careful work in creating life. As the reader of the Old Testament will appreciate, to violate the sacred space of the Tabernacle was to put oneself at great risk of the wrath of God. An excerpt from Leithart’s reflection:

With its allusions to the roqem work of the tabernacle, the Psalm goes further, implying not only that God has made the infant in the womb, but also that the infant is being woven into a dwelling for God. Abortion attacks not only a creature of God but a house of God. The abortionist’s instruments pierce through the unfinished roqem curtains and tread on holy ground. We are talking here not only about slaughter of the innocent but about sacrilege, a direct attack on “space” claimed by God. That is the most serious offense possible. Paul’s warning hovers ominously over our nation: “If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy.”

In dealing with human life, we are on holy ground. If God is jealous for his Tabernacle, how much more is He jealous for what the Tabernacle represents, we who are woven in His image and likeness?

Leithart’s entire reflection can be found here: https://www.firstthings.com/article/1999/11/attacking-the-tabernacle

READ MORE FROM REV. BLACKBURN

 

282 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
W. Ross Blackburn

Dr. Ross Blackburn has been ordained for 20 years and has served as Rector for Christ the King for the past 10. He earned a Master of Divinity at Trinity School for Ministry, and a PhD in biblical studies at the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland. He and his wife Lauren have been married for 23 years and have five children.
As a member of Anglicans for Life's Board of Directors, Dr. Blackburn is a regular contributor to AFL's Lectionary Life App series, and writes for the Human Life Review as well as  Christian Publications.

Social Share

  • google-share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Abortion activist attempts to expose crisis pregnancy centers—and fails

17 Jan 2023

An Abortion Clinic in Your Neighborhood

09 Jan 2023

“Benedict XVI, 95, Who Defended Doctrine, Dies.”                                                         — The New York Times, January 1, 202

04 Jan 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Meaghan Bond Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Doino Jr. William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • TOPICS
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.