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Psalm 139:16

Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.

14I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
15My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!
18If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
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← Psalm 139:15Psalm 139:17 →
Notice

Days written before they began can bring comfort and hard questions about God's rule over a life whose course you cannot yet see.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What comfort or tension do you find in your days being written before they began?

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How does God's seeing your body before birth shape the way you regard your life today?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

5 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Jeremiah 1:5“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”Both passages speak of God's knowledge of a person before birth, with Jeremiah also receiving a prophet's appointment.
Psalm 56:8You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your container. Aren’t they in your book?God's book appears in both prayers: one speaks of days ordained, the other of wanderings counted and tears kept.
Malachi 3:16Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared the …Both passages use a written book to speak of God's attention to human lives.
Revelation 20:12I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were …Both passages speak of books containing a record of human life, though Revelation describes judgment according to works.
Exodus 32:32Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”Both passages speak of God's written book, though Moses pleads for forgiveness while the psalm speaks of days ordained.
Where this verse fits

Fear for the future. aging.

What the Bible says about fear →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Entrust one feared future day to God

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Encouragement

The days ahead remain hidden from you. Yet the God who saw your body before birth had your days written in his book before any began.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 139:16. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 139 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).