Psalms 138:14 — the awe, and who it points at
14I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well.
The famous line about being fearfully and wonderfully made is not what this edition says. Here the awe is directed at God, not at the reader.
Short answer
In this edition the verse is a confession of praise with a stated reason: God has been magnified terribly, and his works are miraculous. It closes with a claim about knowing — the soul knows this exceedingly well. It is recognition, not self-affirmation.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 3 min read
A note on the numbering first, because it trips people up. Editions following the Hebrew count list this as Psalm 139, verse 14. Ours follows the older Latin numbering, so it appears as Psalm 138.
The second thing to say is larger. The line most people quote from this verse — that they are fearfully and wonderfully made — is a rendering our edition does not carry. Here the astonishment is aimed outward: God has been magnified, his works are miraculous. The Portuguese edition keeps the reading about how the person was made; the Spanish one, like ours, points at the works.
That is worth knowing before building an argument on the half that a particular edition chose. Both readings have a long history, and the page you are on shows you one of them.
Where this verse appears
Psalm 139 is a poem about being known. The first part describes someone who knows when you sit down and when you rise; the second, that there is no place to disappear to; the third, the forming of a person before anyone else knew there was one.
Our verse sits at the hinge between the second and third parts, and it is the only line where the psalmist stops describing and starts thanking.
What it says
The main verb is confession, which is public rather than internal. Praising here means saying aloud what you have observed, and the verse ties the cause to it — this is not general praise, it is praise with a reason attached.
The word carrying the weight is the harsh one: terribly. It does not mean beautifully. It means at a scale that leaves the observer without a reaction, and this edition keeps that edge where softer renderings smooth it away. It matches the tone of the whole psalm, which is not comfortable anywhere.
The closing clause is the part almost nobody quotes and the part with most to say. It does not claim the psalmist feels this. It claims he knows it. That is a statement about settled knowledge — the kind that stays true on a day when nobody feels remarkable.
What to do with it today
If you arrived here looking for a verse about self-worth, this one serves — but it serves better the other way round. The text does not tell you to admire yourself. It tells you to admire the one who made things. That is a practical relief, because it removes the duty of sustaining your own good opinion of yourself on a bad day.
A small practice: when the sentence will not hold up in the mirror, read the second half. It speaks of works in the plural, and stepping outside yourself for a few minutes to look at any of the others tends to put the first half back where it belongs.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, it is easier to doubt myself than to doubt you. Teach me to begin with astonishment at what you have made, and let my own part in it come afterwards. Amen.