What does it mean to be “fearfully made?” – Psalm 139:14

In the King James Version (KJV) Bible the whole scripture Psalm 139:14 reads:  "I will praise thee:  for I am fearfully and wonderfully made:  marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well."

The Old Testament scriptures were originally written in Hebrew, later translated into English and other languages.  The word translated "fearfully" in this scripture comes from the Hebrew word yârê.  That is #3372 in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.  Sometimes yârê is translated "reverence," such as in Leviticus 19:30 – "Ye shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary:  I am the LORD."  To be reverent means, according to Webster, "to regard with profound respect and honor."    The meaning of Psalm 139:14 seems to be that we are so amazingly made that we should have a reverent fear of the Lord who created us.

Our Heavenly Father does not want us to have a timid or cowardly fear of Him or anyone else.  The Apostle Paul states in II Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."  New International Version Bible (NIV) 

We also know that "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom"  Palm 111:10 (NIV)  Another place in the Bible where yârê is used is in Psalms 66:5, 6.  The King James rendering is:  "Come and see the works of God:  he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.  He turned the sea into dry land:  they went through the flood on foot:  there did we rejoice in him."  At first that sounds a little frightening, but the scripture shows that the "terrible" demonstration of God's power resulted in the Israelites being rescued and that they were joyous.  The NIV translates verse 5 as:  "Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf."  One of Webster's definitions of "awe" is:  "reverent wonder tinged with fear inspired by the sublime."

When we see God's creation on earth and in the whole universe, we are filled with great wonder at His mighty power, majesty, and wisdom.  We see that He loves us and has provided all these things for us to enjoy, even though the earth is in an imperfect state at this time.  We recognize our own smallness and imperfection, and we fear to displease such a great God.  But this fear should bring us closer to God, instead of driving us away from Him.  It makes us want to have Him as our Father, and we want to praise and honor and serve Him.