Moment in the Word
Tue, 10/31/2023 - 3:50pm
admin
By:
Edwin Woolsey
Psalms 139:13 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 - I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Part Three
Initially, we explored God's foreknowledge/omniscience. Next, we examined what David said about God's omnipresence. Now, we will consider God's predestination/election relating to birth, human existence, and death.
Psalms 139:13 - For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the 'depths of the earth.' 16Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days 'ordained for me' were WRITTEN IN YOUR BOOK (Book of Life) before one of them came to be. 17How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them 18Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I 'awake,' I am still with you.
Originally, an article in the New Yorker Magazine - August 31, 2023, caught my attention and motivated this study in Psalms 139. The author of the article, Amanda Gefter, wrote that by the third trimester, unborn babies are in REM SLEEP (dreaming) "for around twenty hours a day—researchers using ultrasound can see their eyes flitting to and fro—and their whole bodies seem to twitch. When a mother feels her baby kick, it may be because the baby is in rem sleep (dreaming). Once born, babies continue to spend an unusual amount of time in REM, often sleeping for sixteen hours a day and dreaming for eight."
This statement absolutely intrigued me because a person cannot dream what they have not previously seen. So, for a fetus to spend most of its time in the womb dreaming, what former visual life experiences are they replaying in their minds while their bodies develop in the mother's dark womb?
Googling the phenomenon, I found a medical study on a government site that surprised me even more! New findings suggest that SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) results from a baby's vivid dreams, "We suggest that sudden infant death syndrome or cot death may be a result of an infant dreaming about its life (or memory) as a fetus. In the course of that dream, since a fetus does not breathe (in the usual sense) the infant may cease to breathe and may die." (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7666822/)
But what does a new-born baby have to dream about without a reservoir of visual images to draw from, since there was no sight in the darkened womb?
Let's return to Psalms 139. In verse 12, David said, "You (God) created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" (vs 12), but then in verse 15, the Psalmist wrote something incredibly unexpected, "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the DEPTHS OF THE EARTH."
Throughout the Bible, the expression "DEPTHS OF THE EARTH" is ONLY used when speaking of the realm of the dead (Sheol/Hades/Hell/ the Grave). EXAMPLES: "But those who seek my life, to destroy it, Shall go into the LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH." Psalms 63:9 - ... "Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the DEPTHS OF THE EARTH; you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword." Ezekiel 31:18... "Then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit, to the people of old, and I will make you dwell in the LOWEST PART OF THE EARTH, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit." Ezekiel 26:20 - ... "Now this, 'He ascended' — what does it mean but that He (Christ) also first descended into the LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH (after His death)?" (Ephesians 4:9)
Based on the Scripture we've read, surely an unborn baby's vivid dreams arise from events during their previous life with God, as contributor Katherine Price said, "I feel confident that they (prenatal dreams) are from the spirit realms themselves which would be still very present in a new and pre-birth baby where the soul is still in both places. Here AND there."
In verse 18, David parallels resurrection from the dead with the miracle of birth. Read his words carefully, "When I 'awake,' I am 'STILL' with You!" Note that the word "STILL" suggests a life with God "before and after" the awakening occurs (whether a supernatural resurrection from the DEPTHS OF THE EARTH or a natural birth from a mother's womb). Either way, God's predestined plan for human election is fulfilled by our existence with Him prior to birth and our return to Him after death (Ecclesiastes12:7).
In conclusion, consider the words from the Church's ancient original Bible (the Septuagint), "Thine eyes saw my unwrought substance, and all men shall be written in thy book; they shall be formed by day, though there should for a time be no one among them (vs. 16). By God's predestination/election, we have existed with Him before we ever existed here! Undoubtedly, this phenomenon helps explain an individual's loving sensation of eventually "returning home" during Near Death Experiences (NDEs).