Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
Ver. 8. Thine hands have made me] Or, throughly and accurately wrought me, as it were, with much pains and labour; thou hast exactly fashioned all my members: not that God either hath hands, or putteth himself to pains; for he doth his work without either tool or toil, Isaiah 40:28. But this is attributed to him after the manner of men, to show the curious workmanship showed in man's creation, the masterpiece of all his works of wonder. This David sweetly singeth of, Psalms 139:1,24, and Galen admireth in that excellent book of his, De usu partium humani corporis, setting forth the praises of that God whom he knew not, and singing a hymn unto him. Man, saith one, is cura divini ingenii, he is God's escutcheon, wherein he hath portrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world. The sun, moon, and stars are but the works of God's fingers, Psalms 8:3, but man is the work of his hands, Psalms 139:14. He is the most beautiful building of a most wise architect, saith Euripides; the bold attempt of daring nature, saith another heathen; the greatest of all miracles, saith a third. David, speaking of him, and of God's goodness to him, begins to wonder before he speaketh, and stops speaking, but not to wonder, Psalms 8:1; Psalms 8:9 .
And fashioned me together round about] A metaphor from potters, who make their work by turning it around till it be all finished, Jeremiah 18:3. Thou hast fashioned me, and made me in every point, so Broughton rendereth it. Totum me, non dimidium, Thou hast made the whole, and every part of me, from top to toe, not my nails excepted (as Mercer hath it), with extraordinary care and cunning, bestowing upon me mercies enough between head and foot to till a volume. Who is there, saith Galen, which, looking but upon the skin only of man's body, wondereth not at the artifice of the Creator? but especially he was amazed at the manner of the motion of the lungs by systole and diastole, and would needs offer hecatombs to that God, whosoever he were, that was author of so admirable and excellent a piece of work.
Yet thou dost destroy me] And this seemeth strange to me. Dost thou yet destroy me? so some read this text; wilt thou swallow me up quick and devour me, as the greater fishes do the lesser? See the note on Job 10:3. Carest thou not that I am tby workmanship, created unto good works? Ephesians 2:10; one in whom thou hast erected the fair fabric of the new man? for this also Job may here very likely refer to.