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I said in an earlier essay that Psalm 139 is divided into two parts: vv 1-12 emphasizes God's presence and loving care and vv. 13-24 stress God's careful creation of the person. Each evokes a grateful exclamation from the Psalmist: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me (v. 5)," and "How precious are the thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them (v. 17)!" We have seen how Job undercuts the confidence in God's loving care; now we turn to how Job undermines the Psalmist's gratitude for our careful creation.

First, let us return to the Psalmist's thought. He is overwhelmed with gratitude because of the creative care taken by God in making him. "For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb (Ps. 139:13)." Meticulous care characterized God's effort. "[M]y frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth (v. 15)." God was secretly at work in the lab, crafting and shaping every capillary and synapse. What awesome care!

Not so, in Job's mind. Or, more accurately said, Job will use the thoughts and words of the Psalmist to indict rather than praise God. In Job's third soliloquoy (Job 9-10) he reflects on an intellectual conundrum. He feels that God has unmercifully and unjustly attacked him, and so he asks, "Does it seem good to thee to oppress, to despise the work of thy hands (10:3)?" He knows he is not guilty; and so his suffering only enhances his dilemma (v. 7). 'Why,' he thinks, 'would God permit this disproportionate suffering to descend on me when I have done nothing, really, to deserve it?' It just doesn't make sense to Job.

To explore this dilemma, Job turns to the process of his creation. We see the indebtedness to Psalm 139 in Job 10. "Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews (v. 11)." "Thy hands fashioned and made me (v. 8)." "Remember that thou has made me of clay (v. 9)..." And, then, with a thought that goes beyond the Psalmist, Job uses erotic language to say, "Didst thou not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese (v. 10)?" Job has not only absorbed the inner rhythm of the Psalmist but has, like Shakespeare with his sources, gone deeper than the source itself. Intricate creation is affirmed.

But note what Job does with these thoughts. Rather than using them to praise the Creator, he uses them to attack God. He throws down the gauntlet immediately in verse 8: "Thy hands fashioned and made me; and now thou dost turn about and destroy me ["now you change your mind and mean to destroy me"--NJB] (10:8)." All of a sudden a Mr. Bill skit from Saturday Night Live comes to mind. Care is taken to make Mr. Bill's arms and legs and body but then the sadistic creator says, "Sorry, Mr. Bill," and destroys him, to Mr. Bill's vain cries, "Oh NO!" Though the humor is lacking in Job, the meaning is clear. God the sadist is at work; that is what it is all about, Job intones.

The intensity of the passage and the poignancy of Job's emotions grow as the passage develops. The painstaking care taken by the Creator to fashion Job is an example of God's "hesed" or steadfast love--"Thou has granted me life and steadfast love; and thy care has preserved my spirit ["In your love you gave me life, and in your care watched over my every breath"--NJB] (10:12)." But then, what is the purpose of Job's destruction? Job attributes it to the cynical, sadistic cruelty of God. Not only did God fashion Job in secret, but God had a secret and hidden purpose ["thou didst hide it in thy heart"--v. 13] to destroy Job. God secretly set up Job for this great fall. "Yet these things thou didst hide in thy heart; I know that this was thy purpose. If I sin, thou dost mark me, and dost not acquit me of my iniquity ["Yet this was your secret intention, this was your purpose, I know, that if I sinned, you would be watching me and would not acquit me of my guilt!"--Clines] (10: 13-14)." As Job will go on to say, God is so perverse that He doesn't even wait for Job to sin to destroy his life completely. That was God's plan from the beginning.

Now Job has apparently triumphed almost completely over the thoughts suggested in the Psalm. Every phrase of confidence and gratitude that the Psalmist mustered has been skillfully turned on its head by Job. God's careful besetting? Nah, that, rather, is God's vicious besieging. God's meticulous creation? Yeah, but only to destroy us more cruelly. God's making darkness light? The other way around: darkness swallows light. Job has almost completely undermined the intellectual and spiritual foundations of one of the cornerstones of biblical faith. Turn now to the last essay on Psalm 139 and Job to see the remarkable way that Psalm 139 ends up winning Job over in the end.

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