Each fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse below is quoted word for word from the King James Version, followed by a short original note.
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalms 139:14 (KJV)
This is the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse behind the phrase itself. David does not boast about himself; he praises God for the craftsmanship. Notice that the soul knows it right well, meaning this truth is something you recognize inwardly once you stop listening to louder, harsher voices.
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
Psalms 139:13 (KJV)
The verse just before the famous fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse explains the reason for the praise. God was present at the very beginning, forming the inner life and the outer frame together. Your existence was never an accident to him, but an act of attention and care.
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Psalms 139:15 (KJV)
In this fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, David uses the picture of an embroiderer working skillfully where no one can watch. Curiously wrought means made with great care and artistry. Even the hidden, unseen stages of your life were observed and handled by God with real skill.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalms 139:16 (KJV)
Before you had a single day of history, God had you in view, says this fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse. Being unperfect here simply means unformed, not flawed. The verse says your life was known and planned in detail, which gives dignity to every season, including the early and unfinished ones.
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
Psalms 139:17 (KJV)
After describing how he was made in the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, David turns to wonder at how God thinks of him. The thoughts of God toward you are precious and countless. This line pairs well with the famous verse when you need to feel known and not merely created.
O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Psalms 139:1 (KJV)
The psalm behind the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse opens with being known, not performing. God has searched you and still wants you near. If you feel you must hide parts of yourself, this first line of the same psalm is a gentle correction, because nothing about you is a surprise to him.
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 139:23-24 (KJV)
The same psalm that gives us the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse and praises how we are made ends with an honest prayer for correction. Being wonderfully made does not mean we are finished or flawless. David invites God to examine him and lead him, showing that confidence and humility belong together.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 1:27 (KJV)
This is the foundation under every fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse. Human beings carry God’s image, which gives every person, of every kind, a worth that cannot be earned or lost. It is the root of how Scripture sees you.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31 (KJV)
In the story behind the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, on the sixth day, when humanity had been made, God did not merely approve; he called the whole creation very good. That verdict still stands over the world he made. It reminds us that being created is the first reason to value ourselves rightly.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7 (KJV)
Like the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, this verse shows both humility and honor in one sentence. We are formed from dust, so we are limited, yet every breath is a gift given directly by God. Understanding both halves keeps us grateful, not proud, and steady, not ashamed.
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jeremiah 1:5 (KJV)
In a close parallel to the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, God spoke this to Jeremiah, who felt too young and unprepared. The principle reaches wider: God knows each person before birth and has purpose in mind. It speaks to anyone who thinks their gifts, background or timing disqualify them.
But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Isaiah 64:8 (KJV)
A potter shapes clay with intention, patience and a finished vessel in mind, much as the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse describes. Calling ourselves the work of his hand explains why God keeps shaping us, and why that shaping is evidence of care, not rejection.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:10 (KJV)
The Greek behind workmanship suggests a masterpiece or poem, which fits the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse. Paul says believers are God’s finished work in Christ, created with good works already prepared. This links being wonderfully made to having something meaningful to do with your life.
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
Job 10:11 (KJV)
Even in suffering, Job remembered, in the spirit of the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, that God had built his body piece by piece. Skin, flesh, bones and sinews are described as God’s careful provision. It is a helpful verse for anyone struggling with a body that is in pain or aging.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalms 100:3 (KJV)
We did not design ourselves, which is the freeing message of the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse. We cannot take credit for our strengths or carry all the blame for what we lack. This verse also adds belonging: the Maker who formed us now shepherds us as his own people.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:30-31 (KJV)
Jesus uses a small detail to show how closely God watches over us, a thought that complements the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse. If he counts every hair, no part of your life is too small for his notice. Your value is set by him, not by comparison with others.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV)
Paul, building on the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, teaches that the body is not a problem to be despised but a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Because Christ paid the price, how we treat our bodies is a matter of honor and worship, in rest, food, purity and gratitude.
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psalms 8:4-5 (KJV)
In a close cousin of the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, David looks at the night sky and wonders why the God of the stars would care about people. The answer is that he has crowned humanity with glory and honour. It pairs well with Psalm 139 for anyone feeling small or overlooked.
But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
1 Samuel 16:7 (KJV)
God corrects Samuel’s habit of judging by looks, and the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse supports the correction. The same principle applies to how we judge ourselves in the mirror. Because God looks at the heart, being fearfully and wonderfully made is not limited to appearance, talent or status.
The fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse is Psalm 139:14, which in the King James Version reads, I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. It is a sentence of praise, not self-congratulation. David looks at his own existence, sees the skill behind it, and turns his gratitude to God. The verse starts with worship and ends with certainty.
Each phrase carries weight. Fearfully means with awe and reverence, the kind of respect you give to something that deserves it. Wonderfully means set apart, distinguished, remarkable. Made points to the fact that someone made you. Together they say that human life is the product of deliberate and astonishing workmanship.
Many readers meet this fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse on a greeting card, a baby blanket or a social media post, and it is easy to treat it as a decoration. Reading it slowly, in context, turns it from a pretty caption into a foundation for how you see your own life.
Psalm 139, home of the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, is a prayer attributed to David, and it moves in four movements. In verses 1 to 6 he marvels that God knows him completely. In verses 7 to 12 he realizes there is nowhere he could go to escape God’s presence. In verses 13 to 18 he reflects on how he was made. In verses 19 to 24 he asks God to search him and lead him.
Knowing this structure changes how we hear verse 14. It is not an isolated slogan; it is the middle of a conversation about being known. David is not trying to boost his self-esteem. He is overwhelmed that a God who knows his every thought and sits beside him in every place also took the time to form him with care.
That is why this fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse brings peace to so many people. It is anchored in the idea that you are seen, not just made. Once you feel the full psalm, the single line becomes a doorway into trust.
In the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, the Hebrew word often rendered fearfully carries the sense of awe and reverence. It can describe the way a person feels in front of something astonishing. When David says he is fearfully made, he is saying that the way he was formed inspires awe, in himself and in anyone who thinks about it honestly.
The word wonderfully points to something marked out as distinct or set apart. It suggests that God made you as a unique person, not as a copy of someone else. This is a helpful correction when you spend years wishing you were more like a friend, a sibling or someone online.
Taken together, the two words describe a work that is both awe-inspiring and distinctive. When you read the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse in that light, you stop hearing it as a polite compliment and start hearing it as a description of the real you.
The verses surrounding the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, Psalm 139:14, are among the most tender in the Bible about how life begins. David says God covered him in his mother’s womb, that his substance was not hidden from God, and that he was curiously wrought in secret. The picture is of an artist at work in a place no human eye can see.
For many people, these lines are comforting because they say that no stage of life is outside God’s attention. The unborn child, the unseen process, the slow and quiet development, all of it is observed and cared for. Your story did not begin when others noticed you. It began when God did.
A fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse like this also gives believers a language for gratitude about life itself, and for respecting the dignity of every person from the earliest moment, without needing to reduce that conversation to slogans.
To understand why David could say he was fearfully and wonderfully made, you have to go back to Genesis 1:27, which says God created humanity in his own image. Nothing else in creation is described this way. Mountains, oceans and stars display God’s power, but people reflect his character, reason, creativity and capacity for relationship.
This is the root of human worth in the Bible. Your value is not based on achievement, appearance or usefulness. It is based on who made you and whose image you carry. That is why every fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse can be traced back to the opening chapters of Scripture.
If you want to go further into this theme, the page on Bible verses about self love and worth collects passages that apply the same idea to everyday self-image.
Comparison is one of the quietest thieves of joy, and the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse answers it. We measure our bodies, our talents, our income and our family against others, and almost always come out feeling smaller. Psalm 139:14 offers a different measuring stick. You are not judged against another person; you are marveled over by the one who made you.
Paul warns in another place against comparing ourselves among ourselves, saying that this is not wise. The fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse supports that warning by pointing out that your design was deliberate. If God had wanted you to be someone else, he would have made someone else.
A practical step is to notice when comparison starts, pause, and say the verse aloud. Replace the thought that you are behind with the truth that you are a work of God’s hand, with a path that is yours alone.
Many people who love the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse first came to it in a low season. They felt invisible, unwanted or forgotten. The message of Psalm 139 is that God does not overlook anyone. He searches, knows, surrounds and thinks about each person. Being fearfully and wonderfully made means being intentionally held in his attention.
If you are feeling that no one notices you, it can help to read the psalm slowly once a day for a week. Pray each section back to God in your own words. Over time, the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse stops being something you know and becomes something you feel.
You may also find comfort in the page on Bible verses about feeling unloved, which gathers promises meant for exactly those moments.
The body is the first place where many people struggle to believe the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse. Illness, disability, scars, weight and aging can make a person feel at odds with their own frame. Yet the Bible treats the body with dignity. Job remembered being clothed with skin and flesh and fenced with bones and sinews, and Paul called the body a temple.
This does not mean the body is perfect or free from pain. Scripture is honest about decay and hope for resurrection. It does mean that your body is not a mistake, and that the God who made it also cares for it. A fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse offers dignity at every stage of health.
If body image is a particular struggle, reading Psalm 139 alongside 1 Corinthians 6 can help shift your focus from how you look to how you can honor God with the body you have been given.
Being made well is not an end in itself. Paul says we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. The word for workmanship hints at a masterpiece. The point is that God made you with something in mind, and the good works are already prepared for you to walk in.
This turns the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse from a statement about identity into an invitation to action. If you are carefully made, then your gifts, personality and experiences are not random. They are tools God can use to bless others.
Those searching for direction may enjoy Bible verses about finding your purpose, which builds on the same idea.
Isaiah 64:8 uses a different image to say the same thing. We are the clay, and God is the potter. A potter does not shape a pot by accident. He chooses the clay, wets it, centers it on the wheel and forms it by pressing gently in the right places.
This image is helpful when you feel unfinished. Being wonderfully made does not mean you are already complete. It means the Potter is still working, and that the shaping you are going through is purposeful. Pressure on clay is not punishment; it is how a vessel takes form.
Whenever you read the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, you can pair it with this one. Together they say that you are both made with care and still being formed with care.
Some people worry that taking the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse seriously will make a person proud. The text itself shows the opposite. David begins with praise to God and ends with a request that God search his heart for any wicked way. Appreciating how we are made leads us to thank the maker and to stay teachable.
Genesis 2:7 helps keep the balance. We are formed from the dust, which keeps us humble, and we live by the breath God gave, which keeps us grateful. Neither pride nor shame fits that picture. What fits is thankfulness.
A healthy way to use the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse is to treat it as fuel for worship. When you notice a strength in yourself, thank God for it. When you notice a weakness, bring it to him without hiding.
Few verses are as often spoken over children as the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, Psalm 139:14. Parents write it on nursery walls, whisper it at bedtime and use it to encourage a child who feels different. This is a good habit, and it works best when the verse is explained as well as quoted.
Tell children that God made them on purpose, that he knows them, and that he does not love them more when they perform well. A child who hears the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse alongside real affection from their parents learns that worth is given, not earned.
The pages on Bible verses about a mother’s love and Bible verses about fatherly love offer more passages for families who want to build this kind of home.
There are seasons when reading that you are fearfully and wonderfully made feels hollow. Depression, grief, failure or abuse can make any positive statement sound untrue. The Bible does not demand that you feel the truth immediately. David himself wrote many psalms in which he struggled before he reached praise.
It can help to start with a smaller verse such as Psalm 139:1, where God has searched and known you, and to move gradually toward verse 14. The fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse is a destination for some readers, not a starting point, and that is fine.
If your struggle feels heavy, speak with a trusted pastor, counselor or doctor in addition to praying. Seeking help is not a lack of faith; it is another way of caring for what God has made.
One simple habit is to read Psalm 139:13 to 16 in the morning and say verse 14 aloud before you look at your phone. It sets the first thought of your day on God’s view of you rather than on the news or on other people’s lives. A fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse works best when it is repeated.
Another habit is to keep a short list of things you are thankful for about how God made you. These might include your sense of humor, your steady hands, your ability to listen or the way you laugh. Reading the list helps shift attention away from flaws.
You can also memorize the verse and use it as a breath prayer. Breathe in with I will praise thee, breathe out with I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It is a quiet way to return to truth throughout the day.
Psalm 139 is not only teaching; it is a prayer you can pray. Start with verse 1 and thank God for knowing you. Move to verses 7 to 10 and thank him for being with you wherever you are. Then pray verses 13 to 16 slowly, letting each line become thanks.
When you reach the end, pray verses 23 and 24, asking God to search your heart and lead you in the way everlasting. This final step keeps the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse from becoming only about self-image. It becomes about walking closely with the one who made you.
Many people find that praying the psalm aloud, perhaps in a quiet room with a journal, changes how the verse feels. What was a familiar phrase becomes a real conversation.
One common misunderstanding is that the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse says you are perfect. It does not. It says the workmanship is marvellous, not that the person is sinless. Other parts of Scripture, including the end of this same psalm, make clear that we still need God’s guidance and correction.
Another misunderstanding is that this verse is only about physical appearance. In context, it refers to the whole person, including mind, soul and life story. A fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse speaks to what you are inside as much as what you look like outside.
A third mistake is to treat the verse as a quick fix for deep pain. It is better seen as a steady truth to return to as you heal, alongside prayer, community and, when needed, professional care.
For believers, being made by God has a second chapter. Through Christ, a person is made new, a new creation. The first creation gives you your life; the second gives you a restored relationship with the Creator. Both are acts of grace, and both show how highly God values you.
Ephesians 2:10 ties the two together by saying we are created in Christ Jesus. The fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse tells us where we came from, and the gospel tells us where we are going: toward being made whole, step by step, by the same hands that formed us.
This is why many Christians find deep security in both truths. You were made with care, and you have been remade with love. Neither can be taken away by what anyone says about you.
Readers often ask whether the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse is only for those who believe. The Bible says all humans bear God’s image, so the dignity described is universal. At the same time, the verse is written as a prayer of praise, and it is most fully enjoyed by those who respond to God with thanks.
Others ask which Bible translation is best. The King James Version gives the beloved phrase fearfully and wonderfully made, which is why this page uses it. Other translations phrase it differently, yet the meaning of awe at God’s work remains. Reading several can enrich your understanding.
Finally, many ask how to share the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse with a friend who is struggling. Offer it gently, with kindness, and be willing to listen first. People often receive truth best when they feel heard before they are encouraged.
If you are carefully made, then your temperament and abilities are part of the design. Some people are quiet observers, others are natural encouragers, and others love to build, organize or teach. Scripture never asks everyone to be the same. Paul compares the church to a body with many members, each needed, and that picture fits the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse well.
A useful exercise is to write down three things people often thank you for. Those patterns usually point to how God wired you. Rather than dismissing them as ordinary, receive them as gifts and ask how they might serve your family, your church and your neighbors this week.
This also frees you from envy. When another person shines in an area where you do not, you can celebrate them without feeling smaller. Both of you are the work of the same hand, placed in different roles for the good of many.
The verse begins with the words I will praise thee. David chooses gratitude as his response, and that choice is a model for us. Thankfulness is not just good manners toward God; it is how we train our hearts to see clearly. When we thank God for how we were made, complaints lose some of their grip.
Try ending each day by naming one thing about your body, mind or story that you can thank God for. It may be small, such as steady breathing, a good memory or a friend who calls. Over weeks, the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse becomes lived experience rather than a quotation.
Gratitude also protects against the sense that God owes us something different. It keeps us focused on gifts already given, and it opens our eyes to the beauty God has placed in ordinary life, including the people we may overlook.
The truth of Psalm 139 is not meant only for private comfort. If you are fearfully and wonderfully made, so is every person you meet, including the difficult coworker, the stranger on the street and the neighbor you disagree with. Every human being carries God’s image and is known to him.
This changes how we speak and act. It calls for patience, respect and kindness, and it makes contempt hard to justify. The fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse invites us to look for the person God sees, beyond first impressions or labels.
Churches and families that take this to heart become places of welcome. People feel safe because they know their worth is not up for debate. That is a quiet but powerful way to live out the verse, and to share it with the world.
If this fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse spoke to you, these related pages explore the same themes of worth, identity and God’s care: Bible verses about self-worth, Bible verses about identity in Christ, Bible verses about body image, Bible verses about creation, Bible verses about God’s love, Bible verses about self love, Bible verses about feeling unworthy, Bible verses about confidence, Bible verses about purpose, Bible verses about the beauty of a woman.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub, Bible Study Tools, Blue Letter Bible.
The fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse is Psalm 139:14, which in the King James Version reads, I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. David writes it as praise to God for the care that went into creating him.
Fearfully means with awe and reverence, and wonderfully means distinctive or set apart. Together they describe a human being as a work that inspires awe and is unlike any other, formed deliberately and with great skill by God, not by chance.
Psalm 139 is attributed to King David. He wrote it as a prayer reflecting on how completely God knows him, how near God is to him, and how carefully God formed him before birth. It remains one of the most personal psalms in the Bible.
Not mainly. In context, it speaks to the whole person, including body, mind, soul and life story. The Bible says God looks on the heart, so being wonderfully made includes your inner life as well as your outward form, and cannot be reduced to looks.
Good companions to the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse include Genesis 1:27 on the image of God, Ephesians 2:10 on being God’s workmanship, Isaiah 64:8 on the potter and clay, and Jeremiah 1:5 on being known before birth. Together they give a fuller picture of your worth in God’s eyes.
To live out the fearfully and wonderfully made Bible verse, read the whole psalm slowly, say verse 14 aloud each morning, and pray it back to God in your own words. Begin with verse 1 if the later verses feel hard. Share your struggle with a trusted friend or pastor, and seek professional help when it is needed.
