10 - Your Real Name

Each of us has two names: the name our parents gave us and the name God gives us. If our parents took the time to listen to God when they named us, those two names may be the same. In that case our given name is prophetic. It reveals something about God’s plan for us. Whether or not the name our parents gave us holds such meaning, the name God calls us always does. That’s because He knows how He designed us in our mother’s womb. David saw this truth and declared it in worship. Listen:
“For You formed my inward parts, You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You. When I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth, Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained [for me], when as of yet there was not one of them.” (Psa 139:13-16)

This has to be one of the psalms David wrote when he was an older man. He’s expressing the kind of insight that usually comes with age. He’s looking back on his life and realizing that he had simply played a part in a plan that God had determined before he was born. Before he drew his first breath, God knew the gifts and capacities he would need in order to fulfill what God was going to call him to do. In David’s case, he was going to be a warrior and a king, so God “wired” those abilities into him while he was developing in his mother’s womb.

The psalm reveals David’s humility. He’s acknowledging that everything he has accomplished was not because he had taken control of opportunities and willed himself to greatness, but because he had cooperated with God’s plan for him. In this psalm, he’s worshipping, not boasting; he’s marveling that God knew exactly who he would need to be, in order for him to do all He had planned for him to do, He’s giving the glory for an amazing life back to God. But what you and I need to realize when we read this psalm is that what was true for David is also true for us. What he discovered about God’s plan for his life we need to discover as well. We too have been “woven” in our mother’s womb with a plan in mind. We can ignore it, fight it or pursue it, but we can never change it.