God Is Big, Wise, and Everlasting – Psalm 139

A text – Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
139:2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
139:3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
139:4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.
139:5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
139:13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
139:14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
139:15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
139:16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
139:17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
139:18 I try to count them — they are more than the sand; I come to the end — I am still with you.

A reflection:

This psalm contrasts the bigness of God with the smallness of a human being. It contrasts the knowledge and skill of God with the finite and limited knowledge and skill of a human being. It contrasts the immortality and agelessness of God with the short lifespan of a human being.

It is one of those hymns to how puny we are, implying that any time we believe we have domesticated God in some way, we are mistaken – God is bigger, older, and wiser than anything we could even dream up.

It also says that this big, large, everlasting, wise God cares about a puny helpless human. God loves these finite human beings and wants the best for us. God gives us life and a life span and amazing gifts, just because God is so very good. We cannot comprehend God, but we can believe God is gracious and good and generous. And we can, in turn, be grateful for God’s love. Every day. No matter what.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you giving us gifts that make our lives so good. Thank you for being generous and kind to us, even though you are bigger, older, and wiser and need not care about us at all. You do, and we are the richer for it. Keep that thought in our hearts and minds always. Amen.