“Living becomes an awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of omniscient, omnipresent Creator.” – J. I. Packer
I had never felt so small in my entire life, so humbled. It was as though I was standing on the edge of the earth and looking into the past, the present, and the future. The sheer size and depth alone commanded such awe and wonder. The many vibrant colors, the intricate layers… the beauty and majesty. It was as though the earth was revealing a story that no mere mortal could comprehend, not even the scientists with all of their fancy formulas and superior intellect.
That was my experience visiting the Grand Canyon many years ago. I still sometimes look at the pictures I took that day and remember how incredibly insignificant I felt. Seeing God’s impressive handiwork for myself, I came away from that experience with one single, profound question:
How can any man ever truly know God’s vastness and greatness?
J. I. Packer offers an answer to this question.
“How may we form a right idea of God’s greatness?” Packer asks. “The Bible teaches us two steps that we must take. The first is to remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make him small. The second is to compare him with powers and forces which we regard as great.”
Today, we will look at Step 1.
Psalm 139:1-14
1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Step 1: “Look at Psalm 139, where the psalmist meditates on the infinite and unlimited nature of God’s presence, and knowledge, and power, in relation to people. We are always in God’s presence, he says. You can cut yourself off from your fellow human beings, but you cannot get away from your Creator. “You hem me in – behind and before… Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens [the sky], you are there; if I make my bed in the depths [the underworld] you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,” I still cannot escape from the presence of God: “even there your hand will guide me” (vv.5-10). Nor can darkness, which hides me from human sight, shield me from God’s gaze (vv.11-12).
And just as there are no bounds to his presence with me, so there are no limits to his knowledge of me. Just as I am never left alone, so I never go unnoticed. “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know my thoughts [all that goes on in my mind] from afar… You are familiar with all my ways [all my habits, plans, aims, desires, as well as all my life to date]. Before a word is on my tongue [spoken, or meditated] you know it completely, O Lord” (vv.1-4).
I can hide my heart, and my past, and my future plans, from those around me, but I cannot hide anything from God. I can talk in a way that deceives my fellow creatures as to what I really am, but nothing I say or do can deceive God. He sees through all my reserve and pretense; he knows me as I really am, better than I know myself.
A God whose presence and scrutiny I could evade would be a small and trivial deity. But the true God is great and terrible, just because he is always with me and his eye is always upon me. Living becomes an awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of an omniscient, omnipresent Creator.
Nor is this all. The all-seeing God is also God Almighty, the resources of whose power are already revealed to me by the amazing complexity of my own physical body, which he made for me. Confronted with this, the psalmist’s meditations turn to worship. “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful” (v.14).
Here, then, is the first step in apprehending the greatness of God: to realize how unlimited are his wisdom, and his presence, and his power. Look at Job 38-41, the chapters in which God himself takes up Elihu’s recognition that “with God is terrible majesty” (Job 37:22 KJV), and sets before Job a tremendous display of his wisdom and power in nature, and asks Job if he can match such “majesty” as this (40:9-11), and convinces him that, since he cannot, he should not presume to find fault with God’s handling of Job’s own case, which also goes far beyond Job’s understanding. Many other passages of Scripture teach the same lesson. But we cannot dwell further on this now. (Excerpt from: Knowing God, p. 85-86)
Today, let us take a few moments to reflect on David’s thoughts in Psalm 139 and meditate on the following truths:
- God knows every detail of my life. He knows my thoughts. He knows my ways. He knows my heart.
- I may not know where my travels will take me today, but God does. No matter where I am, He is present. He guides and sustains me with His unwavering love.
- I recognize that I am fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image. He intricately designed and crafted me through His divine care and attention to detail, intentionally making me unique from everyone else. “No one else will be exactly like you,” He says.
Former Blackout Artist 