SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT: Is This Who You Think God Is?
Ask a randomly selected 1,000 people to describe the characteristics of what they call “God” and you can be certain you will hear a bewildering variety of answers. Everybody has some concept of what God is like. But what does the Bible say about the characteristics of God?
Psalm 139 is my favorite of the 150 psalms. It was written by King David and he provides an amazing sequence of insights into who God is and what He does that should clear up all misconceptions. Allow me to demonstrate this with a series of questions about you and what David tells us about God in answer:
1. Does God know you, specifically? 139:1-6 tells us that:
God knows when each of us in the world “sit down and stand up.”
God knows our “thoughts from far away.”
God knows our “travels and rest.”
God knows “all of our ways.”
God knows what we are about to say “before a word is on our tongues.”
God knows so much about us that His “extraordinary knowledge is beyond us, it is lofty; we are unable to understand it.”
And that’s just the first six verses of Psalm 139! But wait, there’s so much more!!
2. Can you go where God can’t find you? Psalm 139: 7-12 tell us that:
God is in Heaven, so that won’t work.
“If we make our beds in Sheol [the underworld],” God is there.
“If we live at the Eastern horizon or settle at the Western limits, even there, God’s hand will guide us.”
We can’t even hide in the dark because “darkness and light are alike to God.”
3. What was God’s role in your creation, if any? Psalm 139: 13-16 tells us that:
“It was God who created each of our inward parts.”
“God knitted each of us together in our mothers’ wombs.”
We are thus all “wonderfully and remarkably made” by God.
Our “bones were not hidden from God when He made each of us.”
God’s eyes “saw us when we were formless” in our mothers’ wombs.
Now, if Psalm 139 is true — and the science behind each of these claims is truly immense, as HillFaith will be showing in 2024 — then where do you go from here? If you would like to talk about that, you can reach me at: [email protected].
“God knitted each of us together in our mothers’ wombs.”
This is an interesting statement to highlight. We know a fair bit about ontogeny, not everything of course, but a fair bit. We have observed how cells differentiate and while amazing, it seems to be a completely natural process. Amazing, but natural.
One must conclude that the ‘knitting’ referred to is a metaphor for these natural processes, certainly part of the creation but also, like all of creation we have observed, following predictable rules and capable of being understood by man. The most amazing thing about it is that it doesn’t take magic to explain.