Psalm 139 part 3 – If You Could Count The Sand

“How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You” (Psalms 139:17-18).

The Psalmist writes in a progressive manner with an ever-sharper focus. Each word penned by the Psalmist is about Yahweh as God. For only God can do what the Psalmist describes. His knowing or knowledge is absolute, complete. To demonstrate further the depth of that knowledge and the intimacy of Yahweh’s relationship with His children, is given in verse 13: “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.”

Here we are given insight into when and where God’s knowing begins. Simply put, Yahweh is the author of life. Your life came into being because of Him. It was His decision, it was His act, by His hand you were made. In other words, every part of you, all that makes you you was created by God. This includes your physical appearance, mental and cognitive abilities, emotions and nature/personality, skills and talents, and your sole (encompassing the whole of who you are). All are the result of God’s creative hand. You have nothing intrinsic, all that you are comes from Him. As Creator, He knows everything.

For Worship

Then in verse 14 the Psalmist expresses why God created: “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” You were created to worship! Worship follows this understanding, because of God’s creative work and His intimate knowledge of you, and all that was accomplished by His hand. In other words, when a person lays hold of who Yahweh is as Creator, the natural response will be, “I will give thanks to You.” When this understand penetrates the heart, that results in a deep welling-up gratitude, and on the heals of such understanding praise will follow, “Wonderful are Your works” (cf. John 4:23). This is the essences of worship and this is what each person is created for.

Known

Then Verse 14 ends with an oft overlooked truth, “my soul knows it very well.” Every life is God’s workmanship and embedded within the life of every person is that knowledge (cf. Romans 1:19). The Creator has imprinted into the sole of each creature this noesis. Each individual’s conscience testifies and points to Yahweh as Creator God.

The Psalmist continues in verses 15 and 16 and reveals that God’s creative act is individual, unique and intimate: “My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And intricately woven in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance; And in Your book all of them were written The days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” These verses deserve pause.

The fullness of the Psalmist’s words, the implications of what he wrote needs be meditated on. What he wrote, is an unfolding truth. Yahweh’s creative arms embrace all of life from the very beginning to the final day. The Psalmist’s choice of words are personal, “Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance.” And so careful and detailed is Yahweh’s creative act, He keeps a “book” where all is “written The days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”

Identity

To use a modern term, your identity, who you are and what you are was predetermined/fixed by God before you were born. In other words, you are a product of a creative act that was willful, by design, intentional and planned. You were given a conscience and within the conscience you are hardwired with elements of this creational Truth.

Yahweh saw your “unshaped substance” long before you were born, because He is the one who shaped you in your mother’s womb - you had nothing to do with it. Read again verse 15, you were “made in secret, And intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” Simple put, Yahweh made you and this is a truth deserving of praise, “I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.”

Number

What we read next in verses 17 and 18, is the Psalmist astonishment, a man stricken with amazement: “How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” Yahweh is not some distant deity, an unknowable cosmic force or inanimate object. He is living, He is God, He is the author of life, He is personal, He is close and has an intimate relationship with each of His children, for He has planned everyday.

How many are Yahweh’s thoughts are towards His children? “If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.” This is the Psalmist way of saying, God’s thoughts are beyond counting! The Psalmist concludes this section with: “When I awake, I am still with You.” Everyday, every moment of everyday, from the instant you awake - even before you were born, Yahweh is there.