Psalm 139:7-10 meaning
God is in all places at all times (hard to understand! Like oxygen, which we need to survive. His Essence is all ways surrounding us), so it is impossible to flee from Him. He is always present and reaching out to guide His people.
The metaphysical Essence of God, therefore, must be that perfection in God which is conceived by our finite intellect as,
(a) So peculiar to God that it distinguishes Him from all other beings, and
(b) So primary or principal that all His other perfections flow from it.
The holiness of God distinguishes God as God, and reveals how we are not. It communicates His transcendent sovereignty and flawless purity, His overwhelming right to rule, and His stainless character.
Great is The LORD, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. (Psalm 145:3)
Human beings cannot begin to measure God’s holiness, and yet, God has revealed His glory and holiness to us in His Word (John 1:14; Hebrews 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:6).
Because of Jesus, Christians can know God through His attributes, and God’s holiness is the crown of His attributes. In this article, we’re going to unpack five attributes of God’s holiness.
1. God’s Holiness is Providential
First, God is holy in His omniscience, or providential knowledge.
Because God is light, nothing is hidden from Him (1 John 1:5). The Lord rules on high as the perfect judge, and no one can measure the depths of His understanding. All things, past, present, and future are fully known by our God.
Human understanding is limited and like walking in a poorly lit parking lot at night. But God rules over all things and sees all things in perfect light. God’s omniscience is like the light of a sports stadium which illuminates everything as if it were day.
All of creation is full of the glory of God, because of His omniscience; thus, “no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).
Our holy God sees all, knows all, and orchestrates all things in complete and perfect clarity.
2. God’s Holiness is Present
Second, God is holy in His overwhelming presence.
When Solomon built and dedicated the temple, he desired that it would be a place of God’s dwelling just as the Tabernacle had been for Israel in the wilderness. Solomon fully recognized that unlike idols, the God of Israel cannot be contained.
He prayed, “Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built?” (1 Kings 8:27).
God’s immensity stretches beyond human ability to measure. God is present here at the Unlocking the Bible offices in Illinois as well as in Bangladesh. More than that, He is at the center of the universe, and His presence extends beyond the limits of the cosmos. His holy presence is weighty and potent.
3. God’s Holiness is Powerful
Thirdly, the holiness of God also applies to His power. He is powerful beyond comparison!
God is the Creator and Sustainer of everyone and everything, He is omnipotent (all powerful) (Colossians 1:16), and His power extends over all things, both visible and invisible. Galaxies, stars, and planets did not come into being by accident. Conception of human life is nothing less than a miracle. All of creation sings of the mighty power of God!
Presidents, prime ministers, queens, and supreme leaders all may claim some form of authority, but none of these can stand next to the true sovereign, the King of kings and Lord over all lords. No matter the uncertainty of our times, the Lord remains exalted upon His throne.
4. God’s Holiness is Infinite
Fourth, the holiness of God is infinite.
More than being immortal, God’s eternal nature also means that He does not change. God’s holiness sets Him apart from all else. Because He exists in perfect purity and is eternally consistent with Himself.
People grow, mature, and age, but God remains the same. He is morally pure, without the slightest hint of evil, and the Lord is faithful and true (Revelation 19:11). He will not commit evil for He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). For this reason, God’s wisdom, justice, and beauty are perfect.
Out of this fact comes a final point:
5. God’s Holiness is Incomparable
When my wife and I were first thinking about marriage, we went ring shopping. We found an amazing jeweler. He was great because he didn’t just try to just sell us a shiny rock and metal band. Instead, he took the time to show us what makes a great diamond. I learned a lot, and then gave him a lot of my money.
Gemologists measure the quality of diamonds by cut, color, clarity and carat weight. And, they grade gems by their various degrees of imperfections, with the perfect stone representing flawlessness.
Any honest jeweler will admit that there are no truly ‘flawless’ diamonds out there. However, Christians can say of our Holy God, that He is “Flawless! Flawless! Flawless!”
Everything about His incomprehensible nature and character is supreme. And because of God’s infinite nature and character, He is worthy of eternal praise!
The Promise
God’s holiness is His crown, and it makes God himself, the treasure of all treasures. Angels in heaven sing praise to God for all that He is and all He has done, and God desires men and women to join with the heavenly choir.
An excellent way to do this is by reading the Psalms, for they invite us to “worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth” (Psalm 96:9).
Whenever people in the Bible saw the LORD in His awesome holiness, they trembled with fear (Isaiah 6:5; Revelation 1:17). Those moments made people realize how absolutely unholy they truly were because of sin. However, Christians have confidence to approach God’s holy throne through faith in Christ.
When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, people saw the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus reveals the holy God to sinners. When you open the Bible, you can behold the holy God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:6).
Best of all, when you put faith in Jesus Christ, the God crowned in awesome holiness, promises to crown you with His steadfast love and mercy (Psalm 103:4). Thus we can say:
“Bless the LORD oh my soul…worship His holy name.” (Psalm 103:1)
At the beginning of Psalm 139, David refers to God as his Lord, in Hebrew “Yahweh,” which is the proper name of God. It means “to exist.” He is establishing that God’s existence does not conform to our understanding of time or space. Verses 7-10 explore what it means that God exists outside of space.
David asks God a rhetorical question: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? He already knows the answer to this question: nowhere. Since God exists beyond the confines of space, He is able to be in every place that we go.
If we ascend to heaven, He is there. If we make our bed in Sheol, He is there also. Sheol is used throughout the Old Testament to mean the grave, or the place of the dead. It is the opposite of heaven—the lowest place to be. While we may expect to encounter the presence of God in the highest or most glorious places (the heavens), David is saying that He is in the dark and low ones as well. The Hebrew term Sheol overlaps with the New Testament Greek term “Hades.” In Acts 2, Peter quotes a psalm that translates “Sheol” as “Hades” (Acts 2:27, quoting Psalm 16:10). This is again a picture of two complete opposites that include everything in between. God dwells everywhere that can be imagined, from the lowest Hades to the highest heaven.
If we try to escape God by riding the wings of the dawn or by dwelling in the remotest part of the sea, He still pursues us and leads us. The dawn, as it rises, seems to spread from one end of the earth to the other. For the people of Israel, the dawn would have been one end of the earth, and the horizon to which it spread would be the other. So if we were to start at one end of the earth, and go as quickly as the dawn spread, all the way to the known end of the earth, God would be there too. This again is a picture of two opposites that include everything in between. Just as God dwells in all spiritual dimensions, from Hades to heaven, God also dwells in every physical place.
The book of Jonah tells the story of the prophet Jonah, who God instructs to go out to the city of Ninevah to warn its inhabitants that they were about to suffer terrible consequences if they did not stop sinning. However, Jonah does not want to go, so he tries instead to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord (Jonah 1:3). While the exact location of Tarshish is unknown, it is supposedly the furthest west that Jonah could have imagined going, at the far western end of the Mediterranean Sea. It was like going on the wings of the dawn to the end of the earth. However, as Jonah is traveling across the sea, the Lord sends a storm to torment the boat, until Jonah realizes that he has not, in fact, escaped the presence of The Lord. So he is thrown overboard to stop the storm and The Lord sends a fish to swallow him up for 3 days (Jonah 1).
There in the belly of the fish, knowing that even in the depths of the sea Yahweh is there, Jonah says:
“I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.”
(Jonah 2:2)
Even in the depths of the sea in the belly of a fish, God is with Jonah. Not only that but He proves that, like David says, even there Your hand will lead me. As far from God as Jonah felt in that moment, as far as we can sometimes be or feel, David wants to make it very clear that God’s right hand will lay hold of us.
The description of God’s right hand being on us is also significant. The dominant hand in Hebrew literature is the right hand. It is a symbol of strength and dominion. God’s strong hand will reach out and lay hold of us, no matter where we are, if we cry out to Him. Just as God’s love has no bounds, God’s strength has no limitations.
God is one, unique and we all are full of His glory. Nice one, xo
You are blessed and a blessing, have a blessed always in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Amen, Thanks 💕💕