The Size of Knowing
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Psalm 139:17 NASB
Vast– David is the poet who looked up to the heavens and declared, “What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?” Nevertheless, David insists that God created Man a little lower than the divine and crowned him with glory and majesty. That same frame of mind appears here, in the recognition of the expanse of God’s knowledge. The Hebrew is ʿāṣûm, meaning, “numerous” or “exceedingly,” often connected with strength and power. Just as David was overwhelmed by the cosmos and Man’s place in it, now he is engulfed by the management of the whole of creation. Only a divinity of unimaginable power and ability could be responsible for such wonders. Only a God who knows it all could possibly explain such an awesome cosmos. And in the 10thcentury BCE, David didn’t know even a small slice of what we know about the universe today.
With this in mind, David declares that anything God determines to share with human beings must be considered yāqār (precious). “It comes from a Semitic root which conveys the idea of ‘heavy,’ ‘honor,’ ‘dignity.’ An object is considered precious or valuable either because of its intrinsic worth or its rarity.”[1] God’s thoughts are hardly rare. After all, He reveals them to us through prophets and stories. So David must be using yāqār to describe their intrinsic worth. We would agree. But it is apparent to us, and perhaps to David as well, that the splendor of creation does not lead all men to stand in awe of God’s magnificence. In fact, most men don’t consider God’s thoughts precious. They consider them obtrusive or absurd. Apparently even religious men find God’s thoughts puerile since they feel completely justified in ignoring the collection of His instructions found in the Tanakh. Not so with David. Every word from the Lord is golden.
In case you haven’t noticed, the tone of this psalm is changing. For the last sixteen verses, David has been struggling with the ambiguity of God’s omniscience and omnipresence. Yes, on the one hand, it’s amazing and wonderful to have a God who sees it all and who is in every place we might find ourselves. But at the same time, such a God seems to provide little room for genuine choice and creativity. The One who knows hems us in. Where there are no secrets, there is no place to hide.
But now things begin to change. Now David moves toward the unambiguous acknowledgment that God’s rēaʿ are cherished treasure. Actually, the translation “thoughts” isn’t quite enough. rēaʿ is about the purpose of God. The word occurs only in this psalm in verse 2 and here, in verse 17. In verse 2 the poet seemed to complain that God’s purpose gave him no room to breathe. Now in verse 17 things have changed. Now the same purpose causes him to stand in awe of the Creator. The emotional evaluation of God’s sovereignty shifts. The poet’s path takes a new direction. Perhaps the reader will follow suit.
Topical Index: yāqār, precious, ʿāṣûm, vast, rēaʿ, thought, purpose, Psalm 139:17
[1]Hartley, J. E. (1999). 905 יָקַר. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (398). Chicago: Moody Press.
Your brief definition, description, teaching on precious is really a good intro into you more! Precious, as we use it today tends toward mushy gushy type thinking but in this regard and we can pull up a number of other places the word is used, precious becomes substantial, even foundational . As in First Peter 1:7. Value from God’s perspective. What might be an irritant to us become a means for God to work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure ! We must never underestimate the power of God in even the smallest things! Hope that made some sense.
Here’s a few verses in regards to precious . Peter, the raw old fisherman seemed to like the word.
First Peter 1:7
First Peter 2:4
First Peter 2:7
Psalm 116:15
First Samuel 26:24
Second Chronicles 32:23
It has given me a new appreciation for the word, not to be used so flippantly.
Perhaps “The Size of Knowing” is connected to
David’s musings that God created Man a little lower
than Himself. Even still we were created in His image!
And His promises and desires for us are quite a bit
overwhelming!
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father
will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him.” Jn 14:23
Just a “little lower” is more than enough for me!
“Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe. Each day enrapture me with your marvelous things without number. …I do not ask to see the reason for it all: I ask only to share the wonder of it all.” Abraham Heschel
Thanks Theresa! I like the thrust and content of this quote!! So characteristically Heschel…
Skip, you say “in the 10th century BCE, David didn’t know even a small slice of what we know about the universe today.” But hasn’t one of the purposes of our pursuit of our so-called knowledge been an attempt to lessen our enormous sense of the unknown as an awe experience; or, an experience of the numinous? As C.S. Lewis points out, the ancient mind did not experience less of the numinous for not having so-called scientific knowledge; it suffered more of it. So much more so, we know the Greeks got tired of experiencing it and decided to try to control that experience by the process of ‘knowing’ (in fact, controlling) as a means of lessening that terror. They were so successful, in fact, that almost none of us, as the rightful successors of their legacy of ‘knowing’, suffer from it (the experience of the numinous – see, we have even forgotten what the word means!) hardly at all today! Progress, right?
Wow Laurita! Quite insightful. Read Theresa’s quote above from Hechel. Sounds to me as if the return to the pre-Greeks sense of awe and wonder is what Hechel was asking for!
Arnella, hi! I think our problem is that we suffer from reductionism; reducing everything to lowest common denominator; but the end result of worshiping at this altar is that we conform to that image. Thus, we insist on reducing ourselves the same way. In the end, we aim to function in ‘perfect’ isolation and wonder why we don’t even know who we are!
Witness the communist teaching the protege what the essence of communism is by snicking off all wheat heads in a field that stuck up above the rest. Now we are crabs in a bucket and wondering why we can’t see where we are going.
I have been finding that, for me, anyway, to return to wonder is to recognize the wholistic nature of creation: the sum is always greater than the parts. Instead of focusing on reducing and isolating, try focusing on how things work and fit together. Instead of trying to isolate and copy so as to be able to claim ‘ownership’ (i.e. patents, copyrights, etc.) try appreciating how all creation is designed for community and synergy. The simplest cell is sophisticated beyond all capacity to understand; the further we try to reduce, the more complicated a design we find. Halleluah!