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“Here,
and in all our meditations upon the qualities and content of God we pass beyond
our power of fit conception, nor can human eloquence put forth a power
commensurate with His greatness. At the contemplation and utterance of His
majesty all eloquence is rightly dumb, all mental effort is feeble. For God is
greater than mind itself. His greatness cannot be conceived.
Nay,
could we conceive of His greatness, He would be less than the human mind which
could form the conception. He is greater than all language, and no statement
could express Him, He would be less than human speech which could by such a
statement comprehend and gather up all that He is. All our thoughts about Him
will be less than He, and our loftiest utterances will be trivialities in comparison
with Him” (A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of
the Holy, p.50).
So it is when we launch
into the task of saying this or that with an air of confidence as if the
limited (us) has a complete understanding of the Unlimited (God) concerning the
perfections of His essence. The only surety we can convey with a degree of
accuracy, predicated upon a proper interpretation, is collecting the “handfuls
of purpose” of the progressive revelation of His attributes, and remark on how God has
manifested them in the biblical record and the story book of our lives.
Even if we should gain
confidence in the “mastery” of such revealed perfections in our finite state,
we would merely possess a scant knowledge of the Infinite, but it is enough to
be pleasing unto Him for He knows our frame should we move beyond mere academics
to application of the truth by growing in grace in the knowledge of the Holy
One, to be pure and as He is pure. God in his infinite wisdom chose to reveal a
limited amount of things about Himself to us through His Word, but what has
been revealed is for us (Deut 29:29), to move us in a positive and eternal direction
of expressing Christ-likeness in our talk and walk this side of eternity in
accordance with the Scriptures. So let’s wobble briefly (in light of what could
be or should be said) into this perfection of God, for He is the Paragon of being
infinite or without limitation.
Psalm 147 is considered a
post-exilic psalm (Psa 147:2-3), meaning that this was the time when a Jewish
remnant was allowed to return to Jerusalem by a Persian monarch, known as Cyrus
the Great, seventy years after the deportation of Israel to Babylon, roughly
586 – 516 B.C., referred to as the Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar.
This
Psalm could very well have been one of the songs sung during the restoration of
the walls of Jerusalem (Neh 12:27). The song opens with praise (Psa 147:1) and
ends with praise (Psa 147:20). It is a Psalm declaring God’s providential care
and sovereign rule over all creatures, particularly God’s covenant people. The
LORD that builds up Jerusalem, gathers together the outcast, heals the broken
hearted, and binds up the wounds is also the same LORD, who is all-knowing
(omniscient), who calls the innumerable stars (a number known to Him), not by a
number, but by name (Psa 147:4; Isa 40:26)! Selah. Truly, “Great is our Lord,
and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” Our God is worthy of our praise
for His grace and greatness!
The Hebrew word translated
“understanding” [tebunah, H8194] is found
primarily in the Wisdom Literature 27 of the 42 occurrences in the OT and
variously translated: “reasonings” (Job 32:11), “skillfulness” (Psa 78:72),
“wisdom” (Psa 136:5), and “discretion” (Jer 10:12, KJV; “wisdom,” Jer 10:12,
NKJV). The Psalmist describes the Lord’s understanding or wisdom as “infinite”
– “his understanding is beyond measure” (ESV), “his wisdom cannot be measured”
(GNB), “his understanding has no limit” (NIV). Sometimes this is referred to as the
immensity of God.
The Hebrew word translated
by our English word “infinite” is found in two other passages in the AV: Job
22:5, KJV and Nah 3:9, KJV and only here in the NKJV. It is a compound word
made up of a negative particle (ayin,
H369) and a masculine noun (mispar,
H4557). The meaning of mispar is a
number, a count, an amount, measure, the quantity of something. It occurs
mainly in the book of Numbers.
Combined these two Hebrews
words denote without number, without end, without limitation, boundless,
unsearchable, immeasurable, or literally not finite (infinite). This compound
word is not to be thought of in a linear sense as in mathematics when used of
God, rather in an unlimited sense of the word, without restriction. Also, this
superlative of God being infinite is not to be considered hyperbolic or an
inflated flowery figure of speech, concerning this perfection. He literally is
without limitation in concert with His Divine nature.
Though not the same
thing, infinity is similar to God’s omnipresence (without containment) and relative
to eternity which is not time-bound. Space and time pose no
limitation on God’s infinite nature. God cannot be fixed or limited by His
creation. No set of coordinates can pinpoint God to a geo-position on earth, the
earth’s atmosphere, or outer space (Deut 10:14; Psa 148:4) according to Solomon
(1 Kgs 8:27; cf. Isa 66:1; Acts 7:48-49; 17:24-28). Even the LORD Himself
declared of His presence to be in all parts of the universe (Jer 23:23-24). Not
only is God not limited by space, He also transcends time (Ex 15:18). He is
from “everlasting to everlasting” (Psa 90:2; Rev 4:8-10). We serve an infinite
God that cannot be contained or restricted by any temporal or spatial
limitations.
When we use words like
infinite and omnipresence (everywhere present), there is a tendency to view God
as some kind of impersonal force, like energy, because we don’t associate such
attributes with a person. But the Bible refers to the person of God in such majestic
and mind-boggling terms to describe His absolute perfections, such as being
infinite (Psa 147:5; 40:5; 139:17-18; Isa 40:28; Rom 11:33), eternal (Deut
33:27; Psa 90:1-2; Isa 9:6; 57:15; Jer 10:10; Micah 5:2; 1 Tim 1:17; Heb 9:14),
and unchangeable (Mal 3:6, Heb 13:8; Jas 1:17; Rev 1:8) in His essence.
Though God’s essence is
incomprehensible, what we do know is that God attributes are not pieces of a pie where the pie
[God] is the sum total of His slices. All-powerful is not an increasing arsenal
of different abilities; all-knowing is not a growing database of information;
all-present is not being stretched throughout space and time and eternity;
God’s omnisapience is not collection or compilation of wisdom throughout the
ages; God is immutable or unchanging, eternal. God is fully all-knowing (God is never increasing in knowledge); God is fully all-powerful; God is fully all-wise; God is fully all-present; God is fully love;
God is fully holy, and so forth. All of His attributes are in perfect unity and
without conflict in the expressions of His providence and sovereign rule. The
“I AM” encapsulates all of His known attributes as well as the unknown or
unrevealed.
In the magnitude and
magnificence of His Majesty, He is a Person of unimaginable glory, wonder, splendor,
and awe who is infinite, eternal, and immutable. Though we can read and let our
imagination stir, we will never be able to get our arms around His exalted
essence. Even words fail to express the realities of the One and only true God
in all of His Shekinah splendor. We at least get a visual hint from general revelation (the physical creation) of the grandeur
of His greatness and power. What awesome wonders are on display day after day,
night after night!
Truly, we serve a great
and awesome God who is right here with us in the fray, encouraging,
strengthening, guiding, providing, and protecting us in fighting the good fight
of faith, holding us accountable to be holy as He is holy while living in a sin
stained world. If we have fallen, God in His infinite wisdom possesses the
greatness and the grace to lift us up and free us from whatever bondage holds
us in captivity and bring us back to the place where we belong if we will only
choose to return to the place of blessing (1 Jn 1:9).
We simply cannot allow the
enemy to convince us to abandon the work of bringing honor and glory to God by indulging
in the pleasures of sin even for a season. Our bodies become the temple of the
Holy Spirit instantaneously at regeneration by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-7; 1
Cor 6:19; 2 Cor 5:17). Since we are literally blood-bought, we are to glorify
Him in our body and our spirit never forgetting the price for our spiritual
freedom from the penalty of sin in Christ (1 Cor 6:20). Sin will deport us from
the place of blessing, resulting in loss of fellowship, not salvation, and
turning spiritual blessings into needless burdens; captivity (being away from
God in a state of rebellion) can be a harsh taskmaster.
By yielding and fully surrendering
to the Holy Spirit we have the power, the ability, and the means to grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, taking our finiteness
and stretching it toward His infinitude by the molding, shaping, and developing
of our new nature, intellectually, emotionally, and volitionally. Praise the
Lord for His infinite wisdom in bringing about the needed changes that
transform our lives for His glory and our blessings! “Great is our Lord,
and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.
“Lord, help us in
Your infinite wisdom and abounding greatness to rebuild what sin has torn down for
Your honor and Your glory.”
It's not Tozer, but
it'll do – Infinite ain’t got no limits so we best keep on keeping on towards
Christ-likeness! <><
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