Fathom the Unfathomable

Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. [Psalm 36:5-6a]

I’ve said “God is great” several thousand times in my life. When I was a boy, and my family especially my children repeated this line when we said grace before dinner: “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food. Amen.”

We can say “God is great” until we’re blue in the face, yet the reality of our words eludes our comprehension. God’s greatness exceeds our capacity even to begin to understand it. It’s a little like the brightness of the sun. I know the sun is very bright. But I can’t even begin to look at the sun because its luminescence far exceeds the limitations of my sight.

When David sought to celebrate the greatness of God, he also looked to nature for analogies that might helps us begin to grasp that which is beyond our reach. “Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths” (36:5-6a).

Each of these natural images conveys the immensity of God. Each tries to paint a picture of God’s limitless character. Of course, the reality far exceeds the analogy. God’s love, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice are far greater than any natural object or expanse. Nevertheless, the awesome magnitude of the sky and clouds, of mountains and oceans, helps us to begin to fathom the unfathomable.

Perhaps, as you read this, you are in a place of sublime physical beauty. You can look around right now and let your mind consider the greatness of God. More likely, however, you are sitting in your den or office, perhaps even riding on the subway or eating your breakfast. You might want to stop and remember places you have been that suggest something of God’s own vastness.

Be astounded by the immensity and beauty of God’s creation. Yet God’s greatness and glory far exceeds even this.

Adapted from Mark D. Roberts “Everyday Conversations about

Work, Life & God”, WB “High Calling” Journal
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"God's love is meteoric, his loyalty astronomic, His purpose titanic, his verdicts oceanic. Yet in his largeness nothing gets lost; Not a man, not a mouse, slips through the cracks." "God transcends all conceptuality. Only ego presumes that the All Pervading Divine Presence could be reduce to words." Leland Lewis