Last month I was working my way through Psalm 145, studying everything I could about it. One Bible study tool that’s extremely helpful is to define as many words as you can in a passage. Look up words you don’t know, of course, but also look up words that may be familiar. We sometimes have a wrong idea about a word, and we can definitely always learn more about a word. Verse 3 of Psalm 145 says, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.” My idea of the word fathom was to imagine or to understand. When I looked up the word, the definition for fathom as a verb meant to measure the depth of, to penetrate the truth of, to comprehend, and, yes, to understand. As a noun, fathom is a nautical measurement. It’s a way to measure the depth of water. Doesn’t that have so much more meaning than just “imagine” on its own? God’s greatness cannot be fathomed— cannot be measured, understood, comprehended. I started thinking of it in nautical terms and the fact that humans are still trying to explore, measure, and learn about the bottom of the ocean. There are sea creatures yet to be discovered and depths that we cannot see. Even as we fathom and understand what we see, there is so much more than we cannot fathom or measure. The thought of too-great-to-measure greatness describes God. Even when we see his greatness, it’s just a glimpse, just a small amount of what we can measure. There is more to Him than we can ever comprehend.
Matthew Henry says of Psalm 145:3, “When we cannot, by searching, find the bottom, we must sit down at the brink, and adore the depth.”
When I cannot see the bottom of a vast canyon that seems so overwhelming and awe-inspiring, I can sit at the edge and revel at what I see, knowing there is so much more. When the ocean seems to never end and the depths seem so deep, I can sit at the water’s edge and absorb the fact that there is so much beyond my knowing and grasping. And I can be amazed. I can adore the depth. That is God. Amazing, deep, beyond my grasping. That’s the God that loves me. That’s the God I love.
