Psalm 139:6 NKJV
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
The Beautiful Mystery of Being Known
MY NOTES
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:6 NKJV
Have you ever had a moment where you caught a glimpse of the night sky, or looked at a microscopic image of a human cell, and just felt… small? Not “insignificant” small, but the kind of small that makes you hold your breath in awe?
That is exactly where King David is in Psalm 139. He has spent the first five verses describing how God has “searched” him, knows when he sits down, knows his thoughts from afar, and is acquainted with all his ways. Finally, David hits a mental wall. He realizes he’s trying to wrap a finite mind around an infinite God.
The Heart of the Matter: Better Known Than We Know Ourselves
David realizes something both humbling and deeply comforting: God knows us better than we know ourselves. We spend our whole lives trying to “find ourselves” or understand why we do what we do. But God doesn’t have to search for the answer—He already has it.
As the commentators suggest, we often reject what God’s Word says about our condition because we think we know our own hearts best. But David settles into a “wonderful and humble place” by admitting that God’s perspective is the true one. He recognizes that God doesn’t just see his actions; He sees the “essence” of his being, his past, his present, and his future—all in one eternal glance.
The Limits of Our “Ladders”
David says this knowledge is “high.” Picture yourself standing on tiptoe, reaching for the lowest step of God’s throne, and realizing you still can’t touch it.
It’s a healthy thing to realize our own imperfections when looking at God’s perfections. In a world that demands an answer for everything, James Alexander reminds us that a “religion without mystery would be a religion without God.” We cannot “by searching find out how God searches and finds us.”
Instead of being frustrated by what we can’t comprehend, David encourages us to simply believe and adore.
Cross References (NKJV)
Job 11:7–9
“Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Sheol—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.”
Psalm 40:5
“Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.”
Romans 11:33
“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
Prayer
Abba, sometimes I try so hard to figure out my life, my future, and even Your plans. Today, I want to join David in his holy ‘I don’t know.’ I am overwhelmed by the fact that You know me better than I know myself. You see the thoughts I haven’t even thought yet, and You love me anyway. When I feel small, remind me that it’s okay to be small in the hands of a God so big. I stop my searching for a moment just to adore Your unsearchable perfection. Thank You for being a mystery I can trust. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- The Comfort of Divine Expertise: You don’t have to explain yourself to God. He is intimately acquainted with your “microscopic” needs and your most “sublime” conceptions.
- The Necessity of Mystery: If we could fully explain God, He wouldn’t be God. Faith begins where our understanding reaches its limit.
- Humility is the Key to Vision: We see the most of God when we realize He is incomprehensible. Admitting we “cannot attain” to His heights is actually the first step in drawing closer to Him.
- No Data Loss with God: Unlike our “stinted knowledge” and “defect of memory,” God never loses track of a single detail of your life.
Proverb for Today
My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26 NKJV
Daily Scripture
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 NKJV
Bill
Please enter your email and click subscribe to be notified whenever I submit a new post.
Summary of Commentaries:
Psalm 139:6 expresses David’s awe at God’s perfect knowledge. Commentators emphasize that God knows us far better than we know ourselves—our thoughts, words, actions, and condition. This knowledge is wonderful, exalted, and beyond human comprehension. Rather than leading to doubt, it should lead to humility, faith, and worship. David is overwhelmed not only that God knows all things, but also by how He knows them. God’s infinite understanding surpasses all human imagination, measure, and reach.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” I cannot grasp it. I can hardly endure to think of it. The theme overwhelms me. I am amazed and astounded at it. Such knowledge not only surpasses my comprehension, but even my imagination.
“It is high, I cannot attain unto it.” Mount as I may, this truth is too lofty for my mind. It seems to be always above me, even when I soar into the loftiest regions of spiritual thought. Is it not so with every attribute of God? Can we attain to any idea of his power, his wisdom, his holiness? Our mind has no line with which to measure the Infinite. Do we therefore question? Say, rather, that we therefore believe and adore. We are not surprised that the Most Glorious God should, in his knowledge, be high above all the knowledge to which we can attain: it must of necessity be so, since we are such poor, limited beings; and when we stand on tiptoe, we cannot reach to the lowest step of the throne of the Eternal.
______________________________________________________
Enduring Word
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: David understood that God knew him better than he knew himself, a wonderful and humble place to be. We sometimes reject what God and His word say about us and our condition; we should recognize that He knows us better than we know ourselves. (David Guzik)
______________________________________________________
John Gill
[Such] knowledge [is] too wonderful for me,…. Meaning either the knowledge of himself, such as God had of him, which was vastly superior to what he had of himself; and especially the knowledge of other persons and things, whether visible or invisible, in heaven, earth, or hell; things past, present, and to come; or else the manner in which God knew all this was amazing to him, and quite impenetrable by him; that he did know him, his thoughts, his words and actions, and so those of all others, was easy of belief; but how he should know all this was past his conception, and struck him with the profoundest admiration;
It is high, sublime, out of his reach, beyond his comprehension;
I cannot [attain] unto it; neither to such knowledge, nor to comprehend what it is in God; and how he should have it, and in what manner he exercises it. Kimchi, Jarchi, and Aben Ezra connect the words with the following, as if the matter of his wonder and astonishment was the omnipresence of God, or where he should find a place to flee from him.
______________________________________________________
Matthew Henry
He speaks of it with admiration (v. 6): It is too wonderful for me; it is high.
1. “Thou hast such a knowledge of me as I have not of myself, nor can have. I cannot take notice of all my own thoughts, nor make such a judgment of myself as thou makest of me?”
2. “It is such a knowledge as I cannot comprehend, much less describe. That thou knowest all things I am sure, but how I cannot tell.” We cannot, by searching, find out how God searches and finds out us; nor do we know how we are known.
______________________________________________________
Miscellaneous Comments
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” etc. When we are about to look upon God’s perfections, we should observe our own imperfections, and thereby learn to be the more modest in our searching of God’s unsearchable perfection: “Such knowledge,” saith David, “is too high for me, I cannot attain unto it.” Then do we see most of God, when we see him incomprehensible, and do see ourselves swallowed up in the thoughts of his perfection, and are forced to fall in admiration of God, as here. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
—David Dickson.
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” Compared with our stinted knowledge, how amazing is the knowledge of God! As he made all things, he must be intimately acquainted, not only with their properties, but with their very essence. His eye, at the same instant, surveys all the works of his immeasurable creation. He observes, not only the complicated system of the universe, but the slightest motion of the most microscopic insect; not only the most sublime conception of angels, but the meanest propensity of the most worthless of his creatures. At this moment, he is listening to the praises breathed by grateful hearts in distant worlds, and reading every groveling thought which passes through the polluted minds of the fallen race of Adam. At one view, he surveys the past, the present, and the future. No inattention prevents him from observing; no defect of memory or of judgment obscures his comprehension. In his remembrance are stored not only the transactions of this world, but of all the worlds in the universe; not only the events of the six thousand years which have passed since the earth was created, but of a duration without beginning. Nay, things to come extending to a duration without end, are also before him. An eternity past and an eternity to come are, at the same moment, in his eye; and with that eternal eye he surveys infinity. How amazing! How inconceivable!
—Henry Duncan (1774-1846), in “Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons.”
- Exploring the Beauty of Psalms: Insights and Commentaries
- Monthly Breakdown of Our Blog Content
- Psalms Commentary: Faith and Inspiration
Leave a Reply