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is no searching of His understanding." In Job, we have associated together the ideas of
unsearchableness and of being without number:--
"Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without number"
(Job 5: 9).
"Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be
searched out" (Job 36: 26).
David, in Psa. 139:, speaks of the knowledge of God that takes cognizance of his
down-sitting and uprising, his path and his ways, his words and his circumstances, and
exclaims: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it"
(Psa. 139: 6).
Again, in another Psalm, he looks back to the horrible pit in which he had sunk, and
the miry clay that threatened to engulf him. He looks back to the deliverance that set his
feet upon a rock, established his goings and put a new song into his mouth. And as he
ponders with grateful heart the outworkings of grace he says:--
"Many, O Lord, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts
which are to usward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare
and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered" (Psa. 40: 5).
Further on in the same Psalm, David speaks of "innumerable evils . . . . . iniquities
. . . . . more than the hairs of mine head" (verse 12).
It is perfectly true that no man can enumerate the wonderful works and purposes of the
God of all grace, and no man knows the number of his sins or of the hairs of his head, but
the Lord does, for He has said: "The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye
not therefore" (Matt. 10: 30, 31).
Coming back to Psa. 139:, we find the Psalmist, after speaking of the omniscience
of God and the wonders of His creative purpose in man, exclaiming:--
"How precious also are Thy thoughts unto Me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand" (Psa. 139: 17, 18).
And then follow words that at first seem to have no real connection: "When I awake I
am still with Thee" (Psa. 139: 18).
Just as the Psalmist could comfort the outcasts of Israel by speaking of the infinite
understanding of the Lord, so he could himself repose in perfect confidence in the Lord
Who, though He knew his shortcomings so minutely, had nevertheless such marvelous
thoughts of grace toward him. If this mighty God saw his substance when it was made in
secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth (verse 15), and had
"covered" with His protecting care the unborn child (verse 13); then, when the time
came for him to lie down and sleep until the resurrection morning, he could do so in
perfect peace. His power and His understanding are infinite, and they are both ranged on