Psalm 139 →
Line-by-line comments. This is a good Psalm. Recommend two zoom-ins, as pdf didn’t treat the font nicely.
Overall, I got the impression that David is bending over backwards to try to convey how amazing this God is. For David, the most interesting thing is not that God is concerned with him… or I guess, that’s not a good way to phrase it. David is interested in what God is doing and who God is, and thereby also finds that God is intimately involved with everything David is. At the same time, David really only has his own perspective (and Jesus Christ’s, through prophecy), so he uses that to its full potential—referencing everything he can think of, he explores the extraordinary work of God across time, in creation, and especially in himself.
This is why anyone who is privileged to study at a top-class university should joyfully study their brains out—because to understand anything about this universe should produce a sense of wonder, fear, and thanksgiving that God has made himself known to you, and that he has always been at work making you who you are. This is how I feel when I learn something—that everything in the universe has this remarkable consistency from the complex to the simple that begs to be known. There’s really no scientific reason this universe is scientifically knowable. Science is predicated on the assumption of this internal consistency—on the assumption of a God who has made himself known. So when I study factor analysis, machine learning, or computational biology, and when I design emg-based hci’s for Android, and when I struggle through lab, and when it’s late at night and there’s hw to be done, can I just thank God that he made himself known? Amen and good night.
