What does it mean that God is great?
The psalm opens with praise for a greatness that no one can measure, and then keeps talking anyway — declaring, telling, singing it from one generation to the next. So what is being praised when we call God great, and how can anyone praise what is past finding out?
Greatness that outruns every measure
To say His greatness is unsearchable is not to say we failed to search hard enough. A God we could fit inside our thinking would not be God at all, and this very fact is where faith finds its room.
F. W. GrantGod goes beyond all knowledge and all thought. "He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think." And this too is necessary to our idea of God. He would not be that if we could take Him in with our thoughts. But that inscrutability which necessarily belongs to Him, while it leaves room for faith, is nothing other than His perfection.
Great in power, great in what He is
Greatness in the Bible is not only size and strength. One writer puts the two sides of it side by side and then asks which is really the greater.
James McBroomGod is not only great in the sphere of power, as is seen in creation, He is morally great also. Not only great in what He has done, but great also in what He is. These are brought together in Psalm 147: "He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names." But He also bows down to bind up the broken heart. Which is the greater? For a mighty supreme being to send out the glorious orbs that fill the heavens, or for that same Being to bow down to take an interest in poor weak things like you and me?
So high that the lowly are not overlooked
We might expect a great God to notice only the impressive. Scripture reverses that, and the reason lies in how far above us He actually is.
J. N. DarbyThe Lord, high as He was, had regard for the lowly. He is too high to make a difference out of man's exaltation. If we look down from heaven, everything on earth is flat. But there are high and low here, and God thinks of the lowly.
That same height also sorts people. Commenting on a psalm with the same theme, another writer notes what distance means for the proud:
Hamilton SmithThough the Lord is high and His glory great, yet He has regard for the lowly. The proud He knows from far away. God notices them, but at a distance. He does not admit them into His favour or confidence.
Greatness you can lean your whole weight on
His greatness is also steadiness. Nothing human derails it, and nothing about it will shift under you.
James McBroomThis reveals His stability, His unchanging goodness. The blessed God carries out His own purposes in spite of men's failure and evil and wickedness. There is no flaw in His ways. All is perfectly right… When you come to God you come to perfection, reliability — that which cannot shift. You have come to that which you can stake your soul upon for time and eternity.
Unsearchable, yet not unknowable
If His greatness cannot be reached by investigation, then everything we know of it is a gift He chose to give — and a gift measured to us.
L. M. GrantHis judgments are unsearchable, His ways past finding out: they cannot be discovered by all man's cleverness and searching. He must reveal them Himself if they are to be known at all — nor does this mean that because of revelation we therefore know everything about His ways. Indeed, how much we are still ignorant of. But He reveals to us what He knows is good for us, and this is enough to subdue our hearts with awe when we listen to it rightly.
Greatness that will be publicly owned
Believers already say what this psalm says. Commentary on it looks ahead to a day when the whole earth will say it too.
L M GrantIt will be universally recognised then that "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised," and in fact it will be so impressive that the conviction will be brought home to many at last that His greatness is unsearchable. Of course, believers know this now, but it will be publicly known then.
Summary
- Unsearchable. God goes beyond all knowledge and all thought; if our minds could take Him in, He would not be God — and that limit is His perfection, not our defeat.
- Revealed. What cannot be discovered can still be given: He must reveal His ways Himself, and He tells us what is good for us — enough to subdue the heart with awe.
- Moral. He is great in what He has done and great in what He is; the same power that numbers the stars bows down to bind up a broken heart.
- Near. He is too high to be impressed by human rank, so He thinks of the lowly, while the proud He knows only from a distance.
- Praised. Believers already own this greatness; one day it will be publicly recognised — the reason praise runs "forever and ever" and from one generation to the next.