To know this God of grace is to marvel. To know his love is to wonder. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). No we cannot attain it. But by the Spirit of Christ, we do taste and see God’s breathtaking goodness. We enter a sphere of love which exceeds the limits of human knowledge; God’s redemptive love in Christ completely satisfies and completely overwhelms.

“Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well.” (Ps 139:14b, ESV)

One chief evidence of gospel grace in the life of the believer is wonder. The Lord God himself and his care for us should dumbfound us. Any attention to them catapults the soul into an orbit of awe. The fact is, the more we consider creation and redemption, the more we discover that we simply cannot take it all in. Contemplation of God, his Word, and his works cause the soul nearly to burst.

Life is filled with divine reminders. A glorious sunset. A tender word from a compassionate friend. A performance of Bach’s Chaconne from the bow of Joshua Bell. Another day. Another meal. Another breath. These should all propel the heart God-ward.

As David writes in Psalm 139, meditation on our exquisite creation further boggles the mind. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) actually by God himself;“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13, emphasis added).

Note well, our creation by the God of heaven is personal and intentional. We are truly precious. We matter because we matter to him. If you think such thoughts only a distant dream, David sets the record straight: “I awake, and I am still with you” (Psalm 139:18).

But there is more, much more. As if the creation’s splendor were not enough to engulf our souls in gratitude, Scripture tells the divine story of grace, of the Creator God who is also the Redeemer of his people. God forgives; he sweeps away our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Seeing our desperate plight, he relocates us, transferring us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). We are no longer objects of his wrath, but his children by his grace in his Son (Ephesians 2:1-10).

Psalm 139 drips with this rich gospel amazement! Writing as one loved stubbornly by the covenant Lord himself, David revels and rejoices. The preciousness of the personal, redeeming pursuit of God leaves him amazed. C. S. Lewis’ image, the “hound of heaven,” does not properly convey the character of this divine pursuit. Unlike a hunting dog that relentlessly pursues his prey, God chases us for a Fatherly embrace – gentle, strong, forgiving, gracious, and permanently redeeming. We who were stubborn rebels become his blessed children (1 John 1:1-3)!

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