Psalm 139

What an incredible passage. I still find myself in awestruck wonder thinking about the enormity of our Lord. He knows all. He commands all. He controls all. Wow.
I was rereading it in Spanish after church today and some parts just struck me as even more beautiful and incredible after being translated back into English. I'll show you what I mean.

Psalm 139:6
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Salmos 139:6
Conocimiento tan maravilloso rebasa mi comprensión;
tan sublime es que no puedo entenderlo.

There are 3 things about this verse in Spanish that stick out to me the most, the first being the word "conocimiento." If you know much about spanish, then you'll know there are two verbs used for "to know": Saber and Conocer. Saber is used when you want to demonstrate that you know facts or know how to do something. But conocer is used when you want to say you know a person- you are familiar with them. God knows us as more than just facts, as more than just a combination of proteins and cells. He knows us at a personal level, despite knowing everything about us. Despite knowing how we fail Him on a daily basis, and how our thoughts so often fail to align with His, and how we feel the need to take control and put Him in the backseat, He still loves us and still wants to know us on a personal, deep, intimate level.

The second is the word "maravilloso". In English the word used is 'wonderful' but 'maravilloso' also means marvelous, which to me carries a much stronger connotation than wonderful. The dictionary definition is 'such as to cause wonder, amazement, and astonishment.' God's amount of knowledge should never cease to astonish us. It baffles me when I try to think about just how much He does know. Our human minds can't wrap themselves around the infinite knowledge of God.

The third is the word 'sublime' which is a complete cognate and means 'sublime' in English. I wasn't exactly sure what the definition of sublime was, so I looked it up. I knew the general concept, but never expected to find a definition this potent:
Sublime- impressing the mind with a sense of grandeur or power; inspiring awe, veneration, etc.
Think about some of those words used. So full of grandeur and power, so awe inspiring, so venerating: we can't understand it.

Translated back to English from Spanish, the verse reads this way:

Knowledge so marvelous it exceeds and surpasses my understanding;
so sublime (full of grandeur and power, awe-inspiring, and venerating) that I am not able to understand it.

I LOVE the way verses can become so powerful when taken back from Spanish.