“If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”
If I try to count them, they are more than the sand; when I awake, I am still with you. The attempt to count God's thoughts fails due to their exceeding number; they surpass even the sand of the sea in quantity. The failure to count becomes source not of frustration but of continued communion (when I awake, I am still with you). The final phrase returns to the fundamental claim: the psalmist awakens to find themselves still in relationship with the omniscient God. This verse concludes the psalm by affirming that the overwhelming reality of divine omniscience terminates not in despair but in continued relationship and presence.
Church Fathers on Psalms 139:18
1. ...Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Prophets, sometimes in His own Name, sometimes in ours, because He makes Himself one with us; as it is said, “they two shall be one flesh.” Wherefore also the Lord says in the Gospel, speaking of marriage, “therefore they are no more two, but one flesh.” One flesh, because of our mortality He took flesh; not one divinity, for He is the Creator, we the creature. Whatsoever then our Lord speaks in the person of the Flesh He took upon…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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