It has been my pattern throughout this series to begin each new exploration of an attribute by demonstrating its relevance for biblical counseling. Yet the character of God is not merely a subject to be studied or a theological foundation upon which to build our care for others. It is meant to lead us to praise. Take, for example, the immensity of God. The immensity of God is not simply His freedom from spatial limits, but the unsearchable fullness of His being—a greatness without edges that invites not only our reflection, but our awe, our humility, and our delight.
Because the character of God calls forth worship, biblical counselors must be first and foremost worshippers of the living God. We are not merely pointing others to truths about Him; we are calling them to know Him, to love Him, and to find life in Him. The call upon every believer is that we would “love the Lord our God with all our heart” (Matt. 22:37–38), and this must be true of those who seek to guide others in their relationship with Him. If we ourselves are not in awe of God, we will struggle to lead others to Him with sincerity and depth.
For this reason, we cannot separate the care we offer from the condition of our own souls. To lead others into a deeper relationship with God requires that we ourselves are being drawn deeper still. We cannot convincingly call others to behold a God who does not captivate our own hearts. Strive, then, as a biblical counselor, to be chiefly a worshipper of God. The study of His immensity is an invitation to stand in awe before a God whose greatness has no edges—and to let that awe shape both our lives and our care for others.
Defining Divine Immensity
What do we mean by the term immensity? To be immense is to be exceedingly great in scale or degree. When applied to God, however, we are saying more than that He is simply “very large.” We are confessing that God is not measured by space at all. He has no spatial limits. He cannot be contained. Or, as the band Citizens so beautifully expresses it, you cannot find the edges of God. Divine immensity means that God is not limited by space, not confined to any place, and yet fully present to all places.
Scripture consistently testifies to this reality through what we might call anti-containment passages. In 1 Kings 8, Solomon dedicates the temple, acknowledging that while God has graciously chosen to meet with His people there, no structure can contain Him. In verse 27 he declares:
But will God indeed live on earth?
Even heaven, the highest heaven, cannot contain you,
much less this temple I have built.
God is not spatially contained—even by the cosmos itself. The temple is not His boundary, but His condescension.
This theme echoes throughout Scripture. In Isaiah 66:1, the earth is described as God’s footstool, emphasizing that creation itself is beneath Him rather than containing Him. Earlier, in Isaiah 40, God is portrayed as measuring the waters in the hollow of His hand and sitting above the earth, revealing that He transcends and governs all spatial reality. In Acts 17:24, Paul reiterates this truth, declaring that the Lord of heaven and earth does not dwell in temples made by human hands. Not even sacred spaces can confine Him.
The Psalms likewise celebrate this reality. Psalm 113:4–6 portrays God as exalted above all nations, yet attentive to all that occurs below. And in Job 11:7–9, we are reminded that God’s being exceeds all measurable dimensions:
Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than Sheol—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea.
God is not contained by any space because He is not a spatial being at all. Rather, all space exists before Him and is sustained by Him. For this reason, divine immensity is closely related to God’s omnipresence. Because God is not limited by space, He is present to all places. As Jeremiah 23:23–24 declares, He fills heaven and earth, and as Psalm 139:7–10 reminds us, there is nowhere we can flee from His presence.
Praising Divine Immensity
The immensity of God should lead us to wonder and awe. God is boundless and unmeasurable. His completeness inexhaustible, uncontainable, and even unfathomable. Such thoughts should lead us to praise. That’s how the Apostle Paul responds when he contemplates the unsearchableness of God.
In Romans 11:33 we see that theology leads to doxology. Paul speaking about the vastness of God’s wisdom says:
Oh, the depth of the riches
and the wisdom and the knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments
and untraceable his ways!
Paul contemplates what cannot be traced and responds with worship. The unsearchable depth of God’s wisdom, flowing from His immeasurable being, leads not merely to reflection, but to praise.
This connection between immensity and worship is found all over Scripture. In Psalm 145:3-7 God’s greatness is declared as “unsearchable.” In Isaiah 6 the whole earth is full of God’s glory and the Prophet can’t help but join in glorifying this holy, holy, holy God (v. 1-5). Isaiah 40:12-31overwhelms the reader with God’s scale, then calls for both awe and dependence. In Job 38-42 we get a grand depiction of God’s vastness, which leads Job himself to a place of awe and repentance. “I had heard of you… but now my eye sees you…Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them” (42:4-6). Whenever Scripture confronts us with the unsearchable greatness of God, it does not invite analysis alone, but adoration.
This is how theological work should be done: in praise and adoration. The immensity of God is an invitation to awe. I love how Citizens captures this idea in their song “Everything and More.” The song starts with a confession that we try to make God small. The band sings:
We have tried to make you small, to fit inside these narrow walls. We have built you all these rooms, but you just keep expanding.
This is where we start in our theologizing. Trying to make God small enough that we can wrap our minds around Him. But God cannot be contained; you can search and study and analyze, and you will never “find the edges” of Him. Such knowledge should lead to wonder and joy. As the song continues, “thank God that you eclipse all our shallow understanding.”
The chorus launches us, then, into praise and adoration of this endlessly expansive God:
Deeper than deep; brighter than bright; more than our words could ever do to describe. Truer than true, purer than pure; you’re everything and still you are more. Everything and more.
The poetic language captures the feeling of awe before the infinite one. To worship this God is “a thrill,” the song says. This is the endless and eternal joy that can come only from being in relationship with an immense God. “We’ll spend forever with you, won’t find the edges of you.”
To study the immensity of God is to realize that we stand at the precipice of an inexhaustible beauty, power, and wisdom. It is to realize that God is everything…and even more than that. Our words cannot adequately describe all that God is. This is moving theological meditation, friends. We recognize that people often feel trapped, confined, and cornered by life. We recognize it because we feel it too. The doctrine of Divine Immensity whispers to us: there is no corner of existence where God runs out of room to be God. You cannot find the edges of Him… because He is already beyond every edge you fear. That is the kind of theological reflection that cultivates worship in our hearts, and empowers us to help others worship God too.
Sparrow & Heart Soul Care 