12 Who has measured the [j]waters in the hollow of His hand,
And marked off the heavens by the [k]span,
And [l]calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,
And weighed the mountains in a balance
And the hills in a pair of scales?
13 Who has [m]directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has informed Him?
14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?
And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge
And informed Him of the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales;
Behold, He lifts up the [n]islands like fine dust.
16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,
Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before Him,
They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and [o]meaningless.18 To whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare with Him?
19 As for the [p]idol, a craftsman casts it,
A goldsmith plates it with gold,
And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.
20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering
Selects a tree that does not rot;
He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman
To [q]prepare [r]an idol that will not totter.
Well, when you put it like that, serving anything else, or attempting to put anything above God, seems quite foolish… None of us can hold more than a small amount of water in our hands, and yet God knows, and can hold (and does) all the water in the world. He knows the mass of the mountains, and the hills. In contrast to God, it is all a drop in a bucket. Woah!
The passage continues in that vein until we get to v. 18, which has the same theme, but with a different angle. And there perhaps, God may be seen to have done himself a disservice. No one could fathom the bounds of the living God, and then He sent his Son to this earth so that man could touch and see (and even smell) Him.
As a “mere man”, we may be tempted to think less of Him when we should indeed think the opposite. How did God, who is beyond all, above all, far greater than anything we can imagine, stoop to consider me and you? How is it that the God to whom islands are like grains of sand, nay smaller, like fine dust, care about us so much that He does not actually regard us as “less than nothing and meaningless.”
That takes God from grand and majestic to astounding and mystifying, and He is all of that in One. Don’t take that for granted. Don’t take His incredibly thoughtful love for you for granted. Don’t dismiss the fact that He actually knows your name, and has hand-crafted a plan for your life. Yes, for me, and for you, and for each of the 7 billion people that walk this earth. Don’t miss it for anything!