It’s easy to have preconceived notions about people, and not really see them. We do it all the time. In fact, our brains are wired to make quick assessments of people and situations for our safety. How someone is dressed may determine whether we smile or avert our eyes. The color of a person’s skin or their accent can lead us to jump to conclusions about what he or she is like.

We also do it with people we know very well. We assume that we know their thoughts and motives. At this point we stop actually seeing the person, and instead are seeing our idea of him or her. Then we are not free to relate to that person as he or she is in the moment. And that means we miss out on the rich, ever -changing complexity of the people we encounter, both strangers and long-term friends.

Many of us do the same thing with God as we do with people. For those of us who have been in church for any length of time, and are familiar with Bible stories, we might think, “Ah yes, I know God.” And that may be true. We do know God and have walked with our Savior for many years. But no matter how long we have known God, there are still new aspects of God’s infinite character to encounter, still things that may surprise us.

The Psalms are wonderful for reminding us of God’s complexity. In them, we get to glimpse the way people thousands of years ago experienced the Holy One. The writer of Psalm 29 says, “Wow, look how powerful God is! The Lord is breaking trees and shaking the ground.” This is an awe-inspiring portrayal of a God to be worshiped, perhaps from a safe distance. Thunder and fire describe the divine presence.

Yet this powerful God is not the only portrayal. The author of Psalm 131 knows the Holy One as the tender presence of a mother holding her weaned child. “I am content,” this psalmist relates, “to simply rest with God, not needing anything.”

In Psalm 51, King David pleads with God for mercy, deeply aware of his own wrongdoing. David is relating to God as one who can transform his heart, and cleanse his insides from guilt. In this one book of the Bible, God is described with rich complexity, and there is wonderful variety in how the people experienced God.

These Psalmists’ glimpses of how the Israelites experienced God give us windows into what God is like. Yet I believe that God is vast beyond our understanding. Psalm 139 proclaims, “The thoughts of God are more numerous than the sand. If we fall asleep while attempting to count them, we will wake up and find God still with us.” This God who is powerful and mighty, tender and merciful, holds both nations and each tiny newborn. God is immanent and transcendent, closer to us than our very breath and vaster than our entire universe.

Though God is beyond our understanding in many ways, the Psalms show us that God is also knowable. We know what God is like through Scripture, through the life of Jesus, through nature, and even through encounters with one another. Yet the Apostle Paul writes to Timothy that God dwells in unapproachable light and no one has seen or can see God.

Here is the paradox, the mystery, the ambiguity. So how do we hold both truths – that God is knowable and yet unknowable? One way is to allow ourselves, and those around us, to have unique experiences of God. We can find the courage to share with one another what we know and what we don’t know about the Holy One.

As we come to know God more deeply, we can become freer to be our whole selves, and let others be their whole selves. We can surprise and delight and challenge one another with our rich complexity that reflects our rich and complex God.