Comparing the Creed and Psalm 139

The Creed is a statement of belief, rather than a prayer (some may immediately associate a religious text as being a prayer to God). God comes in three main forms in the Creed, as mentioned throughout the passage, as 'Father', 'Son' and the 'Holy Spirit'. 

What believers put to question is: how can three different labels with three different connotations and meanings mean the same thing; God? Why would he not just have one name, rather than dividing himself or in fact separating his roles? These three words are all synonyms for the Lord, God, but carry different responsibilities. 'Father' refers to all the qualities one would immediately give to God - omnipresence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, omnipotence etc. Perhaps it is the 'father' that creates life and controls the universe, since He is so powerful. 'Son' gives the impression that this figure is dependant on something or relies on someone else (e.g. his father). It is the 'son', Jesus (God incarnated) that submits himself to the physical world in order to defeat death and save humanity. This is his role. The 'Holy Spirit' is something a little less obvious. It comes from the joining of the 'father' and the 'son'. Its role is to support humans once death is defeated (throughout their life they are living at the moment). 

 In contrast to the nature of the Creed, there is no one definition or statement to clarify what God's connection to humanity is. The Creed leaves this question open ended through its vague message, allowing believers to formulate their own opinion on whether God is a personal figure, who directly communicates with humanity, or if he is a transcendent spirit, who fathers the universe without any physical or emotional connection. Again, it depends on how a believer perceives God; in his 'father', 'son' or 'holy spirit' form. For example, when God is incarnated as Jesus, some might see that as being a more personal God, since he lived a human live on planet earth. However, if he is only ever the 'Holy Spirit', to a believer He could just be completely disconnected and impersonal. 

In Psalm 139, the speaker focuses more on God's qualities and attributes rather than the variety of his labels and their meanings. Some may say this psalm shows God to be in his 'father' figure, since his omniscience is admired greatly throughout. 

The first stanza promotes God's omniscience through the worship-like language, for example in verse 6 "such knowledge is too wonderful for me". God is on an utterly different level of intelligence to humanity, which arguably displays his distance from the life he created. On the other hand, Walter Brueggemann argues that the repeated pronouns "you" and "me" indicate a personal relationship between God and humans. The second stanza shows God as being omnipresent, for example in verse 12 "even the darkness is not dark to you", meaning that God can and does see everything. Another interpretation of this verse is that God is omnibenevolent, as he doesn't perceive negative things as 'darkness' as humans would, for example bereavement, trouble etc, as he sees the reasoning behind everything. The third stanza focuses on God's omnipotence, exclaiming how he made humanity from the "depths of the earth"and how God pre-determined all the days of all the lives in the Book of Revelation (verse 16). The fourth stanza teaches that God will lead you in the future and in the afterlife (verse 24). 

God's relationship with humanity in psalm 139 can be seen on a whole spectrum. Immediately, one may apply this passage to the personal connection the think they have with God through the references that are applicable to all, for example "you knit me together in my mother's womb" (verse 13). This happens to every single person, since they are all nurtured in their mother's womb before birth. However, another translation reading the word (in hebrew) with a heh instead of an aleph, means something completely different. It shows that the whole psalm it dedicated to being a distinct, personal message from God to King David.