Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out heaven with the span, and known the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Read Chapter 40
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
Who, then, ventures to consider his knowledge on the same plane with that of God? Does any person presume to know what God has sealed with his own oracular and majestic pronouncements? - "Six Days of Creation 6.2.7"
Although these things seem illogical when heard by us according to our human capacity, nevertheless we are moved by them to think of spiritual things in an ineffable manner. Hence, even if we think that the body of the Lord, which when raised from the grave into heaven was not without human form and did indeed have bodily members, nevertheless he is not to be thought of as sitting on the right hand of the Father, as if the Father could be seen sitting on his left. In that blessedness indeed that surpasses all human understanding, “the right” is the name of that same blessedness. - "Letter 120.3"
God sits in heaven and measures the heaven with his palm. Does the same heaven become broad when God sits in it and narrow when he measures it? Or, when God is seated, is he no wider than the palm of his hand? If this is the case, then God has not made us to his own likeness, for with us the palm of the hand is much narrower than the bodily part on which we sit. So, if God is just as broad in the palm of his hand as when he is seated, he has made our members quite different. Not in this does the likeness consist. For shame! - "Sermon 53.14"
Now this Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not circumscribed to some place, nor is there heaven beyond him, but “the heavens are the work of his fingers,” and “the whole earth is held in the hollow of his hand.” He is in everything and yet nothing contains him. - "Catechetical Lectures 4.5"
Who. He now proceeds to show the difference between God and idols.
Fingers, is not expressed in Hebrew, which may denote the epha, Psalm lxxix. 6. (Calmet)
God's power and goodness in the works of the creation, show what he will do for man. (Worthington)
For this cause [God] comprehends in himself all the intelligible creation, that all things may remain in existence controlled by his encompassing power. - "Against Eunomius 2.11"
The words “I am that I am” were clearly an adequate indication of God’s infinity. But, in addition, we needed to apprehend the operation of his majesty and power. For while absolute existence is peculiar to him who, abiding eternally, had no beginning in a past however remote, we hear again an utterance worthy of himself issuing from the eternal and holy God, who says, “who holds the heaven in his palm and the earth in his hand,” and again, “The heaven is my throne and the earth is the footstool of my feet. What house will you build me or what shall be the place of my rest?” The whole heaven is held in the palm of God, the whole earth grasped in his hand.
Now the word of God … reveals a deeper meaning to the patient student.… This heaven that is held in the palm of God is also his throne, and the earth that is grasped in his hand is also the footstool beneath his feet. This was not written that … we should conclude that he has extension in space, as of a body.… It was written that in a...
[Christ] … is of no reputation in the world but of illustrious fame in heaven, being betrayed by those who are ignorant [of his perfections] to those who know him not, being accounted as a drop from a cask. We, however, [Isaiah] says, are spiritual, who, from the life-giving water of Eu phrates, which flows through the midst of Babylon, choose our own peculiar quality as we pass through the true gate, which is the blessed Jesus. - "The Refutation of All Heresies 5.4"
