We are coming into the presence of our triune God, and we do so in order to worship Him. We are coming to worship Him, and we have not come here to define Him.
The Latin word for boundary, or limit, is finis. And so when we define something, we set the boundaries of it. We say this, and not that. This is a watch, and it is not a pick up truck. Sometimes a situation will land close to the line, close to the boundary, and we have to take great care. Is this a twenty dollar bill or is it a counterfeit?
But God is infinite, without any such boundaries. And how can we make definite that which is infinite? We do not need to worry about making Him an idol if we leave Him undefined. Idols by definition can be defined. There is always a limit, a boundary, to their block of woodness. The danger is actually in the opposite direction—far too many theologians have collected the attributes of God as though they were dead and dried, fit only to be pinned to a mat like a butterfly collection.
The people of God have historically used two ways of approaching God that have been very helpful in this. One is by means of negation. We set a “boundary” for God as the unbounded one. We define Him as the only undefined one. He is not like the things we experience around us every day. He is not spatially limited, He is not temporally limited. And, provided we understand the severe constraints we are operating under, this can be quite helpful. And from time to time the Bible itself reveals God to us by this means. God is not a man, that He should change His mind.
But another means, far more common in Scripture, is to use the approach of coming to God by means of metaphor. God is like a mountain, never changing. He is like a river, never ending. He is a Rock, and His works are perfect. But of course, He is not a rock, and rocks don’t work anyway, much less work perfectly. These work because they are not like definitions. Metaphors can be layered on top of one another, unlike definitions. Definitions have to go end to end, otherwise they make a hash of everything. Metaphors go on forever, just like God. And He made the world in such a way as to give us ample material for glorifying Him this way.
God is a mountain. God is a tree. God is a warrior. God is a drunken warrior, roused from sleep. God is like a man washing the dishes. God is a Rock. God lives in hymns, inhabiting the praises of His people. God is unapproachable light. God is a fortress; He is a shield; He is a buckler. God is a high tower. God is a thunderhead. God is a quiet breeze, whispering to Elijah.
God is worshipped, and in this crucial sense, undefined.