Presence of god no escape

PRESENCEOF GOD-NOESCAPE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Psalm139:7 7Wherecan I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Omnipresence A FearAnd A Satisfaction
Psalm139:7-10
R. Tuck
Calvin says, "The word'Spirit' is not put here simply for the power of God, as
commonly in the Scriptures, but for his mind and understanding." Milton, as
a young man, traveled much abroad. Years afterwards he thus expressed
himself: "I again take Godto witness that in all places where so many things
are consideredlawful, I lived sound and untouched from all profligacyand
vice, having this thought perpetually with me - that though I might escape the
eyes of men, I certainly could not the eyes of God."
I. OMNIPRESENCEA FEAR. This term is not here used in a sense that
applies to the ungodly man. Indeed, such a man will in no way apprehend or
encourage the idea of God's omnipresence;it has no practicalreality to him.
The omnipresence of God is a religious man's idea, and we have to think of its
influence upon him. It fills him with a holy fear, which is a mingling of awe
and reverence and anxiety. That presence brings the perpetual call to

worship; it keeps before us the claims of obedience;and it shows us
continually the model of righteousness. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father in heaven is perfect." It has been said that a "Christian should go
nowhere if he cannottake God with him;" but that presence wouldmake him
afraid to go to many places where he does go;and it is a weaknessofChristian
life that the holy fear of the sense of God's presence is not more worthily
realized. The fear to offend or grieve is a holy force working for righteousness.
II. OMNIPRESENCEA SATISFACTION. Whenwe really love a person, and
are quite sure of their response to our love, we want to be always with them.
Separationis pain; presence is rest and satisfaction. And it is in the fullest
sense thus with God. "We love him because he first loved us." And since there
is this responsive love, we cannotbe happy awayfrom him; and we are
permitted to think that he cannot be happy awayfrom us. And so the psalmist
says, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, to behold the beauty of
the Lord." And the Lord Jesus satisfies the longing of his people with his
promise, "Lo, I am with you all the days." - R.T.
Biblical Illustrator
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
Psalm139:7-10
The omnipresence of God
Bishop Hopkins.
: —
I. LAY DOWN SOME POSITIONS.
1. God is intimately and essentiallyin all parts and places of the world. One of
the heathen, being askedto give a description of what God was, tells us most
admirably, "God is a sphere, whose centre is every-where, and whose
circumference is nowhere":a raised apprehension of the Divine nature in a
heathen! And another, being demanded what God was, made answer, that

"Godis an Infinite Point";than which nothing canbe said more (almost) or
truer, to declare this omnipresence ofGod. It is reported of Heraclitus the
philosopher, when his friend came to visit him, being in an old rotten hovel,
"Come in, come in," saith he, "for God is here." God is in the meanestcottage
as well as in the stateliestpalace;for Godis everywhere presentand sees all
things.
2. God is not only present in the world, but He is infinitely existent also
without the world, and beyond all things but Himself (1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah
66:1, 2).
3. As God exists everywhere, so all and whole God exists everywhere, because
God is indivisible.
II. RATIONAL DEMONSTRATIONS.
1. God is present everywhere.
(1)From His unchangeableness.
(2)From His preservationof all things in their beings.
2. But God exists not only in the world, but infinitely beyond the world also.
(1)From the infiniteness of His nature and essence.
(2)From the infiniteness of His perfections.
(3)From His almighty power.
(4)From His eternity.
III. ANSWER SOME OBJECTIONS.
1. These places whichspeak ofgoing to, and departing from, places, seemto
oppose God's ubiquity, because motionis inconsistentwith God's
omnipresence (Genesis 18:21;Habakkuk 3:3). I answer:These and the like
Scriptures are not to be taken literally, but as accommodate to cur capacity
and conception, evenas parents, when they speak to their little children, will
sometimes lisp and babble in their language;so God oftentimes condescends

to us in speaking our language for the declaring of those things which are far
above cur reach.
2. The Scripture tells us that hereafterin heaven we shall see Godas He is:
but is not that impossible? I answer, Such Scriptures are not to be understood
as if the capacities ofangels, much less of men, are, or ever shall be, wide and
capacious enoughto containthe infinite greatnessofGod. No, His
omnipresence is not comprehended by angels themselves, norshall be by man
for ever; but it must be understood comparatively. Our vision and sight of
God here is but through a glass darkly; but in heaven it shall be with so much
more brightness and clearnessthat, in comparisonof the obscure and
glimmering way whereby we know God here, it may be calleda seeing of Him
face to face, and knowing Him as we are knownby Him.
3. It may seemno small disparagementto Godto be everywhere present.
What! for the glorious majestyof God to be present in such vile and filthy
places as are here upon earth? To this I answer —(1) God doth not think it
any disparagementto Him, nor think it unworthy of Him, to know and make
all these which we call vile and filthy places;why, then, should we think it
unworthy of Him to be present there?(2)God is a Spirit, and is not capable of
any pollution or defilement from any vile or filthy things. The sunbeams are
no more tainted by shining on a dunghill than they are by shining on a bed of
spices.(3)The vilest things that are have still a being that is goodin their own
kind, and as well pleasing to God as those things which we put a greatervalue
and esteemupon.(4) It reflects no more dishonour upon God to be present
with the vilest creatures than to be presentwith the noblest and highest,
because the angels are at an infinite distance from God. There is a greater
disproportion betweenGod and the angels than there is betweenthe vilest
worm and an angel;all are at an infinite distance to His glory and majesty.
IV. APPLICATION.
1. Is God thus infinitely present everywhere, and thus in and with all His
creatures, then what an encouragementis here unto prayer. The voice in
prayer is necessary —(1)As it is that which God requires should be employed
in His service, for this is the greatend why our tongues were given to us, that

by them we might bless and serve God (James 3:9).(2) When in private it may
be a help and means to raise up our own affections and devotions, then the
voice is requisite, keeping it still within the bounds of decencyor privacy.(3)
In our joining also with others, it is a help likewise to raise and quicken their
affections;otherwise, were it not for these three reasons, the voice is no more
necessaryto make known our wants to God than it is to make them knownto
our own hearts;for God is always in us and with us, and knows what we have
need of before we ask it.
2. As the considerationofGod's omnipresence should encourage us in prayer,
as knowing that God certainly hears us, so it should affectus with a holy awe
and reverence ofGod in all our prayers and duties, and in the whole course of
our lives and conversations. Certainlyit is an excellentmeditation to prepare
our hearts to duty, and to compose them in duty, to be much pondering the
omnipresence of God, to think that I am with God, He is present in the room
with me, even in the congregationwith me, and likewise in my closet, and in
all my converse and dealings in the world. How canit be possible for that man
to be frothy and vain that keeps this thought alive in his heart?
(Bishop Hopkins.)
Omnipresence of God
Expository Outlines.
: —
I. THE IMPORTANT TRUTHWHICH IS HERE SET FORTH.
II. THE STRIKING AND EMPHATIC MANNER IN WHICH THIS GREAT
TRUTH IS HERE PRESENTED(ver. 7).
III. THE EFFECTSWHICH THE CONTEMPLATIONOF THIS SUBLIME
THEME SHOULD PRODUCE.
1. Let the believer draw from it the consolationwhichit is so peculiarly
adapted to impart. "Fearnot, for I am with you."

2. The omnipresence of God is adapted also to admonish.
3. This subjectis full of terror to the ungodly.
(Expository Outlines.)
The encompassing, all-pervading God
J. O. Greenhough, M. A.
: — This psalm is as near an approach to Pantheism as the Bible ever gets;yet
it is wholly distinct from Pantheism. It does not make everything a part of
God, but insists that Godis in everything and every place. The writer feels
Him in every movement of the circling air, and hears Him in every sound.
God is here, and there, and everywhere, in the heights and in the depths, in
the darkness and the light, filling all star-lit spaces andsearching eachhuman
heart.
I. THE SPIRIT AND PRESENCEWHICH NO MAN CAN ESCAPE. It is a
bit of his own story. He had not always found peace and joy in the
overshadowing ofDivine love. There had been a load upon his conscience, and
torturing guilt in his heart. He had endeavoured to run awayfrom the wrath
which his sin had provoked, from the unsleeping justice which pursued him,
from the witness of God in his own reproaching conscience. He had tried to
silence the rebuking voice, to quiet the disturbing fears, to forgethis own
thoughts and hide himself from himself. And the effort had been vain,
impotent, impossible. Everywhere he heard the still small voice, and felt the
Unseen Presence. Everywhere Godmakes Himself felt by men, in kindness, if
possible, and if not, then in wrath. Men must believe in Him; they cannot help
it. Kill their religiona hundred times, and it has a hundred resurrections. It is
in all men. It is the fire which never goes quite out. Atheism is never more
than a wave on the sea of humanity, which rises, falls, and quickly disappears.
God will not let Himself be denied and forgotten. He speaks in too many
voices for that; through nature and conscience, sins, penalties, and guilty
terrors; through life's changes, uncertainties, sorrows, andmisfortunes;
through pain, and death, and human gladness, andhuman mystery; through

returning seasons andunerring laws;through the works of righteousness and
the wagesofiniquity, He is ever about us. His presence is in every heart, and
He laughs at the folly which thinks to escape Him.
II. REST AND CONFIDENCEAND JOY WHICH HIS SPIRIT AND
PRESENCE GIVE to those who recognize Him every-where, and walk in His
light and love. If a man aspires after goodness,he will wish to be always near
the one Source of goodness.If he is making a brave fight againsthis sins, he
will always wantto feelthe mighty hand upon him from which alone comes
victory; and if he is worn and worried with the dark problems and mysteries
of life, nothing will satisfy him but the thought that Divine light and wisdom
are moving and working in all that darkness. Getto feelthat His light and
wisdom are everywhere, that His love, pity, and forbearance are everywhere,
that His providential care is everywhere, that His earis everywhere open to
your prayers, and His mercy is everywhere on the wing to bring you answers,
and then your remotestthought will be how you canescape Him. Your every-
day cry will be, "Come nearer, make Thyself felt. Compass me about, hold me
fast." It is the all-pervading presence of Godthat makes life bearable to him,
and the one thing which makes the Christian life possible. If God were not in
your place of business your hearts would grow hard as nails. If God were not
in your homes your sweetestaffections wouldbecome stale and sour. If God
were not in your places of temptation you would never enter them without
falling. If the Spirit of God did not visit you in the thronging streets and the
giddy world you would degenerate into coarse worldliness. If He were not
everywhere, painting Himself afreshon your hearts and minds, you would
lose all sense of His beauty. If He were absent from your scenes ofsorrow, if
you did not feel His hand holding yours in hours of pain, and by the death-bed
side, you would be overcome with fear or die of heart-break. We live because
He lives everywhere. We hope because He revives His promises in us
everywhere.
(J. O. Greenhough, M. A.)
The cry of the sage, the sinner, and the saint

Homilist.
: — Look at this language as used —
I. By the SAGE The philosopher has askeda thousand times, is God
everywhere? Or is there a district in immensity where He is not? Taking the
language as his question, he assumes —
1. That He has a "presence," a personalexistence:that He is as distinct from
the universe as the musician from his music, as the painter from his pictures,
as the soul from the body.
2. That His presence is detectedas far as his observations extend. He discovers
Him far up as the most powerful telescope canreach, and down in the most
infinitesimal forms of life: and he concludes that He is presentwhere the eye
has never reached, and where the imagination has never travelled.
II. By the SINNER. In the mouth of the sinner this language means —
1. Thy presence is an evil. His presence makes the hell of the damned. The
rays of His effulgent purity are the flames in which corrupt spirits burn and
writhe.
2. Escape fromThy presence is an impossibility.
III. By the SAINT. In the impossibility of escape I rejoice;for "In Thy
presence there is fulness of joy," etc.
(Homilist.)
The omnipresent God
A. Mackennal, D. D.
I. GOD IN ALL MODES OF PERSONALEXISTENCE. Theseare all
coveredby the contrastbetweenheaven and hell, than which no words would
suggesta completercontrastto every thoughtful Hebrew. Heaven was the
scene ofthe highest personalactivity; it was the abode of Him with whom was
"the fountain of life"; there dwelt cherubim and seraphim, angels and

archangels, allrejoicing in the highest exercise ofthought and the noblest
powers of service. Hell — or the grave, the place of the dead — was the end of
thought, the cessationof employment, the abode of silence and corruption.
And yet, dark and lonesome as was the thought of dying, there was this one
ray of comfort in the prospect — that death was of God's appointment; as
much as the heaven of His own abode, it was beneaththe rule of God. There
are times when to us, too, there is unspeakable restin the assurancethat God
is in the appointment of death as truly, though not as clearly, as He is in His
own heaven. How many who dreaded the desolationof bereavementhave
found that God is there. They are not alone, for the Father, the Saviour, the
Comforter, is with them; the discipline of bereavementis as Divine as the
sweetertraining of companionship. Did we but see whatnoble issues have
been wrought for men by death; how it has refined affectionand chastened
passion, and given scope to patience, and cultured hope; how it has
surrounded men's pathway with angels, andbreathed a saintlier spirit into
common lives; we should gain a nobler vision than before of the presence and
meaning of God in death.
II. GOD IN THE YET UNTRODDENWAYS OF HUMAN HISTORY. The
ninth verse gives us an image of the psalmist, standing by the sea-shore,
watching as the rising sun broadens the horizon, and brings into view an islet
here and there, which, by catching the sight, serves but to lengthen still more
the indefinite expanse beyond. The fancy is suggested, halfof longing, half of
dread, what would it be to fly until he reachedthe point where now the
farthest ray is resting, to gaze upon a sea still shoreless, orto land in an
unknown region and find himself a solitary there? But he is not daunted by
the vision; one presence wouldstill be with him. Vast as the world may be, it is
containedwithin the vasterGod; his fancy cannot wanderwhere he would be
unguarded and unled. He still could worship; he still could rest. How
wonderfully history confirms faith. The lands towards which the psalmist
strained his wondering vision have come at length into the recordof
civilization. Even while he was musing God was preparing the countries in
which, in due time, the Gospelwas to develop, and the races by whom it
should be spread. Could he now take the wings of the morning, and dwell in
the uttermost parts of the sea, he would find God here, revealedin the

progress ofChristendom, and the force of Westerncivilization. When Christ
sent the apostles on their untrodden wayHe gave them a blank page on which
to write their history. He did not revealto them "the times and the seasons";
He only assuredthem that wherever they went He was with them. All was
obscure excepttheir faith that, as seedwill grow, and leaven will spread, so
the kingdom of God should advance. The presence ofGod in human history
meant the reign of Christ in human history; where have the faithful gone and
not found their God?
III. GOD IN THE PERPLEXITIES OF OUR EXPERIENCE.Mostmen
probably look on spiritual conflict at first as a necessaryevil; something
which it were wellif we could avoid, but which, since we cannot avoid it, we
must go through with what heart we may; and they look to God to keep, and,
in due time, to deliver them. But when, in the review of their struggles, they
perceive what progress they have made by reasonof it; how it has enriched
their character, not only strengthening their piety, but also enlarging its scope
and adding to their graces;when they find what a wise and benignant
influence it has enabled them to exercise;what powerof comfort it has given
them, they begin to see that the conflict itself was of Divine appointment, and
to cherish a larger, nobler view of God's purpose and of man's discipline.
They perceive that the obscurity, equally with the clearness,ofa spiritual
experience is ordained of God.
(A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The present God
A. P. Peabody, D. D.
: — There was something almost to be envied in the simple, easy, undoubting
faith in the ever-presentSpirit of God that breathes in the devotional portions
of the Old Testament. Sciencehadnot begun to be. Men saw and felt
circumambient force on every side, and with the instinctive wisdom of their
ignorance this force was to them the varied yet immutable God, Himself
unchanged, yet in manifestation ever new. We think ourselves, in point of

intelligence, at a heaven-wide distance in advance of them. But has not our
ignorance grownfasterthan our knowledge — as every new field that we
explore in part abuts upon regions which we cannot explore, and every solved
problem starts others which cannot be solved? If science has everbeen
antagonistic to faith, it has not been by superseding it, or even by interfering
with it, but simply because the new knowledge ofnature that has flashed with
such suddenness and rapidity upon our generationhas so filled and taskedthe
minds of not a few, that they have ignored for the time the regions where light
still fails and faith is the only guide. But there are among the grand
generalizations ofrecent science those thathelp our faith, and furnish
analogies thatare almostdemonstrations for some of the most sacredtruths of
religion. Among these truths is that suggestedby our text — the presence of
the Divine Spirit with and in the human soul. Now, to the soul of man, bathed
in this omnipresence, receiving all thought and knowledge throughits
mediation, living, moving, and having its being in it, what canbe more easily
conceivable than that there should also be conveyedto it thoughts,
impressions, intimations, that flow directly from the Fatherof our spirits? It
has been virtually the faith of greatand goodmen in all time. They have felt
and owneda prompting, a motive power, from beyond their own souls, and
from above the ranks of their fellow-men. Inspiration has been a universal
idea under every form of culture, has been believed, sought, recognized,
obeyed. At all other points there has been divergence;as to this, but one mind
and one voice. You could translate the language of Socratesconcerning his
demon into the most orthodox Christian phraseologywithout adding or
omitting a single trait, and not even St. Paul was more confident than he of
being led by the Spirit. But there is no need of citing authorities. Who of us is
there that has not had thoughts borne in upon him which he could not trace to
any associationorinfluence on his own plane, seedling thoughts, perhaps,
which have yielded harvest for the angel-reapers, strengthequal to the day in
the conflictwith temptation, comfort in sorrow, visions of heaven lifted for the
moment above the horizon like a mirage in the desert? These experienceshave
been multiplied in proportion to our receptivity. As the messageonthe wires
is lost if there be none to watchor listen at the terminus, so at the terminus of
the spirit-wire there must be the listening soul, the inward voice, "Speak,
Lord, for Thy servant heareth." But while we thus acknowledgeGodin the

depths of our ownconsciousness, canwe not equally feel His presence in the
glory, beauty, joy-giving ministry of His works? Are they net richer to our
eyes every year? Has it not happened to us, overand over again, to say,
"Spring, or summer, was never so beautiful before"? This is true every year
to the recipient soul. Notthat there is any added physical charm or visible
glory; but it is the Spirit of our Father that glows and beams upon us, that
pours itself into our souls;and if we have grownby His nurture, there is in us
more and more of spiritual life that canbe irradiated, gladdened, lifted in
praise and love, with every recurring phase of the outward world. Is not this
ordained, that the vision of Him in whom are all the archetypes of beauty, and
whose embodied thought is in its every phase, may be kept ever fresh and
vivid — that there may be over new stimulants to adoration and praise — that
with the changing garb of nature the soul may renew her garment of grateful
joy, her singing robes of thanksgiving to Him who has made everything
beautiful in its time? But God is still nearerto us than in the world around us.
"In Him we live, and move, and have our being." When I reflect on the
mysteries of my own being, on the complex organism, not one of whose
numberless members or processescanbe derangedwithout suffering or peril;
when I considermy own confessedpowerlessnessas to the greaterpart of this
earthly tabernacle in which I dwell, and the narrow limits of my seeming
poweras to the part of it which I can control; when I see the gates and pitfalls
of death by and over which I am daily led in safety; when I resign all charge of
myself every night, and no earthly watch is kept over my unconscious repose
— oh, I know that omnipotence alone can be my keeper, that the
unslumbering Shepherd guides my waking and guards my sleeping hours —
that His life feeds mine, courses in my veins, renews my wasting strength, rolls
back the death-shadows as day by day they gatherover me. Equally, in the
exercise ofthought and emotion, must I ownHis presence and providence.
(A. P. Peabody, D. D.)
Universal presence of God:
R. Venting.

The laws and forms of nature are only the methods of God's agency, the
habits of His existence and the turns of His thought. Eachdewdrop holds an
oracle, eachbud a revelation, and everything we see is a signalof His
presence, presentbut out of sight. Every colour of the dawning or the dying
light; every aspectof the changing seasons and all the mysteries of electricity
make us feelthe eternalpresence of God. "Shores," says one, "onwhich man
has never yet landed lie paved with shells;fields never trod are carpetedwith
flowers;seas where man has never dived are inlaid with pearls; caverns never
mined are radiant with gems of finest forms and purest lustre. But still God is
there,"
(R. Venting.)
God Everywhere
C. Short
Psalm139:7-10
Where shall I go from your spirit? or where shall I flee from your
presence?…
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascendup into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in bell, behold,
thou art there, etc.
I. GOD IS PRESENTEVERYWHERE. Letus try to fill ourselves with this
greatthought.
1. God is in heaven. There have been atheists on earth - fools who have said in
their hearts that there is no God. Let me tell you what an atheistis like. He is

like a man going to hear an oratorio - the 'Messiah'or the 'Elijah' - performed
by a hundred musicians, and who says that all those wonderful harmonies
that intoxicate the soul were not previously arrangedand designedby Handel
or Mendelssohn, but were the accidentalresult of those hundred men playing
at random upon a hundred instruments. But if an atheistcould be takento
heaven, he would be an atheistno longer. He would be overpoweredwith the
proofs, not only of God's existence, but with the tokens of his presence. What
and to whom are those mighty hymns the angels sing? Who commands those
mighty works which they perform? Not a Godwhose existence is argued out
or doubtfully apprehended. Why has the city no need of the sun or of the
moon to shine on it? Becausethe glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the
Light thereof. Why is there no temple? Because the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the Temple of it. The throne of Godand of the Lamb is in it;
and his servants serve him, and they see his face, and his Name is in their
foreheads.
2. God is in hell - Sheol, Hades. The devils believe in God, and tremble. There
are no atheists in hell. God will be felt in the consciencesoflost spirits. This is
one of the most powerful ways of feeling God's presence. Hell is the carrying
out of the Divine law. The Law-giver is knownin the carrying out of his law.
As in a jail the powerof the state is felt.
3. God is in every part of this world. The meaning of the text is that Godis in
the most distant, even the uninhabited, places of the earth. The thought of the
psalmist was that God could be found amongstthe solitudes of nature. And it
is not in crowdedcities that we canmost strongly feel the presence of God. On
the sea, onthe mountain-top, down in deep glens and valleys, in the morning
or at midnight, studying the smallestor sublimest of God's works. ButGod is
to be found amongstmen, only so often face to face with the devil. Go on the
Exchange, into the street, into the gin-palace, and there the world seems
without a God, or without a God that cares for it. But go into that sick-room
where the Christian is dying, or into that closetwhere the saint is wrestling

with God, or where a sorrowing mother is pouring out a broken heart before
God over a profligate son or daughter, or into that family where there is a
daily altar before which all devoutly kneel, or glance into the dark cellof the
prisoner, and you exclaim, "The darkness hideth not from thee."
II. THE RELATION OF THIS TRUTH TO SEVERAL CLASSES OF MEN.
1. To those who wish to escape from God. "Thoughthey dig into hell, thence
shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I
bring them down." In no part of any world canyou fly from him. If,
therefore, you cannotfly from him, there are two things which you may try to
do - either to make yourself blind and deaf and dead to his presence;or to
awake up more intensely to him, and welcome his presence. The former you
cannot do forever; the latter you might do.
2. To those who depend upon God for support. "If I take the wings of the
morning... even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold
me." Godis presenteverywhere, not only to judge the wicked, but to reward
the righteous. The Bible tells me I have begun a very long journey; that I shall
often become footsore and weary, often miss my way; but also that God will
be with me; that as my day is so my strength shall be; that "they that wait
upon the Lord," etc. It tells me that I shall die; that I must go into a far-
distant country which eye hath not seen.
3. To those who are seeking the everlasting way. There are many ways leading
to honor, pleasure, wealth, but none of them is the everlasting way. We are
guided in them and to them by false lights which will go out and leave us in
darkness. But God is always present, and he can light us and guide us into the
one everlasting way. He is a Lamp and a Guide.

"Nearer, my God, to thee!...
E'en though it be a cross
That raiseth me;
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearerto thee." If God could or would come to me only at times, what should
I often do? - S.
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
SPURGEON TREASURYOF DAVID
EXPOSITION
Verse 7. Here omnipresence is the theme, -- a truth to which omniscience
naturally leads up.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Notthat the Psalmistwished to go from
God, or to avoid the powerof the divine life; but he asks this question to set
forth the factthat no one can escape from the all pervading being and
observationof the GreatInvisible Spirit. Observe how the writer makes the
matter personalto himself -- "Whither shall I go?" It were wellif we all thus
applied truth to our own cases. It were wise for eachone to say -- The spirit of
the Lord is ever around me: Jehovahis omnipresent to me.
Or whither spirit I flee from thy presence? If, full of dread, I hastenedto
escape from that nearness of God which had become my terror, which way
could I turn? "Whither?" "Whither?" He repeats his cry. No answercomes
back to him. The reply to his first "Whither?" is its echo, -- a second
"Whither?" From the sight of God he cannotbe hidden, but that is not all, --

from the immediate, actual, constantpresence of God he cannotbe
withdrawn. We must be, whether we will it or not, as near to Godas our soul
is to our body. This makes it dreadful work to sin; for we offend the Almighty
to his face, and commit acts of treasonat the very foot of his throne. Go from
him, or flee from him we cannot: neither by patient travel nor by hasty flight
can we withdraw from the all surrounding Deity. His mind is in our mind;
himself within ourselves. His spirit is over our spirit; our presence is ever in
his presence.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Verse 7. Wither shall I go from thy spirit? By the "spirit of God" we are not
here, as in severalother parts of Scripture, to conceive ofhis power merely,
but his understanding and knowledge. In man the spirit is the seatof
intelligence, and so it is here in reference to God, as is plain from the second
part of the sentence, where by "the face of God" is meant his knowledge or
inspection. --John Calvin.
Verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? That is, either from thee, who art
a spirit, and so canstpierce and penetrate me; be as truly and essentiallyin
the very bowels and marrow of my soul, as my soul is intimately and
essentiallyin my body: "from thy spirit"; that is, from thy knowledge andthy
power; thy knowledge to detect and observe me, thy power to uphold or crush
me. --EzekielHopkins, 1633-1690.
Verse 7. We may elude the vigilance of a human enemy and place ourselves
beyond his reach. God fills all space -- there is not a spot in which his piercing
eye is not on us, and his uplifted hand cannot find us out. Man must strike
soonif he would strike at all; for opportunities pass awayfrom him, and his
victim may escape his vengeance by death. There is no passing of opportunity
with God, and it is this which makes his long suffering a solemn thing. God
can wait, for he has a whole eternity before him in which he may strike. "All
things are open and nakedto him with whom we have to do." -- Frederick
William Robertson, 1816-1853.

Verse 7. Whither shall I go, etc. A heathen philosopher once asked, "Where is
God?" The Christian answered, "Letme first ask you, Where is he not?" --
John Arrowsmith, 1602-1659.
Verse 7. Whither shall I flee from thy presence? Thatexile would be strange
that could separate us from God. I speak not of those poor and common
comforts, that in all lands and coasts it is his sun that shines, his elements of
earth or water that bear us, his air we breathe; but of that specialprivilege,
that his gracious presence is ever with us; that no sea is so broad as to divide
us from his favour; that wheresoeverwe feed, he is our host; wheresoeverwe
rest, the wings of his blessedprovidence are stretched overus. Let my soulbe
sure of this, though the whole world be traitors to me. --Thomas Adams.
Verse 7. Whither shall I flee? etc. Surely no whither: they that attempt it, do
but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line, with a hook in the
mouth. --John Trapp.
Verse 7. Thy presence. The presence ofGod's glory is in heaven; the presence
of his poweron earth; the presence ofhis justice in hell; and the presence of
his grace with his people. If he deny us his powerful presence, we fall into
nothing; if he deny us his gracious presence, we fallinto sin; if he deny us his
merciful presence, we fall into hell. -- John Mason.
Verse 7. Thy presence. The celebratedLinnaeus testified in his conversation,
writings, and actions, the greatestsense ofGod's presence. So stronglyindeed
was he impressed with the idea, that he wrote over the door of his library:
"Innocue vivite, Numen adest -- Live innocently: God is present." --George
SeatonBowes, in "Information and Illustration," 1884.
Verse 7-11. You will never be neglectedby the Deity, though you were so
small as to sink into the depths of the earth, or so lofty as to fly up to heaven;
but you will suffer from the gods the punishment due to you, whether you
abide here, or depart to Hades, or are carried to a place still more wild than
these. --Plato.
Verse 7-12. The Psalmwas not written by a Pantheist. The Psalmist speaksof
God as a Personeverywhere present in creation, yet distinct from creation. In

these verses he says, "Thy spirit ... thy presence ... thou art there ... thy hand
... thy right hand ... darkness hideth not from thee." God is everywhere, but
he is not everything. --William Jones, in "A Homiletic Commentary on the
Book ofPsalms", 1879.
HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS
Verse 7-10.
God is whereverI am. I fill but a small part of space;he fills all space.
He is whereverI shall be. He does not move with me, but I move in him. "In
him we live, and move", etc.
God is whereverI could be. "If I ascendto heaven", etc. "If I descendto
Sheol", etc. If I travel with the sunbeams to the most distant part of the earth,
or heavens, or the sea, I shall be in thy hand. No mention is here made of
annihilation, as though that were possible;which would be the only escape
from the Divine Presence;for he is not the God of the dead, of the annihilated,
in the Sadduceanmeaning of the word, but of the living. Man is always
somewhere, andGod is always everywhere.
Adam Clarke Commentary
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? - Surely ‫חור‬ ruach in this sense must be
takenpersonally, it certainly cannot mean either breath or wind; to render it
so would make the passage ridiculous.
From thy presence? - teemew od yhW ".secaf yht morf" ,ahcyenappim ‫מפניך‬
with this word so frequently in the plural number, when applied to God? And
why have we his Spirit, and his appearances orfaces, bothhere? A

Trinitarian would at once say, "The plurality of persons in the Godheadis
intended;" and who can prove that he is mistaken?
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? - Where shall I go where thy spirit is not;
that is, where thou art not; where there is no God. The word “spirit” here
does not refer particularly to the Holy Spirit, but to God “as” a spirit.
“Whither shall I go from the all-pervading Spirit - from God, consideredas a
spirit?” This is a clearstatement that God is a “Spirit” (compare John 4:24);
and that, as a spirit, he is Omnipresent.
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? -Hebrew, From his face; that is,
where he will not be, and will not see me. I cannotfind a place - a spot in the
universe, where there is not a God, and the same God. Fearful thought to
those that hate him - that, much as they may wish or desire it, they cannever
find a place where there is not a holy God! Comforting to those that love him -
that they will never be where they may not find a God - their God; that
nowhere, at home or abroad, on land or on the ocean, onearth or above the
stars, they will ever reacha world where they will not be in the presence of
that God - that gracious Father - who can defend, comfort, guide, and sustain
them.
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
OMNIPRESENCE
"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascendup into heaven, thou art there:
ff I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me.
And the light about me shall be night;
Even the darkness hideth not from thee,
But the night shineth as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee."
"Whither shall I flee from thy presence" (Psalms 139:7). This line is parallel
to the preceding one, the thought in both being, "How canone hide from
God? He is everywhere!" In an old fashioned, one-teacherschoolhouse, an
atheistic teacherwrote on the blackboard
"GOD IS NOWHERE."
Whereupon a sixth-grade girl walkedup to the blackboardand gave the
inscription this treatment
"GOD IS NOW HERE."
and as she satdown, she said, "Teacheryouforgot to put in the space"!The
astounded teachermade no further remarks.
Attempting to hide from God has been the chief business of the human family
ever since Adam and Eve hid themselves in the Garden of Eden! Think of the
myriads of ways in which men try to hide from God. They forsake all
attendance of religious services. Theybecome alcoholics,workaholics, dope
addicts, or assume any lifestyle available in which they may hope to hide from
the "all-seeing"eyes ofGod. What a vain and futile exercise of human folly!
People cannothide from God!

The omnipresence of God was the basis of the remarkable exhibition which
the MoodyBible Institute displayed at the New York World's Fair in 1964.
The exhibition stressedan amazing deduction from this element in the
characterof God.
Since God is everywhere simultaneously, He is still seeing everything that has
ever happened in the whole universe! Just as people cansee the light of the
constellationAndromeda which beganits journey to earth two million light
years ago, God's presence as an observeris not limited either by time or
space. His presence is eternal regarding all events, past, present and future!
"In Sheol... behold, thou art there" (Psalms 139:8). This teaches that death
itself cannot hide people from the knowledge andultimate judgment of God.
"The psalmist is aware of God's presence even in Sheol."[8]
"The wings of the morning ... the uttermost parts of the sea" (Psalms 139:9).
The opposites mentioned here are the eastand the west, symbolized by "the
wings of the morning," and "the uttermost parts of the sea," the latter being a
reference to the far westernend of the Mediterranean. These are some of the
most beautiful lines in the literature of the whole human family. True to the
antagonistspirit of criticism, some interpreters allege that this image is
borrowedfrom ancientmythology which describes the goddess ofthe dawn
riding forth on the "wings ofthe morning." This writer has read extensively
the mythology of Greece and Rome but cannot remember any such myth.
Helios did not ride "the wings of the morning" but "a chariot." In case there
actually existed some such terminology in ancient mythology, which we
seriouslydoubt, "There is no reasonto assume that the psalmist here accepted
any such mythologicalnotions."[9]
"Thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me" (Psalms 139:10).
The bringing togetherin this verse, of God's `hand' and his `right hand' is an
undeniable earmark of David's authorship, as is the case in the preceding
Psalms 138:7. AS Jebb said, there are a dozen such earmarks in this psalm.
"The darkness shalloverwhelm me" (Psalms 139:11). The marginal reading
here is "coverme" for the lasttwo words. Despite the fact that darkness
cannot hide from God, wickedmen still prefer the nighttime for their deeds of

criminality. The New Testamenttakes note of this in such terms as "the works
of darkness" (Romans 13:12;Ephesians 5:11).
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?.... Or, "from thy wind?" which some
interpret literally, the wind being God's creature;which he brings out of his
treasures, and holds in his fists, and disposes ofas he pleases;this takes its
circuit through all the points of the heavens, and blows everywhere, more or
less. RatherGod himself is meant, who is a Spirit, John 4:24 not a body, or
consisting of corporealparts, which are only ascribedto him in a figurative
sense;and who has something analogous to spirit, being simple and
uncompounded, invisible, incorruptible, immaterial, and immortal; but is
different from all other spirits, being uncreated, eternal, infinite, and
immense; so that there is no going from him, as to be out of his sight; nor to
any place out of his reach, nor from his wrath and justice, nor so as to escape
his righteous judgment. It may signify his all-conscious mind, his all-
comprehending understanding and knowledge, whichreaches to all persons,
places, and things; compare Isaiah40:13; with Romans 11:34;though it seems
best of all to understand it of the third Person, the blessedSpirit, which
proceeds from the Fatherand the Son; and who is possessedofthe same
perfections, of omniscience, omnipresence, and immensity, as they are; who is
the Creatorof the heavens and the earth, and pervades them all; and is the
Makerof all men, and is presentwith them to uphold their souls in life, and
there is no going from him; particularly he is in all believers, and dwells with
them; nor do they desire to go from him, but deprecate his departure from
them;
or whither shall I flee from thy presence?whichis everywhere, for God's
presence is omnipresence;his powerful presence and providence are with all
his creatures, to support and uphold them in being; he is not far from, but
near to them; in him they live, move, and have their being: and so there is no
fleeing from him or that; and as to his gracious presence, whichis with all his
people, in all places atthe same time; they do not desire to flee from it, but
always to have it; and are concernedfor it, if at any time it is removed from
them, as to their apprehension of it. Or, "from thy face"F5;that is, from

Christ, who is the face of Jehovah;the image of the invisible God, the express
image of his person, in whom all the perfections of God are displayed; and
such a likeness, thathe that has seenthe one has seenthe other; he is the
Angel of his face or presence, and who always appears before him, and in
whom he is seen. Now there is no fleeing from him, for he is everywhere;
where God is, his face is: and a sensible sinner desires to flee to him, and not
from him; for there is no other refuge to flee unto for life and salvationbut to
him; and gracious souls desire to be always with him now, and hope to be for
ever with him hereafter;they seek him, the face of God, now, and expectto
see it more clearlyin the world to come.
Geneva Study Bible
Whither shall I go from thy e spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
(e) From your powerand knowledge?
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
7.Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? I considerthat David prosecutes the
same idea of its being’ impossible that men by any subterfuge should elude the
eye of God. By the Spirit of God we are not here, as in severalother parts of
Scripture, to conceive of his power merely, but his understanding and
knowledge. (205)In man the spirit is the seatof intelligence, and so it is here
in reference to God, as is plain from the secondpart of the sentence, where by
the face of God is meant his knowledge orinspection. David means in short
that he could not change from one place to another without God seeing him,
and following him with his eyes as he moved. They misapply the passagewho
adduce it as a proof of the immensity of God’s essence;for though it be an
undoubted truth that the glory of the Lord fills heaven and earth, this was not
at present in the view of the Psalmist, but the truth that God’s eye penetrates

heaven and hell, so that, hide in what obscure cornerof the world he might, he
must be discoveredby him. Accordingly he tells us that though he should fly
to heaven, or lurk in the lowestabysses, from above or from below all was
nakedand manifest before God. The wings of the morning, (206)or of
Lucifer, is a beautiful metaphor, for when the sun rises on the earth, it
transmits its radiance suddenly to all regions of the world, as with the
swiftness offlight. The same figure is employed in Malachi 4:2. And the idea
is, that though one should fly with the speedof light, he could find no recess
where he would be beyond the reachof divine power. For by hand we are to
understand power, and the assertionis to the effectthat should man attempt
to withdraw from the observationof God, it were easyfor him to arrestand
draw back the fugitive. (207)
John Trapp Complete Commentary
Psalms 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from
thy presence?
Ver. 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit?] Here he argueth God’s
omniscience from his omnipresence;and this the heathens also had heard of,
as appeareth by their Iovis omnia plena; and - quascunque accesseris oras,
Sub Iove sempereris, &c.
Empedocles couldsay that God is a circle, whose centre is everywhere, whose
circumference is nowhere. They could tell us that God is the soul of the world;
and that as the soul is tota in tota, et tota in qualibet parte, so is he; that his
eye is in every corner, &c.; to which purpose they so portrayed their goddess
Minerva, that which way soeverone casthis eye she always beheld him. But
these divine notions they might have by tradition from the patriarchs; and
whether they believed themselves in these and the like sayings is much to be
doubted.

Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?]Surelyno whither; they that
attempt it do but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line with a
hook in the mouth.
Sermon Bible Commentary
Psalms 139:7
I. God is in all modes of personalexistence. These are allcoveredby the
contrastbetweenheaven and hell, than which no words would suggesta
completer contrastto every thoughtful Hebrew.
II. God's presence is in the yet untrodden ways of human history. There came
sometimes to the untravelled Israelites a perceptionthat the world was very
large. The ninth verse of this Psalmgives us an image of the Psalmist,
standing by the sea-shore,watching as the rising sun broadens the horizon,
and brings into view an islet here and there, which, by catching the sight,
serves but to lengthen still more the indefinite expanse beyond. The fancy is
suggested, half of longing, half of dread, What would it be to fly until he
reachedthe point where now the furthest ray is resting, to gaze upon a sea still
shoreless orto land in an unknown regionand find himself a solitary there?
But he is not daunted by the vision; one Presence wouldstill be with him. Vast
as the world is, it is contained within the vasterGod. In a similar mood of not
wholly barren dreaming we sometimes look out over the boundless
possibilities of human life. Amid all possibilities one thing is sure: go where we
may, go the world how it may, we shall find the ever-presentGod.
III. God's presence is in the perplexities of our experience. The untrodden
ways of life are not the only, nor even the principal, obscurities in life; there
are incidents in man's experience which seemonly the more perplexing the
more we know of them. There is the mystery of pain, and that strange
fluctuation of spiritual emotion which pain often brings; there are the
complications of human relations, in which the saintliestseemoften the
victims of the basestorthe sacrificesfor the sins of others; there are the

conflicts of noble affections, ofthe purpose of patience with the impulse of
indignation, of our love of men in its pleadings againstthe fear of God. It is by
perceiving the fruitful issues of perplexity in our experience that we gain the
confidence that Godis in the discipline, its Author and Controller. He who
believes in God enters into rest; a large faith means a repose which cannotbe
shaken.
A. Mackennal, Sermons from a Sick-room, p. 85.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible
Psalms 139:7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, &c.— Though the Psalmist
acknowledgedthe divine omniscience to be full of wonders, and a height to
which no human, no finite understanding could possibly ascend;yet he saw, at
the same time, that it might be capable of the plainestand most convincing
proofs; and that there were really obvious and incontestable proofs of it in
nature. And these, or at leastthe two generalheads to which they are, in all
their forms and variety of lights, reducible, he himself has in the subsequent
part of the psalm distinctly mentioned, viz. God's being the contriver and
author of the whole frame of things; and his constant, essential, and intimate
presence with the systemof creation, and with every individual comprehended
in it. The lastof these the Psalmistintroduces by wayof inquiry; how it was
possible for any, if they were unnaturally inclined to it, and from an utter
darkness of their reason, and ignorance ofthe most important privileges and
consolations ofderived and dependant natures, desirous of it,—to fly from
that vital and efficacious Spirit, which co-exists with, animates, and diffuses
beauty, and order, and tendencies to happiness, throughout the whole of
createdbeing. "Whither, says he, shall I go, &c. Psalms 139:8. If I ascendup
into heaven, beyond which I cannot discern the most diminutive and
contractedorbs of light,—thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, or could
plunge myself into the most obscure and unknown mansions of the dead, and
the worlds invisible, where even imagination loses itself in darkness, behold,
thou art there. Psalms 139:9. If I take the wings of the morning, &c. i.e. If,
with the swiftness ofthe rays of the rising sun, I could shootmyself in an

instant to the uttermost parts of the westernocean, Psalms 139:10, eventhere
shall thy hand lead me, &c. i.e. I should still exist in God; his presence would
be diffused all around me; his enlivening power would support my frame.
Psalms 139:11-12. If I say, surely, &c.—The darkness andthe light are both
alike to thee; Equally conspicuous am I, and all my circumstances, allmy
actions, under the thickest, and most impenetrable shades of night, as in the
brightest splendors of the noon-day sun. Psalms 139:13. Forthou hast
possessedmy reins, &c." See Foster's Discourses, as above, andJob 11:8.
Bishop Lowth observes, that the common interpretation of the 9th verse does
not satisfyhim. He thinks that the two members of this distich, like those of
the former, are plainly opposedto eachother: that a two-fold passageis
expressed, one to the east, the other to the west;and that the distance of the
flight, not the celerity of it, is spokenof. "If I direct my wings towards the
morning [or the east;If I dwell in the extremity of the westernsea, &c." See
his 16thand 29th Prelections.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
From thy spirit; either,
1. From the Holy Ghost, the third person in the Trinity: or,
2. From thee, who art a Spirit, and therefore canstpenetrate into the most
secretparts: or,
3. From thy mind or understanding, of which he is here speaking, as this word
seems to be taken, Isaiah40:13, compared with Romans 11:34;for what there
is calledthe spirit of the Lord, is here calledthe mind of the Lord. And as the
Spirit of Godis oft used in Scripture for its gifts and graces, so the spirit of
God in this place may be put for that knowledge whichis an attribute or
actionof God.
From thy presence;a man can go to no place which is out of thy sight.
Expository Notes ofDr. Thomas Constable

Evidently the confining awarenessofGod"s omniscience ledDavid to try to
escape from the Lord. His two rhetorical questions in this verse express his
inability to hide from God (cf. Jeremiah 23:24).
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or where shall I flee from thy presence? If
I had reasonto fearjudicial vengeance, because ofmy sin, where could I hide
myself? (Amos 9:2.) Jonahexperiencedthis to his cost(Jonah1:3, etc.;
Jeremiah23:24). God's Spirit is His unseen but felt power and presence
operating everywhere (Psalms 104:30;Psalms 33:6).
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(7) Spirit.—If this clause stoodalone we should naturally understand by
God’s Spirit His creative and providential power, from which nothing can
escape (comp. Psalms 104:30). But takenin parallelism with presence in the
next clause the expressionleads on to a thought towards which the theologyof
the Old Testamentwas dimly feeling, which it nearly reachedin the Book of
Wisdom. “The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world,” but which found its
perfect expressionin our Saviour’s announcement to the woman of Samaria.
END OF STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Psalm139:7-12

Sermon preachedon December2, 2001 by Laurence W. Veinott. © Copyright
2001. All rights reserved. Other sermons canbe found at
http://www.cantonnewlife.org/.
Unless otherwise noted, quotations are from The Holy Bible: New
International Version(NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978,1984 by International
Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
On Thursday morning I watchedpart of the British MemorialService for the
victims of September 11. It was held at WestminsterAbbey and in his address
the Archbishop of Canterbury askedthe question, "Where was Godon
September 11?" That's a goodquestion, one that many people askedafterthe
tragic events of that day.
Where was Godon that day? We know that the Bible tells us that He's not
like Baal, the false god whose prophets Elijah mocked. Rememberwhat Elijah
said to them when Baaldidn't answerthem? (1 Kings 18:27)
"Shout louder!
Surely he is a god!
Perhaps he is deep in thought,
or busy, or traveling.
Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened."
God is not like that. Indeed, the Bible tells us that

God is always presentwith us. Not only that, it tells us that God is always
present at every point in His creation.
Or as a theologianmight put it, God is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Our
text reads,
"Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where canI flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens,
you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths,
you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say,
'Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,'
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you."

God is everywhere present on earth. In verse 9 David tells us that even if he
sped to some corner of the earth, moving at the speedof light (the wings of the
dawn), he would find God there. Godwould be there to guide him, to hold
him fast. We also read about God's presence whereverwe are in Acts 17:28.
Paul referred to God and said,
"Forin him we live and move
and have our being."
We live our lives in His hand. He is all around us. Wherever we go on this
earth, God is present. If we go to the outermost reaches ofthe universe, God is
there. In verse 8 David said,
"If I go up to the heavens,
you are there..."
God is present in every part of the universe. He fills it .
But even though God fills the entire universe, we must realize that He is much
greaterthan that.
We must be careful to distinguish God from creation.

Pantheism confuses the two. It equates God with the universe. It says that
there is only one reality and that you candescribe it as, "God" oras "nature".
According to them, God is everywhere in the universe because Godis the
universe. A somewhatsimilar idea is that of Star Wars, "The Force". Ithink
they define it as the energy that is put out by every living thing.
But all such ideas are totally erroneous. Although God is present throughout
the universe, He is not to be equated with it. God existedbefore the universe
came into being. Indeed, He createdthe universe. Genesis 1:1 tells us that
"In the beginning
God createdthe heavens and the earth."
Psalm90:2 reads,
"Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth
the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting
you are God."
God is not to be confusedwith nature, with the universe or anything like that.
He fills all things, but He is distinct from His creation. He is much greater
than the universe.

The secondthing I want you to see aboutGod's omnipresence is that
God is also present in places that are invisible to us.
There is much to creationthat we don't see. When someone dies, their body
remains with us, but we don't see where their soul goes. It goes to a place that
we can't see and can't visit. They are separated from us.
But they are not separatedfrom God. In the secondhalf of verse 8 David
wrote,
"if I make my bed in the depths,
you are there."
The word that in translated 'depths' in the NIV is the Hebrew word Sheol. It
refers to the grave, the place of the dead. God is everywhere. Even death does
not separate us from Him.
There are two possibilities in death.
On the one hand, we can speak ofthe death of Christians.
The Bible tells us that when Christians die they go to heaven. Remember what
Stephen said just before he died. He said,

"Look, I see heavenopen
and the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of God."
The souls of those who die in Christ go to heaven. They go to be with Jesus. As
the apostle Paulsaid, (Philippians 1:21f)
"Forto me,
to live is Christ and to die is gain.
If I am to go on living in the body,
this will mean fruitful labor for me.
Yet what shall I choose?
I do not know!
I am torn betweenthe two:
I desire to depart and be with Christ,
which is better by far;"
Those who die in the Lord go to be with Him. Jesus saidHe was going to
prepare a place for us and that He would come againfor us to take us to be
with Him. (John 14)In Romans 8:38 the apostle Paul declaredthat death
could not separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. No, death
cannot do that. When Christians die, they enter God's presence, they go to
heaven. It is God's home. As God said in Isaiah 66:1,
"Heavenis my throne,

and the earth is my footstool."
God fills heavenand earth. In Jeremiah 23:23-24 Godsaid,
"Am I only a God nearby,
and not a God far away?
Can anyone hide in secretplaces
so that I cannot see him?
Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
Heaven is God's home. Wayne Grudem writes, (Systematic Theology, p. 176)
"We might find it misleading to say that God is 'more present' in heaven than
anywhere else, but it would not be misleading to say that God is presentin a
specialwayin heaven, present especiallythere to bless and to show forth his
glory. We could also saythat God manifests his presence more fully in heaven
than elsewhere."
But there is a secondpossibility. People who die without Christ go to a place
of torment. But what we must realize is that
God is also present in hell.

Even those who die without Christ know His presence in hell.
Now this may seemsurprising because many think of hell as the absence of
God. But that's not true. God is present at every point in His creation. God is
present in hell. We see this in Revelation14:9f. It talks about the fate of
anyone who worships the beast and his image and receives his mark. It says,
"he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury,
which has been poured full strength
into the cup of his wrath.
He will be tormented with burning sulfur
in the presence ofthe holy angels
and of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment
rises for ever and ever.
There is no rest day or night
for those who worship the beastand his image,
or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
They will be tormented in the presence ofthe holy angels and in the presence
of the Lamb. Hell is not the absence ofGod. That cannotbe because Godis
everywhere and everything obtains its existence from His presence.
(Colossians1:17, "'in Him' all things hold together.' See also Hebrews 1:3)
The horrible fact is that Godis in hell to show His wrath. He is not there to
bless. RatherHe is present there to punish. It is God who makes the fire that
is not quenched, the worm that does not die.

God is present everywhere in His creation. As Wayne Grudem writes, (p. 174)
"There is nowhere in the entire universe, on land or sea, in heaven or hell,
where one can flee from God's presence."
The third thing I want you to understand about God's presence is that
God is immense.
We usually think of 'immense' as meaning 'big' or 'huge'. We can think of
God in those terms but it doesn't do justice to the Bible's teaching. Immense
has another meaning, that of being, 'incapable of measurement, boundless'
suggesting the 'infinite'. It is in this respectthat theologians speakofthe
'immensity of God'.
In 1 Kings 8:27 at the dedication of the temple, Solomonsaid about God,
"But will God really dwell on earth?
The heavens, eventhe highest heaven,
cannot containyou.
How much less this temple I have built!"

Solomontold us that the heavens, eventhe highest heaven, cannot contain
God. This tells us another important truth about God. (Grudem, p. 174)
God cannot be containedby any space, no matter how large.
God's relationship to space is different that ours. Remember a few weeks ago
I spoke about how God is transcendentabove time, how time is something
that God createdand that God is not bound by time like we are. God's
relationship to space is something like that. God is transcendentabove space.
God transcends all spatial limitations. Wayne Grudem writes,(p. 174-175)
"We should guard againstthinking that God extends infinitely far in all
directions so that he himself exists in a sort of infinite, unending space. Nor
should we think that God is somehow a 'biggerspace'or biggerarea
surrounding the space ofthe universe as we know it. All of these ideas
continue to think of God's being in spatialterms, is if he were simply an
extremely large being. Instead, we should try to avoid of thinking of God in
terms of size or spatialdimensions. God is a being who exists without size or
dimensions in space. In fact, before God createdthe universe, there was no
matter or material so there was no space either. Yet God still existed. Where
was God? He was not in a place that we could calla 'where,'for there was no
'where' or space. But God still was!This fact makes us realize that God
relates to space in a far different way than we do or than any createdthing
does. He exists as a kind of being that is far different and far greaterthan we
can imagine."

Louis Berkhofdescribes God's immensity this way, (Systematic Theologyp.
60)
"that perfection of the Divine Being by which He transcends all spatial
limitations, and yet is present in every point of space with His whole being."
Now what does all this mean for us?
First of all, this doctrine should be a greatcomfort to Christians.
Donald Macleodwrites about God's presence,(BeholdYour God, p. 66)
"This presence means, primarily, God's help as we face the stressesofour
own personalsituations."
God is always with us. We are never awayfrom His presence. We are, as
Jesus saidin John 10:28-29, in His hand. We are in the hand of the Good
Shepherd. We are also in the hand of the Father. Jesus saidabout His sheep.
" I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish;

no one can snatchthem out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me,
is greaterthan all;
no one can snatchthem out of my Father's hand."
Donald Macleodwrites concerning Godbeing with us. (Behold Your God, p.
66)
"This idea pervades Scripture and is setforth in terms of virtually every
preposition human language has to offer. Godis with us (Matthew 28:20),
around us (Psalm 34:7), in us (John 14:17), in the midst of us (Psalm 46:5),
behind us (Psalm 139:5), underneath us (Deuteronomy 33:27), near us (Psalm
148:14)and before us (John 10:4). The metaphors used are equally varied:
God is a shepherd, a captain, an encircling army, an indwelling garrison, a
sentry at the door, a watchman, even a broody hen."
Macleod, p. 66,
"In all these ways God stands by His people, nourishing, keeping and teaching
them. Confidence in this is one of the greatfoundations of the Christian lifeÖ.
This is not something variable, true or untrue according to our personal
feelings. It is one of the constants and one of the fundamental assumptions of
our Christian lives."
God is with us. John 14:23 Jesus said,

"If anyone loves me,
he will obey my teaching.
My Fatherwill love him,
and we will come to him
and make our home with him."
If you are a Christian, that is true of you. His presence with you will never
end. In Hebrews 13:5-6, we read,
"Godhas said,
'Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.'
So we saywith confidence,
'The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.'"
But someone may object, "What about Job?"
God withdrew His presence from Job and Jobwent through greattrials. He
was left to face them alone. God left Him destitute.

I would most emphatically disagree with that characterization. Goddid not
leave Job. It felt that way to Job, but it was not the case. It was much like the
truth of the poem, "Footsteps"where the person lookedback overhis life and
saw that in some places there was only one setof footprints. He askedGod
about it and wondered why. But God told him that those were His footsteps,
that those were the places where Godhad carried him. Donald MacLeod
writes about God, (Behold Your God, p. 67)
"He is invincibly determined to save us and His love will never let go until he
presents us faultless in the presence of His glory (Jude 24). Clearly, then,
believers will always enjoy that presence ofGod which is essentialto their
perseverance.Theywill be kept right up to the completionof their salvation.
(1 Peter1:5)"
Yet, having said that, we should recognize that there are times when some
aspects ofGod 's presence may be withdrawn from believers. Macleodwrites,
(Behold Your God, p. 67)
"there may be times when every outward indication of God's love is withheld.
Whenever we look, we see only calamity."
God is still with us, protecting us, but we don't feelit, we don't see it.
About this, I want to say three things.

First, sometimes this happens and it is not connectedto our sins.
That's what happened to Job. He was the most righteous man on earth. That's
why it happened to him. He went through a horrible, horrible time. It was a
very grievous period of his life.
I suggestthat part of our daily prayer be that these outward aspects God's
presence not be withdrawn from us. Pray that you continue to enjoy the
outward manifestations of God's presence. Godis always with us in an
absolute sense, yetlife can be miserable when the outward manifestations of
His presence are withdrawn. Pray that you don't experience that
withdrawing.
Secondly, give thanks for all the times when you have enjoyed the outward
manifestations of God's presence.
Why have you enjoyed goodthings? It's because ofGod's gracious presence.
Every goodgift comes from above, from the Father of heavenly lights. (James
1:17) Goodthings are the result of God's gracious presence. As Psalm 16:11
says,
"You have made knownto me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures atyour right hand."
Donald MacLeodwrites, (BeholdYour God, p. 73)

"To Him we owe any love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness,
goodness,faithfulness and self-controlthat we possess. WhenGod is present
in a life, such qualities are the inevitable result."
Thirdly, sometimes this withdrawal of the outward manifestations of God's
presence are connectedwith sin.
That happened to Samsonand to the Israelites when they failed to take the
city of Ai. As we read in Isaiah59:1-2,
"Surely the arm of the LORD
is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities
have separatedyou from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
so that he will not hear."
Get sin out of your life. Don't tolerate it. See it for what it is—something that
will bring misery, will bring separationfrom God's presence to bless.

To non-Christians, God has been so goodto you.
So far in this life you have enjoyed much of the gracious presence ofGod.
Why? His kindness is designed to lead you to repentance.
(Romans 2:4) As Acts 17:27 speaks ofthis and says,
"Goddid this so that men would seek him
and perhaps reachout for him and find him,
though he is not far from eachone of us."
Go to Jesus today. He's your only hope.
After the fall, man was banished from the Garden of Eden, from God's
presence. Thatmeans that right now, you live in estrangementfrom God. In
Genesis 3 we read that that way back to God was barred. There was a flaming
swordwhich turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
How can you get back? There's only one way- Christ made peace through the
blood of His cross. (Colossians1:20)MacLeod, (BeholdYour God p. 68)
"The flaming swordis plunged into the heart of the Last Adam. (Zechariah
13:7)"

Jesus is the way.
God is inescapable. You can't run away from God. Jonah tried to do that. He
attempted to flee from Godon a ship. God sent a storm to stop him. The
sailors threw Jonahoverboard and God prepared a fish to swallow Jonah.
God was everywhere that Jonah went.
God knows everything you do. There is no privacy. He is always there. You
can't fool Him. One day you will have to deal with His presence. You can't
escape God. James MontgomeryBoice writes, (Foundations ofthe Christian
Faith, p. 107)
"Even if we ignore him now, we must reckonwith him in the life to come. If
we reject him now, we must eventually face the One we have rejectedand
experience his eternal rejectionof us."
Don't let that happen to you. Go to Jesus today.
Where was Godon September11?
He was there, at the World Trade Towers. He did remarkable things that day.
For those that were His people, He took them to Himself. Their passing was
like that of Stephen- heaven openedfor them, they went to glory. Forthose of
us who watched, God was presentgiving us a greatwarning. Remember
Jesus'words in Luke 13? (verses 2-3)

"Do you think that these Galileans
were worse sinners
than all the other Galileans
because they suffered this way?
I tell you, no!
But unless you repent,
you too will all perish."
Unless you repent, you too will perish.
God was also presentto punish those who had not obeyedHim. For them the
Day of His wrath had come, and they couldn't stand. (Revelation6:16)
Don't let that happen to you. Jesus said, (Matthew 11:28-29)
"Come to me,
all you who are wearyand burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls."
http://cantonnewlife.org/sermons/psalms/psalm_139_7-12/psalm_139_7-
12.html

Psalm139:7-12 – Commentary
Postedon March 30, 2015
In verses 1-6, the Psalmistexpresseshow wonderful it is to know the
overwhelming relationship that God has with him. God knows us in such a
deep and meaningful ways that the very thought is almost too much to bear.
The God of the Universe, the Creatorof all things cares to know us deeply and
personally.
We Can’t Get Away
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascendto heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shallcoverme,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm139:7 – 12 (ESV)

If verses 1-6 help describe the Omniscience ofGod, verses 7-12 describe the
Omnipresence of God. Where can we go to getaway from the presence of
God?
Nowhere!
David begins by asking severalrhetoricalquestions. The first two play off of
eachother. Where can go or walk or travel that would allow me to be away
from the Spirit of God? Or can you flee or run or escape from His very
presence?
The assumedanswerfrom the question is you can’t. You cannot getaway
from the presence ofGod. His Spirit is ever present. We cannotescape the
omnipresence of the eternally presentGod.
I could go to heavenor to the grave, and God is there. I could go as far eastor
west, and God is there. No matter the direction, the duration, the finality, or
the cause, nothing can separate us from the presence ofGod.
His PresenceBrings Confidence
So if God is everywhere. If I cannot escape His presence.
Combining the loving knowledge ofGod about me with his inescapable
presence, Davidrecognizes that God is there to lead him, to guide him, to be
his strong and mighty hand.
God’s presence brings a complete sense of comfort and assurance. There is no
place, no thing, no reality that can keepthe omniscient God from being
omnipresent. He will lead and support as His presence is with us.
Take Away
God is With Me
The reality is that God is always with me. When times are good, He is with
me. When times are “bad,” He is with me. When I sin, He is with me.
An omnipresent God is in all places at the same time and it is impossible for
me to escape his presence. Godis with me!

When I considerthe ever loving God, who knows me so personally, is not
turned aside by my sin and fault, I am overwhelmed by his presence. Icannot
be separatedfrom Him. http://ourbiblicalpointofview.com/2015/03/psalm-
1397-12-commentary/
Psalm139:No Escape FromGod
RelatedMedia
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One of the greatesttruths in life which we all know, but which we all must
come to learn, is that there is no escape fromGod. Like fugitives, we may run,
but we cannot ultimately hide from the God who penetrates eventhe darkness
with the gaze of His light. If we manage to dodge Him in this life, we must still
stand exposedbefore Him on that fearful day of judgment. There is no place
to hide from God.
Happily, once we give up our flight and allow ourselves to be found by this
relentless “Hound of Heaven” (as Francis Thompson describedHim in his
poem), we discoverthat His intention is not to harm but to bless us. He
formed us even in our mother’s womb for His purpose and ordained all of our
days before we ever saw the light of day. With David we must exclaim, “How
precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!” (v. 17).
In coming to know Him, we come to know ourselves. In the blinding light of
His holiness, we recognize instantly the desperate needwe have for inner
purity. Since we cannotescape from this all-knowing, all-present, all-wise

Creator, we cannot escape fromthe need for holiness. That is the messageof
the beautifully-crafted Psalm139. It’s not a generic psalm; it’s intensely
personal, betweenDavid and God (note the frequent “I” & “me”). Thus I
want to express its main messageandpoints in the first personsingular:
Since I cannot escape fromGod, I must commit myself to holiness.
The psalm falls into four stanzas. The first three deal with different attributes
of this inescapable Godas they relate to the individual: His omniscience (vv.
1-6); His omnipresence (vv. 7-12);and, His omnipotence as the sovereign
Creator(vv. 13-18). The final stanza (vv. 19-24)sets forth the inescapable
response to the inescapable God:personalholiness.
1. I can’t escape God’s knowledge ofme (139:1-6).
God knows absolutelyeverything about me! He knows my actions:When I sit
down and when I get up (v. 2); when I go somewhere and when I lie down (v.
3). He is intimately acquainted with all my ways!He knows my words:in fact,
He even knows what I am going to say before I say it (v. 4)! He even knows my
thoughts from afar (v. 2b). Like a cagedbird, He’s got me surrounded, with
His hand upon me (v. 5). There is no escape from His thorough, penetrating
knowledge. So Davidexclaims (v. 6): “Suchknowledge is too wonderful for
me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
The closestwe canget to knowing another human being ought to take place in
the marriage relationship. As a man and woman live togetherin that lifelong
commitment, they grow to know one another’s actions, words, and--to the
degree that they openly communicate--thoughts and feelings. The Bible uses
the verb “to know” to describe the sexualrelationship in marriage (Gen. 4:1).
But even so, you can be married for years and still discovernew things about
your mate. Even the closesthuman relationships fall short of total knowledge.
In fact, we can’t even know ourselves thoroughly. Life is a process ofcoming
to know ourselves. But, as Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful
than all else and is desperatelywicked;who canunderstand it?” We can’t
know our own motives and inner drives apart from God’s revealing it to us
through His Word. God alone knows us thoroughly. He sees through us.

Your first reactionto that thought is probably, “Where can I run to hide?” It
seems to have been David’s thought (v. 7). Since the human race fell into sin,
that kind of total intimacy has been threatening to every person. Before the
fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed open intimacy with God and with one another.
They were naked and not ashamedin eachother’s presence (Gen. 2:25). But
as soonas they sinned, they tried to hide from God and they sewedfig leaves
to hide their nakedness from one another. We have a longing to know and be
known, but only within safe limits. We fear being totally exposed.
But the amazing thing is, this God who knows us so thoroughly, who knows
every awful thought we ever have, desires to have a relationship with us.
Becauseofour sin and God’s holiness, something had to be done to remove
that barrier to our relationship with Him. With the first couple, God
performed an object lessonthat pointed aheadto His ultimate solution. Their
fig leaves were not adequate; God slaughteredan animal and clothed them
with its skin, showing them that they could not be restoredto fellowship with
a holy God without the shedding of blood.
Although the Bible doesn’t specify, I believe God slaughtereda lamb and
explained to Adam and Eve the coming Lamb of God who would take away
the sin of the world. Can you imagine their shock atseeing death for the first
time as they watchedthe blood spurt and the animal writhe as its life-blood
drained from it? It showedthem in a graphic waythat God takes sin
seriously. It must be paid for through death. But it also showedthem that in
His grace, Godwould provide the substitute so that no sinner need be
separatedfrom Godor pay the penalty for his or her own sin.
Christianity is not following a set of rules or going through a bunch of
religious rituals. It is at its heart a personal relationship with the living God
who knows you thoroughly. You enter that relationship when you put your
trust in the substitute He provided, the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the
penalty for your sin with His death on the cross.
The threat of being knownso intimately by God provokes the reaction,
“Where can I go to hide?” David pursues that thought in the secondstanza:
2. I can’t escape God’s presence(139:7-12).

Where do you plan to run? Heaven (v. 8)? God is there! The first Soviet
cosmonauts irreverently jokedthat they didn’t see Godfrom their spaceship.
But God saw them! He is there! Do you want to escape Godin the place of the
dead (Sheol)? He’s there, too! Do you want to head east(“wings of the dawn,”
v. 9) or west(“remotestpart of the sea”)?You won’t dodge God (v. 10)! You
can hide in the dark, but God is light and He will find you out (vv. 11-12).
Since God is everywhere, you can’t getawayfrom Him. Again, David is
intensely personalabout it: God isn’t just everywhere;everywhere I go, He
lays hold of me (v. 10)!
A college student fanciedhimself to be a ladies’man. One evening the phone
rang. Picking up the receiver, he murmured in a low, sexy voice, “Talk to me,
baby ....” Suddenly he flushed bright red. He saidweakly, “Oh, hi, Mom”
(Reader’s Digest[6/84], p. 32).
A mother’s presence, evenover the phone, has a way of straightening out
wrong behavior! How much more would we live uprightly if we constantly
kept in mind that God is present with us everywhere we go!
3. I can’t escape God’s powerand sovereignty(139:13-18).
The thought that darkness doesn’thide us from God leads David to consider
that God formed him in his mother’s womb. Though hidden from human eyes
in that day before sonograms, Davidwas not hidden from God’s eyes (v. 16).
And not only did God make me through His creative power, but also He
ordained all of my days before any of them came into being (v. 16)!
Considering how fearfully and wonderfully we are made should cause us to
break forth in thanksgiving to God (v. 14).
Augustine observed, “Mengo abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains,
at the huge waves ofthe sea, atthe long courses ofthe rivers, at the vast
compass ofthe ocean, atthe circular motions of the stars; and they pass by
themselves without wondering” (in Reader’s Digest[1/92], p. 9). Every person
has in his or her body sufficient proof that God exists. To ignore that kind of
evidence renders a person without excuse (Rom. 1:18-23). To say that
something as finely balancedand complex as the human body is the result of
sheerchance plus time is nothing short of ludicrous!

Considerthe miracle of the human body: Every secondmore than 100,000
chemicalreactions take place in your brain. It has 10 billion nerve cells to
record what you see and hear. That information comes to your brain through
the miracle of the eye, which has 100 million receptorcells (rods and cones)in
eacheye. Your retina also has four other layers of nerve cells. Altogetherthe
system makes the equivalent of 10 billion calculations a secondbefore an
image even gets to the optic nerve. Once it reaches your brain, the cerebral
cortexhas more than a dozen separate visioncenters in which to process it.
Your tear ducts supply a bacteria-fighting fluid to protectyour eyes from
infection. The tears that fight irritants differ from the tears of sadness, which
contain 24 percent more proteins. That’s not to mention the miracle of the ear
and how it translates sound waves into meaningful speechand sounds; or of
touch, taste, and smell.
Part of your brain regulates voluntary matters, such as muscle coordination
and thought processes. Otherparts of the brain control involuntary processes,
such as digestion, glandular secretions,the rate at which your heart beats, etc.
How did it accidentallyhappen that your body could speedup your heart rate
to the proper speed to meet increasedoxygendemand when you exercise and
slow it down when that need is met? One square inch of your skin has about
625 sweatglands, 19 feetof blood vessels,and 19,000sensorycells. Working in
coordinationwith your brain, it maintains your body at a steady 98.6 degrees
under all weatherconditions.
Your stomachhas 35 million glands which secrete the right amounts of juices
to allow your body to digestfood and convert it into storedenergy for your
muscles. To avoid digesting itself, your stomachproduces a new lining every
three days. Your body is an efficient machine: to ride a bicycle for an hour at
ten miles per hour requires only 350 calories, the energy equivalent of only
three tablespoons ofgasoline.
You have more than 200 bones, eachshapedfor its function, connected
intricately to one anotherthrough lubricated joints that cannot be perfectly
duplicated by modern science. More than 500 muscles connectto these bones.
Some obey willful commands; others perform their duty in response to
unconscious commands from the brain. They all work togetherto keepus

alive. The heart muscle itself beats over103,000times eachday, pumping your
blood cells a distance of 168 million miles.
Coupled with that, your lungs automaticallybreathe in the right amount of
life-giving oxygen(about 438 cubic feeteachday), which just happens to be
mixed in the right proportions (about 20% oxygen, 80% nitrogen) in our
atmosphere. Eachof the other vital organs and glands in your body works in
complex conjunction with the others to sustain life, which science can’t
explain or create.
I haven’t even mentioned the complexity of human cells. Listen to this: A
single human chromosome (DNA molecule)contains 20 billion bits of
information. How much is that? What would be its equivalent, if it were
written down in an ordinary printed book in modern human language?
Twenty billion bits are the equivalent of about three billion letters. If there are
approximately six letters in an average word, the information content of a
human chromosome corresponds to about 500 million words. If there are
about 300 words on an ordinary page of printed type, this corresponds to
about two million pages. If a typical book contains 500 suchpages, the
information content of a single human chromosome corresponds to some
4,000 volumes. “It is clear, then, that the sequence ofrungs on our DNA
ladders represents an enormous library of information. It is equally clearthat
so rich a library is required to specify as exquisitely constructedand
intricately functioning an objectas a human being.”
That information, incredibly, comes from the astronomer, Carl Sagan, who
thinks it all happened by chance (The Dragons ofEden, Speculations onthe
Evolution of Human Intelligence [Ballentine Books], pp. 23-25)!He points out
that the Viking landers that put down on Mars in 1976, eachhad instructions
in their computers amounting to a few million bits, slightly more than a
bacterium, but significantly less than an alga. Yet he thinks that life on this
planet evolved by chance!Would he saythat the Viking spacecraftcould
evolve, given enough time? Who, I ask, has more faith--the creationistor the
evolutionist?

When David says (in v. 18), “When I awake,I am still with You,” he may be
referring to the fact that eachmorning the thoughts of God’s omniscience,
omnipresence, and omnipotence are still with him, so that he can’t escape the
overwhelming factof God in relation to himself. Or, he may be referring
poeticallyto God’s presence afterdeath, in the resurrection. In that case,
David would be referring to God’s hand on his life from conceptionthrough
eternity.
But in any case, the awesomethought that God skillfully made me and
ordained the days of my life ought to make me see that I can’t escape from His
powerand sovereignty. By the way, even if you suffer from birth defects, God
declares that He made you. When Moses complainedto God that he couldn’t
speak eloquently enough to lead Israelout of Egypt, God said, “Who has
made man’s mouth? Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is
it not I, the Lord?” (Exod. 4:11).
That means that God has fashionedand has a purpose in this fallen world
even for those whose bodies or minds are not perfectly formed. That God
creates andordains the days of eachhuman life gives significance and value to
eachlife and it strongly confronts the abortion of any baby, even if it is
supposedly “defective.”
So David is saying that you can’t escape from God. He knows everything
about you; He is with you whereveryou go;He has createdyou and ordained
the days of your life. So what’s the bottom line? What do you do with a God
like this? In the final stanza, David shows that ...
4. Therefore, I must commit myself to holiness (139:19-24).
The inescapable conclusionof the fact that we can’t escape from the living
God is an inescapable commitment to holiness. As David thinks about God’s
searching knowledge,His ubiquitous presence, and His infinite wisdom as
seenin his own body, he is led first to cry out to God to destroy the wicked,
affirming his own abhorrence of them (vv. 19-22);and then quickly to add a
prayer that the God who had searchedhim (v. 1) would continue the process,
so that if any sin still lurked in the dark corners of his own life, David could

root it out and walk in God’s everlasting way. This shows us two aspects of
holiness which we must develop:
A. Holiness means living apart from the wicked(vv. 19-22).
Does the thought of “perfecthatred” strike you as odd? Does it seemlike a
vice rather than a virtue? We have a syrupy, sentimental notion of love in our
day. We wrongly think that Christians should not hate anything. But to fear
God is to hate evil (Prov. 8:13). We can’t love God properly and be
complacentabout sin.
I know what you’re thinking: “I was just making a little progress in learning
to love my enemies and now this guy Cole comes along and tells me I’m
supposedto hate them with a perfecthatred! How can I love them and hate
them at the same time?” C. H. Spurgeon helpfully explains the balance:
To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wickedman with
complacencywould be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake, orfor any evil
done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all
goodness andthe enemy of all righteousness,is nothing more nor less than an
obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with
those who refuse him their affection(The Treasury of David [Baker],
VII:229).
R. C. Sproul explains along the same lines:
If there is such a thing as perfect hatred it would mirror and reflect the
righteousness ofGod. It would be perfect to the extent that it excluded sinful
attitudes of malice, envy, bitterness, and other attitudes we normally associate
with human hatred. In this sense a perfect hatred could be deemed compatible
with a love for one’s enemies. One who hates his enemy with a perfect hatred
is still calledto act in a loving and righteous manner towardhim (“Tabletalk”
[11/91], p. 9).
Jude 22-23 reflects the fine line betweenloving sinners but hating their sin:
“And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out
of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment
polluted by the flesh.” Holiness means living apart from the wickedand

staying undefiled from their sin, but reaching out to them with the messageof
salvation.
B. Holiness means living openly before God (vv. 23-24).
David no soonermentions the wickedand his hatred for their irreverence
than he quickly realizes his own need for God’s cleansing. This is not so much
a prayer that God may know him (which He already does, v. 1), but rather
that David might know himself through God’s purifying, refining fire. There
are two elements to a holy life in these verses:
First, I must constantlyexpose my inner life to God. “Searchme, try me ....”
David is inviting God to shine His pure light into the inner recessesofhis
thought life, where all sin originates. If you want to be holy, not just
outwardly, where you can fake it, but inwardly, you must constantly confront
your thought life with God’s Word.
Second, I must constantly yield my whole life to God. “Lead me ....” When
God’s Word exposes where I’m wrong, I must submit to the Lord and walk in
His way. Knowledge without obedience leads to deceptionand pride. I must
become a doer of the Word, not just a hearer who deludes myself (James
1:22).
Conclusion
John Calvin wiselywrote, “It is certainthat man never achieves a clear
knowledge ofhimself unless he has first lookedupon God’s face, and then
descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself” (Institutes of the
Christian Religion[Westminster Press], edited by John T. McNeill, 1:1:2).
That’s what David is saying here: Look upon God: He knows you thoroughly;
He is with you everywhere you go; He has wondrously createdyou and
sovereignlyordained the days of your life. Then, scrutinize yourself by
inviting the searchlightof God’s Word into your innermost thoughts and
feelings and by yielding yourself to be obedient to God’s ways. Since you can’t
escape from God, you must commit yourself to holiness.
DiscussionQuestions

Why are we afraid to be known thoroughly? How vulnerable should we be?
What principles guide how much we share with others?
How can a persondevelop a sense of God’s unshakable presence, so as not to
sin?
Is theistic evolution a viable option for Christians? What do we lose when we
negate Godas Creator?
Does Godlove everyone equally (Ps. 5:5-6)? Must we (Ps. 139:21-22)? What
does this mean practically?
Copyright 1993, StevenJ. Cole, All Rights Reserved.
Daily DevotionalBible Verse
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascendto heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! (Psalm 139:7-8 ESV)
From Jordan:
I had always thought that I was fine with being cramped in enclosedspaces,
until the summer of 2011 whenI had my first MRI. That’s when I found out
that I was wrong;in fact, not just wrong, but very, very wrong. If you’re
unfamiliar with MRI’s, it is a medical imaging procedure in which the patient
is inserted into a tube just large enough for his or her body to slide into. Then
(don’t lose me in the fancy medical jargonhere), there are a bunch of loud
hammering noises, clicks,claps, beeps and a variety of other atonalhubbub.
Initially, the cramped space and the noise didn’t bother me, I actually felt
kind’ve like an astronautbeneath the white lights of the tube. But about ten
minutes into the procedure, waves ofpanic crashedthrough my body and I

cracked. Forsome reason, albeitirrational, I just couldn’t handle being in
that tube any longer. It was a terrible experience, and one that I did not soon
wish to repeat. Six months later I had to get another one. Obviously I wasn’t
looking forward to it as I had almost passedout during my last MRI, but
saying no wasn’t an option.
However, when I went into the machine this time, it was a much different
experience. I was nervous againbut this time I closedmy eyes and prayed.
Initially I felt embarrassedbefore God by my unreasonable fear, but I needed
Him, so I told Him that. I prayed about life and fear and everything in
between. It was the last place in the world I expectedto connectwith God, but
I did, and it was amazing. He was there. Regardlessofmy illogicalfear and
my sporadic conversationwith Him, I deeply felt His presence. Afterwards, as
I drove home, the words of Psalm 139:7-8 came to life for me. Though I
hadn’t been at the bottom of the Atlantic or at the top of Mount Everest, God
was with me amidst my fear.
No matter the place or situation, God is there, available and unbelievably
gracious towardus. https://shortdailydevotions.com/psalm-1397-8-god-in-the-
mri/
Psalm139:7
(7) Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy
presence?
King James Version

The psalmist does not really want to flee. He is posing ideas and questions so
that we can see that wherever we are, we are always under God's scrutiny.
God is a positive spirit. Everything that He creates has positive function and
beauty. His intention in everything for us is always positive, right, and good.
He does everything in love and concernfor our well-being so that we will fit
within His purpose, and it will be workedout in our lives. Psalms 139 contains
no negative connotations.
From this, because His mind permeates the entirety of His creation, we ought
to derive greatconfidence that God is always with us. He is omnipotent. He is
omnipresent. He is activelyusing His powers, His Spirit, to governand
manage His creation.
The beginning of the source of all power is in the mind. Remember, man is in
God's image. A man may make tools to intensify his powers, but the real
poweris in the mind because withoutit, he would not be able to create the tool
that expands his powers.
God's Holy Spirit is the essence ofHis mind. Just like a man, His power
resides there too, only He does not have to use steamshovels and powertools
to get things done. He speaks, andthe laws He has createdgo to work. The
tool by which He carries everything out is His Spirit, the essenceof His mind.
— John W. Ritenbaugh
Psalm139:7-12 - Awesome Attributes of God! Part Two
Psa. 139:7-12:Awesome Attributes of God! Part Two
Psa 139:7 (CWR) Where can I go to leave the presence ofyour
Holy Spirit? Where shall I run that you're not already there?
Psa 139:8 (CWR) If I were to launch out into space, you'd be

there. If I were to tunnel into the depths of the earth, you'd be
there.
Psa 139:9 (CWR) If I had wings and could fly to the ends of the
earth or to the most remote island in the sea,
Psa 139:10 (CWR) your presence wouldbe there and your arms
would be ready to hold me.
Psa 139:11 (CWR) Even if I hid in the dark, everything around
me would be as visible to you as in the daylight.
Psa 139:12 (CWR) Darknessto you is as light as the day.
INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW
This psalm contains the clearestexpressionofthe attributes
and characterofGod to be found in the Psalter. One could hardly
describe the omniscience and omnipresence ofGod more effectively.
[Believer's SB]
This poem describes the attributes of the Lord not as abstract
qualities, but as active qualities by which He relates Himself to His
people. [NelsonSB]
From the standpoint of OT theology, this is the climax of
thought in the Psalteron God's personalrelationship to the individual.

Presence of god no escape

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