The Omnipresent God Sees Me
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm 139:7-12
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm 139:7-12
Remember the context from last the last post. In Psalm 139, David is meditating on God’s penetrating knowledge of him, His inescapable presence with Him, and His sovereign purposes for him. In the opening section (vv. 1-6), David meditates on God’s omniscience. The totality of his life—everything he would ever say, or do, or think, or feel, was not only known by God but had always been known by God, and evaluated by God according to His perfect standards. At first, David’s reaction is holy fear.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
God’s penetrating knowledge of David overwhelms him. His first impulse is to flee. But that raises another question: Where could he go? Where can you hide from the God Who knows everything? That brings us to the next section, in verses 7-12:
- If the first section could be called the omniscient God knows me,
- we could call the second section the omnipresent God sees me.
Like he did in the first section, David starts by making a statement about God. This time it comes in the form of a question, but not a question that needs to be answered. It’s a rhetorical question. He’s not really asking a question; he’s making a statement.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
Where can you hide from a God who knows everything? The answer, of course, is nowhere. “Where shall I flee from your presence” literally means “where shall I flee from your face?” Theologians have used the Latin phrase “coram deo” to capture the idea of living “in the presence of God”, or “before the face of God.” Everything we do, everything we say, everything we think, whether alone or in public, is done, said, and thought before the face of God.
- God knows every thought. Whether we ever share our thoughts with anyone else doesn’t matter. Every thought that ever goes through our mind is before the face of God. “You discern my thoughts from afar.” (Ps 139:2)
- God hears every word. Whether anyone else is around to hear us doesn’t matter. Everything we say, whether alone or in public, is said before the face of God. “Before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.” (Ps 139:4)
- God sees every action. Whether anyone else is around to see us doesn’t matter. Everything we do is done before the face of God. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Prov. 15:3)
The Bible says that “no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:13). We are always before His face! David understands this in the context of his own sinfulness and he’s understandably overwhelmed. The totality of our lives; every thought, word, action, and motive, lived ever and always before the blazing gaze of the holy and righteous God of heaven. The God Who detests and condemns evil in all its forms (Prov. 6:16-19).
Where can I flee from your face? Nowhere.
And just like he did in the first section, David now gives some examples, this time in the vertical and horizontal planes.
On the vertical plane, David writes:
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
He’s using Heaven (above) and the grave (below) to conceptualize two directions on the vertical plane. But more to the point, heaven and the grave represent two places that are inaccessible to the living but which are the particular domain of God’s presence. God’s omnipresence permeates every realm of existence. To depart this life, to depart this particular plane of existence, is not to depart the immediate presence of God.
What about on the horizontal plane?
If I take the wings of the morning.
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
The “wings of the dawn” is an expression that pictures the light from the rising sun at daybreak shooting across the earth from east to west. To paraphrase, David is saying “even if I could soar from the east with the light of dawn… if I could streak across the sky at the speed of light, even then I couldn’t escape you.”
What about to the west, the place of the sunset? There’s no hiding there! There’s no hiding in “the uttermost parts of the sea.” There might be another double meaning here. Symbolically, to the Biblical writers, “the sea” was often used to symbolize a place of chaos. On the vertical plane, the heavens (above) represent a place of light and life, while the grave (below) represents a place of darkness and death. On the horizontal plane, the morning (the sunrise in the east) represents a place of light and life, while the uttermost parts of the sea (from their geographical vantage point to the west) represents a place of chaos and darkness and death.
But literally, the “uttermost parts of the sea” was the western shore of the Mediterranean. From Jerusalem on the eastern shore, over to the western shore of the Mediterranean Sea is a distance of about 2,500 miles, and is the location of the ancient Biblical city of Tarshish. Can you hide from God by fleeing to the west, to Tarshish? Just ask Jonah. In fact, where was it that Jonah encountered the presence of God most intimately? In the darkness of the belly of a fish, on the far side of the sea.
David’s conclusion, again to paraphrase, is this: “In any spatial dimension, whether vertical or horizontal, or even in the dimensions of light or darkness that are inaccessible to the living, there is no hiding from you, Yahweh.”
But now, it seems, David’s tone changes.
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
In verse 8 he had reflected on Sheol, the place of the dead. In verse 9 he reflected on the sea, a place of chaos and death. And in verse 10, it seems that David is no longer trying to flee from God’s presence, but instead, after considering these two frightening realms, he is taking comfort in the fact that he cannot escape God. Whether I’m in heaven or the grave; whether I’m in a place of light and life or darkness and death, even there your hand shall “lead me.”
David uses the same verb in Psalm 23:
- The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
- He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
- He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
The leading hand of the shepherd is gentle. It’s loving. It’s protective. It’s reassuring. It’s no longer a hand that is “laid upon him,” that “cups him” and “hems him in” (verse 5), but a hand that “leads him”. And also notice, it’s a “right” hand, symbolizing God’s power—God’s power that “holds him”, and protects him.
Instead of becoming uncomfortable with God’s penetrating of him, David now takes great comfort in the face that he lives always before God’s face. Nothing can separate him from the protective presence of God!
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and (if) the light about me be night,”
The Hebrew word translated “cover” has the idea of “bruising” or “crushing”. How can the darkness crush someone? Think about the analogies he’s been using: Sheol, the place of darkness and death; the uttermost parts of the sea, a place of chaos and death. Even if the darkness of these places should overwhelm me and crush me…
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Even if the darkness crushes and overwhelms me, David says, it can’t separate me from the protective presence of God. To Him, the darkness is as the light.
How does David know this? In this context, David draws his conclusions from his observations of the created order, and specifically, from meditating on God’s formation of him! David is confident of God’s powerful presence with him even in the darkness of another realm, because he knew that God formed him (David) in the darkness of his mother’s womb. This is why David’s statement in the opening line of the third section begins with the word “for”.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
David’s using deduction here. He’s drawing a conclusion. And his conclusion is very simply this: the reason the omnipresent and omniscient God knows me and sees me is that He is also the omnipotent God Who made me and numbered my days. More on that next time.
The omnipresent God sees me. He sees you. Depending on your relationship to Christ, that should either be comforting, or terrifying. If we are in Christ, it is a comforting truth. A reassuring truth. A blessed truth.
- In my emotional struggles, He sees me. In my loneliness, my frustration, my feelings of helplessness and of simply being overwhelmed by life, He sees me, and He knows. I cast my cares upon Him, knowing that He cares for me (1 Pet. 5:7). I look to Him, and find comfort.
- In my physical struggles, He sees me. In my pain, in my sickness, in my weakness, in my infirmity, He sees me, and He knows. I remember that this is temporary. God may or may not be pleased to bring healing in this life, but in glory, disease and death will most certainly be a thing of the past (Rev 21:4). I look to Him, and find comfort.
- In my spiritual struggles, He sees me. In my despair over my sin, in my temptation, in my spiritual depression, when I feel all is lost, He sees me, and He knows. And I remember that I have a high priest Who can sympathize with my weaknesses, and so I draw near to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I look to Him, and find comfort.
For those who are in Christ, “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Ps 46:1). We live coram deo—before the face of God. Every word, every action, every thought, every motive—ever and always before His face. If you are trusting in Christ, that should be cause for serious reflection and meditation—but not dread. Our beloved Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, has born our sin and shame, made atonement for our guilt, and secured our salvation. Instead of seeking to flee God’s presence in unbelief, like David did at first, we must flee continually to Christ, knowing that in Christ, we are received as beloved sons and daughters of God. In Christ, miracle of miracles, sinners even such as ourselves can enjoy the light of His countenance without fear.
But if you are not yet trusting in Christ, God’s omnipresence should be cause for great fear. “No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account.” (Heb 4:13). You also live coram deo—before the face of God. Every word, every action, every thought, every motive—ever and always before His face. It’s useless to deny your guilt. As we saw last time, God is omniscient—He knows. It’s also useless to hide your guilt. As we saw this time, God is omnipresent—He sees. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is eternally profound and yet simple enough for a child to understand. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1 Tim. 1:15). Christ never has and never will turn any aside who genuinely come to Him in repentance and faith. God’s command to you today is to trust in His Son. “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)