Psalm 139:7-12

“I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

Last time we saw that the first couplet to illustrates God’s omnipresence is the highest and the lowest and now we come to the second couplet:

• The Fastest and the Farthest (vs. 9-10)

The first couplet, highest to lowest was vertical, from top to bottom, where this couplet is horizontal, east and west. Verse 9 starts with the statement “If I ride the wings of the morning” which is a beautiful and very descriptive phrase but what does it mean, what is the Psalmist trying to convey in this imagery? It’s the picture of the sun rising at the dawning of a new day as it breaks over the land, showering rays of golden light that touch and illuminate the dark places of our planet. As those rays first appear science tells us that they are speeding at a rate of 186,000 miles per second. Meaning that it would take less that 2 seconds for light to reach the moon from earth. Imagine for a moment that you could ride one of those rays, that you could ride the wings of the morning, this is what David is saying. Now in the context of the passage David is presenting us with a picture to answer the question can we out run God, can we escape and get away from His presence. David is saying that no matter how fast we go God is still right there with us. As far as you go, east or west, you can never go beyond God’s presence. David pushes on with the analogy by saying “if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.” No matter how far you go into the sea even there God will guide, and support you with His strength. This is a profound statement, especially considering the fact that unlike us, David didn’t even realize how vast the size of the ocean really was. Some versions here, like the New International Version, reference God’s right hand of strength which does not mean that the Bible is prejudiced toward left handed people. Rather references to God’s right hand are references to His power. David is saying that God is holding us in His care, by using His power to hold us fast. No matter how far we travel from our home, even when we find ourselves on the farthest side of the sea, God’s powerful hand is being used on our behalf to guide and guard our lives. Last year I had the privilege of preaching in Papua New Guinea almost 8000 miles from home, and two full days of travel by plane, and yet in all that travel God was right there with me. The same God who leads me, protects me, and cares for me here was there with me as well. What a wonderful and comforting truth to know that our God is bigger than geography. This truth has many implications for us and should serve not only as a comfort that we can claim but also for our children and our grandchildren should God call them to live away from us. If we really believe and take God’s Word to heart, why would we fear and resist God sending them wherever He wants them to be? Often it’s because we fail to focus on His omnipresence, that no matter where our kids are at God is right there with them, guiding and guarding their lives. How many parents when it comes to their kids, end up resisting God and becoming road blocks. We say that we want our kids to follow God as long as they don’t follow Him too far! When it comes to your kids and grandkids don’t resist God rest in Him. Believe what the Bible says, that no matter where they are God is there with them. Are you resisting God’s call on your life or on your children or grandchildren’s lives? I am thankful that my parents boldly belief and chose not to try and control or cage God’s call on my life. You see my mother used to prayer, “Lord if it be your Will please let my children all live on the same continent.” Notice how much leeway she gave God, not the same county or even country but continent, yet it was not God’s Will. We actually live on three continents; I have a sister in Europe, a brother in Africa while I reside in North America. My mother prayed to God but she didn’t try to push God, its one thing to petition it’s another to demand. What my parents understood was that the safest place for me to be was walking with God at the center of His Will. As parents our kids come into this world 100% dependent on us, and our job is to teach them to become 100% dependent on their heavenly Father. Yet many of us forget that our kids really belong to God and instead of teaching them to partner with Him we end up causing them to become codependent with us. Instead of blessing them we put them in a box, instead of being free to walk by faith we make them walk according to family. We hobble and hinder our kids because instead of modeling a life of faith we are following fear. The message that our kids hear is that we trust God as long as we are in control. But trusting God means giving Him the reigns especially when it comes to our kids’ lives. Are you walking by faith or fear? Are you modelling faith for your kids or messing them up with fear? Even though my parents have been physically separated from me by thousands of miles for many years God has been right there with us both, faithfully leading and providing protection. What about you, are you willing to trust God to be the guardian or are you going to resist and try to take the reins? Who is really in control, self or the Savior? May be right now you are in the midst of a difficult decision, a choice between scary and safe, between courageous and comfortable, between unknown risks and better known security. Just remember that the safest place you and your kids can be is in the center of God’s will. When we walking in His Will we can do anything He calls us to do, including standing up for truth without wasting our lives on worrying what others will do and say. We can watch our kids make a big move without doubting because we believe that God will take care of them. We can choose the right and harder thing over the comfortable and convenient thing to do. I will be the first to admit that the center of God’s will is not necessarily an easy place, but compared to partnering with God comfort and convenience are way overrated. No matter what you are going through God is right there with you holding you in His hand. What do you need to trust God for and with today?

Psalm 139:7-12

“I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! 8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. 9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. 11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— 12     but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

As we have seen we not only have an omniscience, all knowing God, but an omnipresence God that is everywhere. David describes a God who not only knows us but is also with us, and because God is everywhere David states that we can never escape from Him. Which begs the question why would we ever want to escape God’s presence? This may seem like a foolish thing to want and do but there have been those who have tried. I believe that most of the time our reason for running from God is to try and hide our sin from Him. This was the case with Adam and Eve, where in Genesis 3:8 it says that after they had sinned, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” They believed that they could hide from the presence of their Creator using His creation. That is what sin does to us, it makes us want to escape God’s presence. The holiness of God strikes fear into our sinful hearts making us want to hide from Him. The irony is that the one we try to hide from is the only one who can heal our hurting hearts. As St. Augustine said, “The only way to flee from God is to flee to him.” Only through God can we find relief from the punishment that our sin brings. Only by running to Him can we find forgiveness and freedom from the guilt and servitude of sin. Not only did Adam and Eve try to hide from God but so did Jonah. When God called him to go and confornt the wickedness of Ninevah Jonah rebelled and tried to run and hide from God. Jonah 1: 3 says, “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” He went in the exactly opposite direction believing that he could run from God’s presence. How foolish to think that God wasn’t in Tarshish, but are we any different? How do we respond when God calls us to do a difficult thing or go to a difficult place, do we obey or object? Do we try to run from God and hide from Him? As a young boy I knew God’s call on my life, to proclaim His Word and preach, but like Jonah I refused and ran. But as hard as I ran I never outran God because He is free from the limitations of space, He is holy present everywhere, all at the same time. His presence fills heaven and earth, meaning that He is present everywhere at the same instance. It’s not that He is scattered everywhere with little bits of Him here and there, rather He is fully present in every place. This is also the same truth that the prophet Jeremiah taught in Jeremiah 23:23-24. “’Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ’Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.” No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t out run God and there came a point where I repentance of my running and returned to God’s call on my life. Now while God is fully present everywhere this does not mean that God is to be identified with His creation. That is a false pagan philosophy called pantheism, which teaches that God and His creation are one and that God is merely an impersonal force, or at best the forces of laws of nature. It’s what is behind the philosophy of Stephen Spielbergs Star Wars, and the famous line “May the Force be with you.” But this idea that the Creator and the creation are one is not based in truth, God does not become the trees, the flowers, the sky, or the rocks. He is not some impersonal force out there; He is both preset and personal. He is separate and distinct from His creation, both transcendent above His creation and yet present in every part of His creation. It is this truth revealed in His Word that leads us into a right relationship with a present and personal God. As we answer the question: Where can I go from your presence? Where can I flee from your Spirit? We discover the answer is nowhere, because God is present everywhere, that is the truth of God’s omnipresence. No matter where you are God is present with you and to help us understand the truth about God’s presence, David follows it up with several specific illustrations of God’s presence. He does this using a series of 3 couplets, the first being:

• The Highest and the Lowest (v. 8)

Verse 8 states: “If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.” Which at first may seem a little confusing but what David is using here is the highest and lowest extremes to illustrate God’s omnipresence. If we would scale the highest mountain, Mount Everest at 29,029 feet, we would not out climb God. Now let’s face it most of us are never going to climb Everest, but we might find ourselves on a plane flying at 35,000 feet, yet even there God is present. Even if we joined NASA and left our atmosphere and headed out into space God would be there. You see no matter how high you go God is there. On the flip side if we go as low as we can, God is there also. The word grave here is the word Sheol which is used in a number of ways in the Old Testament. Sometimes it can mean hades, sometimes it refers to the grave, while other times it means the heart of the earth. Davis is saying no matter how low you go on this earth, God is there. When it comes to God’s presence in our lives there is a poem that perfectly illustrates this truth:

“He was just a little lad. And on this fine Sunday he was wondering home from Sunday School and doddling along the way. He scuffed his shoes into the grass. And found a caterpillar. He found a fluffy milkweed pod, and blew out all the filler. A bird’s nest in a tree, o’er head so wisely placed on high was just another wonder that caught his watchful eye. A neighbor watched his zigzag course and hailed him from the lawn. Asked where he’d been that day and what was going on. ’Oh, I’ve been to Sunday School.’ He carefully turned a sod and found a snail beneath it. ’I’ve learned a lot about God.’ ’Hmmm, a very fine way,’ the neighbor said, ’for a boy to spend his time. But if you’ll tell me where God is though, I’ll give you a brand new dime.’ Quick as a flash his answer came, nor were his accents faint. ’I’ll give you a dollar mister, if you tell me where God ain’t!’”

No matter where you are today or what you are going through you have a Father who is not far away, He is right there with you. God did not make His creation and then leave us alone, you are loved and wanted. So if you are running from God stop running and return to a relationship. If you feel like God is a million miles away remember He is present even in your problems. So where in your life are you running from Him instead of resting in the relationship?