Inescapable God

Psalm 139:7-10

“Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can 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 settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.“

Psalm 139 is so rich, it has a depth and breadth that encompasses our whole life and our relationship with God. Here in these verses David is exclaiming the fact of God’s omnipresence; God is everywhere, all the time. There is no place where God is not. It’s an overwhelming thought, that our God is inescapable. North, south, east or west, out in space, in the depths of the sea, his great presence interpenetrates every space and every place. He is deep within our hearts and minds, and all our thoughts are known to him. This understanding can be frightening and immensely comforting, all at the same time.

In Acts 17:27-28, Paul talks about the fact that we are immersed in God, when he tells the Greeks, “He is not far from each one of us. For “In him we live and move and have our being”; as even some of your own poets have said, “For we too are his offspring.” God is like the environment that we live in, which generates us, nourishes us and sustains us, and ultimately that which we become one with. Our lives are lived in the presence of God, like a fish lives its life surrounded by water.

The really beautiful thing about the omnipresence of God is that our hearts and minds conform to God, just like a creature’s behaviour conforms to the environment in which it lives. The fish has fins to swim around in the water and gills to take in the oxygen that is contained in its watery environment. Just like the fish’s body adapts to the water it lives in, so too do we adapt and change to thrive and live healthy and happy lives in God’s presence. We keep his commandments, we follow his ways, we respond to the love that he pours into our hearts. In this way, we are at home in God, and with God, who is everywhere, all the time.