Behold, You are there.

Psalm 139 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.
³ You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
⁵ You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,”
¹² Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

¹³ For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? ²² I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴ And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

The psalmist speaks of the comfort of recognizing that the God of creation is with him all the time and everywhere. God says:   “ Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”(Deuteronomy 31:6) and Jesus also promises: surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."(Matthew 28:20) The psalmist says: “ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.”   This wonderful knowledge that the God of all the universe thinks about and is concerned about all that we do brings to mind Jesus words concerning anxiety in Matthew 6:25-33.

 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? ²⁷ And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? ²⁸ And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, ²⁹ yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! ³¹ Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ ³² For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

What an awesome comfort knowing,   my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

There is though another side of the fact that God is omniscient and omnipresent. The psalmist says: “You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.  Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”  How then can we, who believe God, think that we can do things which are hidden from Him? It’s one thing for the atheist, the agnostic, the unbeliever to, in his folly believe that he can do whatever he wants apart from the knowledge of God. But for a believer, one who knows that God is intimately acquainted with ALL of his ways, how can we deceive ourselves thinking that what we hide from people is hidden from God? The psalmist says God even knows our words before we speak them.  He says: “ Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;  And see if there be any hurtful way in me,”  This too should be our attitude, since God knows every thought we should seek to be open and transparent before Him. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, Paul says:   

though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, ⁴ for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. ⁵ We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

Every deception we fall to begins in the battlefield of our mind. We need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. James 4:5-8 says:     Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

This brings to our attention one more thing the psalmist says. He asks:  “ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” The psalmist lived under the old covenant. The Spirit of God came upon men and abided with them. We though, under the new covenant in Christ, have the indwelling Spirit of God. In John 14:15-17, Jesus says:  “If you love Me, keep My commandments. ¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”  The psalmist recognizes that he cannot escape the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit. How can we foolishly think we can escape the knowledge of the indwelling presence of God? Or do we simply presume on God’s grace, thinking we can do what we want, taking the holy presence of God into unholy places?  Jesus spoke of sin against the Holy Spirit in Mark 3:28-29, saying:    "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin "     I am not saying that this is what Jesus was speaking of, but surely it should cause us to stop and think before we take God’s Holy Spirit and His Holy omnipresence into unholy place of our own choosing.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit of God, I join with the psalmist and pray:  You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it… I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well...  How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You… Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;  And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.     Amen.