Lead me in the everlasting way.

Psalm 139 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.

For many the response to a God who is omniscient and omnipresent is that because with their finite minds, they cannot comprehend and infinite God, instead they doubt or deny Him. Or at the very least they create a god that fits their limited, finite understanding. They make a god in their own image, defining who he is by what they know and understand. The psalmist says:  O Lord, You have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 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. 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.   That the knowledge of God’s omniscience and omnipresence, His eternal and infinite character is beyond comprehension does not change the psalmist’s view of God. Rather the psalmist is changed by what he believes and knows about God.  

The psalmist says:  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, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.   First, we should understand what the psalmist knows and understands about God when he says darkness and light are alike to You. It is not that there is no difference between dark and light. God Himself says in Isaiah 5:20: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. There is a distinct and discernable difference between darkness and light and there is a consequence for those who try to interchange them. What the psalmist knows and understands, is what 1 John 1:5 says:  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.  Verses 6-7 say:  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.   If we then choose to walk in darkness, in sin and evil or even in bitterness, we walk apart from God. The psalmist says: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence.   The answer is of course nowhere. There is nowhere we can go, nothing we can do that is beyond the presence, the sight and the knowledge of God.

The psalmist says:  You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;  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. 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.  Like the psalmist we should recognize that we are part of the wonderful works of God. More wonderful than the most majestic mountain, more beautiful than a pristine lake, more marvelous in the sight of God than the stars in the heavens, are each one of us; fearfully and wonderfully made, formed and created by God, in His image and likeness.  

The psalmist closes saying:  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.   Knowing and understanding the omniscience, the omnipresence, the eternal and infinite character of God, the psalmist determines that he will submit himself fully. He asks God to lead him, to show him His way. As 1 John 1:7 says:  If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.   God is well aware of any and all evil that is in us. He knows the darkness we embrace, even in our thoughts, and so He gave us Jesus, who died for our sin. Jesus who says in John 8:12:  “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”   We can lie to ourselves and say we have no sin. We can believe the lie that there is no God, or like the psalmist we can submit to the omniscient, omnipresent, eternal; infinite God and say:  

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.   Cleanse me from my sin, by the blood of Christ and fill me with Your Spirit that I may walk in the light; in Your everlasting way. Amen.