Psalm 139 Part 10
Psalm 139:8-10 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.
David is really driving home the point that God is omnipresent (He is everywhere).
Have you ever tried to run from God?
How did that go for you?
David had many high and low moments in his life. Many times he fled to hide from enemy attacks but I bet there were times he wanted to hide from God too.
{Like that one time with Bathsheba… just saying}. (2 Samuel 11).
This part of the Psalm 139 almost makes me wonder if he wrote this after he knowingly sinned with Bathsheba and a part of him desperately wanted to hide from God himself.
How many times do we try to take control of our own lives?
Do things our way?
How many times do we fail?
Does it make you want to run back to the loving arms of the Father or do you want to hide in shame?
For me, it can be a weekly or evenly daily realization that I really shouldn’t be in control of my own life. As I grow closer to Jesus, I do become more aware of what God is doing and give up more and more control to Him. My screw ups don’t seem to be as catastrophic and I can see that there is nothing I can do that God won’t forgive me of and welcome me back with loving open arms.
I think David had also tried to run and hide from God and now from his own experience he’s telling us…It’s not going to work, there is no where you can go that God will not be there.
There is nowhere we can go to escape the love of God. “If I ascend to heaven”…well of course God is there.
Some early translations suggest that the word was “heavens” referring to the sky.
If I could fly up amid the clouds, I still wouldn’t be far from God, He would find me there.
Then David goes the complete opposite direction, “If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there!” Sheol is the Hebrew term for Hell. It can also be the resting place for those that will be thrown into Hell after the day of judgement.
There is much scholarly discussion on wither David meant when he lies in the ground dead or if he tried to hide himself in the depths of the earth. Literally saying, if I go to Hell, there You are. Any way you look at it, God is omnipresent.
When we die and meet Him face to face, either before entering eternal life or the final judgement before being thrown into “Sheol”. Either ascending into Heaven or making our bed in Sheol…God is there.
One commentary I read on this passage really made think. I had always felt that there would be no knowledge of Jesus in Hell, because if someone remembered Jesus, then they would still have hope and I don’t think there will be in any hope in Hell.
I never thought about the omnipresence of God and that His presence would be there still. God may be present but its only to pour out His wrath will be poured out on Satan and his followers and all those who deny Jesus on earth.
What a contradicting thought…we don’t normally put God and Hell together…that’s the place where Satan belongs…but God did create Hell (or will create it).
Mmmmm…makes ya think, unh?
Ok, back to the subject at hand.
GOD IS EVERYWHERE!
If we try to outrun the day, “take wings of the morning”, then God would still find us. If we “dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea”, God would be there.
In David’s world, chasing the sun would represent the farthest East one could go and the sea was the farthest west they believed they could go.
He wrote in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He (God) remove our transgressions from us.”
How amazing is that?
We try to run from God to the east and He is throwing our sins all the way to the west, where it can never be found.
That is what God’s forgiveness does for us!
David shows us this love of the Father, here at the end of this passage, “Your hand shall lead me and Your right hand shall hold me up.” Even when we try to run from God, He is leading us.
When we fall, He is there to hold us up…even when we hit rock bottom we find ourselves square in the middle of God’s uplifting right hand.
The things we run to in this world and places we try to hide would not do that for you, ONLY GOD CAN!
Thinking Deeper:
Where have you tried to run to?
Where do you hide when you give into temptation?
Have you ever found peace in those places?
Do you have peace right now?
Take a moment in prayer and examine where you are with God. If you want to be closer to Him or even back in His loving arms then repent and seek Him first.
