Where Can I Go?

As we continue this series from the 139th Psalm, let’s turn to today’s text:

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.

For 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, as yet there was not one of them.

Last week, we saw that God not only searches and probes us, but that He also searches FOR us. So, while some ask themselves, “Who am I?” and, “Do I matter?” the Christian – the one who seeks Christ in ongoing confession and repentance – the Christian is confident that he or she is beloved by God, and that he or she MATTERS to God.

Although we also looked at these verses last time: “[Lord]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 want to take a few minutes to revisit them and to emphasize them because of their significance.

It is the Almighty God who encloses us. He encircles us. He presses Himself around us on every side. No wonder David couldn’t fathom the ever-present PRESENCE of the Lord. Who is able to fathom it? To comprehend it? And when we take the time to HUMBLY consider that this Almighty God who – by merely speaking it – brought the universe into existence from nothing, when we consider this ineffable Being, His passion and compassion and mercy and grace toward you and me, we who deserve nothing else but His wrath – who can understand a God like that?

Let me repeat that for emphasis: When we ponder the inexpressible wonder of this ineffable Being, His passion, compassion, mercy, patience and grace toward you and me – we who deserve nothing but His wrath – who can understand a God like that?

One of Job’s so-called ‘friends’ got it right when he said: (Job 11:7-9) “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.”

In the 5th century, St Patrick wrote a poem that captures the essence of this text in Psalm 139. Part of the poem reads this way: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise.”

In other words, as the psalmist tells us: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them (Psalm 34:7).

It isn’t possible to overemphasize this point about our God and Creator whom Christians – and only Christians – have the right to call God our beloved Father (see John 1:11-13); It isn’t possible to overstate the point.

You might remember the story of Elisha and his servant when they were in Dothan. The Syrian king was at war with Israel, and Elisha – the disciple of Elijah – was at the top of his list of enemies. When the king learned Elisha was staying in Dothan, he sent his army to surround the city. We pick up the story in 2 Kings 6:15 --

“Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

God’s mighty and holy angels surround you and me. Right now, as you sit in your pews. They surround you as you walk through your day. As you sleep through the night. God’s supernatural angels never leave your side, their swords unsheathed, their eyes watchful, their ears attentive, each sent by our Father and Creator of all things visible and invisible, sent to protect us.

Now, let’s return to our psalm as David continues: 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. (Psalm 139:7-12)

David asked a rhetorical question: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” In other words, where can anyone hide from – or flee from – God’s presence?

David knew the answer even as he asked the question. There is no place on earth, under the earth, or, for that matter, anywhere in the universe where we can hide from or flee from God. He is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at the same time.

But though he knew the answer to the question he’d just asked, there have always been, and will continue to be, many who try to hide from or run from God. I know people like that. And you probably do too. But why would anyone try to hide from, or run, from God?

I can think of at least two reasons. First: Many people think God is always standing at the edge of His throne just waiting for us to mess up so He can throw down a lightning bolt and teach us a lesson. That’s not so far-fetched as some might think. I’ve heard people joke about Baptist guilt, or Jewish guilt, or Catholic guilt – or whatever is your preferred label. But as fourteenth century poet and writer, Gregory Chaucer noted: “Many a truth is said in jest.”

No! God is absolutely NOT looking for a reason to strike us down. That idea is not only tragic, but also demonstrably false. John 3:16 should immediately come to mind. And what more evidence of God’s love, mercy, and grace can there be beyond Calavry’s cross?

So, certainly one reason some people try to hide from God is because they incorrectly believe Him to be arrogantly cruel and uncaring – not too unlike some of the mythological gods of the Amorites, the Canaanites, or the Greek and Roman gods.

But there is another reason some try to hide from or flee from God, and that has to do with their own sin. They think if they can hide from God they won’t have to adjust their lifestyles. So, they hide behind such things as ‘intellectualism’ trying to ‘reason’ themselves into agnosticism, or atheism. And they flock to provably false ideas of evolution, or new-age psychological babble. Some even behind religious rituals, thinking if they cover themselves with such things to appease the Holy God, then they won’t have to actually live according to God’s commandments.  

Let me make this clear before I move to the next point in my message – God is love. He is merciful. He is a compassionate Father. He gave His Son to bear the full weight of His wrath against OUR sins.

But make no mistake. God commands us to be clothed by faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and to live holy lives nourished by confession and repentance. We should all pay heed to what St Paul wrote to those in Rome: (Romans 2:4) “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Now, look with me again to what the psalmist wrote: “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.”

Let me pause a moment and talk about darkness – not a literal darkness as when the sun goes down, but an emotional darkness, when life has taken a tragic turn and we feel as if we should clothe ourselves in sackcloth and sit on a pile of ashes.

But Jesus gave us an immutable promise to never leave us. Indeed, Scripture tells us He embraces us in our darkness. He hugs us close to His chest – so to speak – even when the overwhelming darkness in our soul makes us insensitive to His touch and we’re too tired to even think about God’s matchless love for us.

Yes, such knowledge might be too high for our finite minds to comprehend such love – but we ought not walk by sight or by feelings. We ought to walk by faith.

Well, let’s continue with this psalm at verse 13. I like the way the New Living Translation renders the text:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (verses 13-16)

Oh, I hope you heard that with your heart as well as with your ears. Our loving God knit us together in our mother’s womb. And God knew every moment of our life even before we were conceived.

Speaking of conceived, let me give you a quick lesson in embryology that illustrates my point about God’s intimate love and the SPECIFIC attention He gives to each of us.

Depending on the research article you read, did you know that when your father had intercourse with your mother, he ejaculated between 100 million and 500 million sperm? But for the sake of easy numbers, let’s go with the lower amount – 100 million sperm in each ejaculate. And each one has its own unique DNA structure. Your mother, on the other hand, ovulated each month usually only one ova. Each ova had its own unique DNA structure.

DNA is responsible for each of the countless biological processes in our bodies that were determined – at conception – what will be our gender, our general physical characteristics, our natural intelligence and talents, our health, our abilities and disabilities. All of it was determined at our conception.

We also know from the science of embryology, all 100 million of your father’s sperm were trying to fertilize your mother’s ova, but only ONE of them was successful. Let me repeat that: Only one sperm – with its individualized and unique DNA structure, different from every other one of the 100 million sperm – only one got there – the one sperm, joined to your mother’s unique ova – they together became YOU.

Have you heard the expression, “You’re one in a million”? Well, let me tell you what the science says: You are really one in one hundred million – that is, you are one in a hundred million possibilities. 

And God was not only there when it all happened, the psalmist – who knew even less than nothing about the science of embryology – the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us God DIRECTED it all as it happened. God chose the one sperm and the one ova to join together to become YOU.

And remember: God never makes mistakes. And God never makes junk. That means YOU are not a mistake. You are not junk. God’s hand was purposely and deliberately at work in your creation and formation in your mother’s womb. Does that truth help us understand what a grievous affront it is to our Creator when we willfully destroy that life through elective abortion? Is it not an affront to Almighty God that we destroy the life He is actively forming?

Oh, God help us. God forgive us. God change us.

Our God surrounds us, encompasses us, holds us to Himself. There is no place on earth, under the earth, or in the universe itself where anyone can hide from Him or run from Him. And it is THIS omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent eternal Being who loves you . . . loves you like the Rock of Ages. He loves you so much – even though we cannot ever hope to fathom His love – He loves you so much that He gave His only Son to be your sacrificial atonement to wash away completely even the shadowing stains of your sins and mine.

No wonder David continues in the next verses – and we will look at then next week – no wonder he 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.

So, how then ought we to live, knowing even as much as we know about such love? I’ll leave you to ponder that question for yourself.

Next week we’ll move further into this precious Psalm.