Verse of the Day Devotion: Psalm 139:7
“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” – Psalm 139:7
What the psalmist David is bringing up here is regarding a place where God is not. He brings this idea up in the form of two questions. The first starts with where can I go, and the other starts with where can I flee. Let look at the which speak of God’s greatness.
God knows everything about us. “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.” Psalm 139:1-3. David is saying here there is nothing God does not know about us. We cannot hide anything from Him, for as He says, He is ‘intimately’ acquainted with our ways. There is nowhere we can go where His Spirit is not there as well. There are many verses which state this. “Am I a God who is near, declares the LORD, And not a God far off? Can a man hide himself in hiding places, so I do not see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 23:23-24. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good.” Proverbs 15:3. And finally what God spoke to Joshua. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
Continuing with verses prior to our focus. “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.” Psalm 139:4-6. God knows everything we will say or do before we have even thought about it. His knowledge is so much above us, so thorough, so complete that it is beyond us to understand it let alone attain it.
Our focus verse should give us, who are Christians, great peace and contentment, for it declares there is nowhere He is not. God loves us beyond our understanding. “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” Says the LORD who has compassion on you.” Isaiah 54:10. And because His love for us is infinite, and He knows everything about everything, what can truly harm us? And if we have an all-powerful, all knowing, and everywhere present God that protects us, why should we ever be afraid?
William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries, Inc.