If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. —Psalm 139:9-10
King David takes up a poetic pen to answer the question he himself poses in verse 7 of Psalm 139, “Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”
He leads us to join him in trying to escape the presence of Almighty God by riding the wings of the morning as it arcs and catapults into the heavens and circles the hemisphere where he lives. As he clings to the pinions of light and observes all that he passes, he discovers amazing truths; that no matter where he finds himself, God’s Spirit is there, and that God’s presence, His glorious light, dispels all darkness! And as he travels from the eastern sunrise to the western sunset, he sees God literally everywhere! David finds no place anywhere, where God is not present.
As evening descends, David slips from the safety of the light into the terrifying depths of the darkest sea where he cannot survive on his own. He discovers the most amazing truth in his terror. Even there, in that wild, ferocious, deadly place, God’s Spirit surrounds him! And more—that God’s Spirit is there for him, to guide him, to hold him. He will not have to face death alone. Indeed, God is able to deliver him from the darkness and death and save him.
There is an excellent summary of David’s poetry in our verses found in Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary: It says this, “The point is clear, there is no place so high, so deep, so far, or so near that the servant of the Lord might find that there is a distance from God.”
From morning until evening, from east to west, from light to darkness, from birth to death, David cannot escape God. Nor can we! And what child of God wants to escape the God who is always there, who is always everywhere? He is an omnipresent Spirit. Don’t you find endless comfort in the knowledge that since He is everywhere, He has gone before us in every experience that will come to us in this life? That He walks before us and waits for us in every place to help us, to hold us, to guide us?
Such greatness, such power, and such love and commitment to His human children! I bow in worship to such a mighty, amazing God, and I thank and give praises to Him for His love and His guiding and His holding on to each one of us!
Oh, blessed thought —God is everywhere, all the time! There is no distance from God for His own.
For Reflection
How does each verse relate to God’s being everywhere?
Proverbs 8:24b – “There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Matthew 28:b – “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Hebrews 13:5 – “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”