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Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in bell, behold, thou art there, etc.

I. GOD IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE. Let us try to fill ourselves with this great thought.

1. God is in heaven. There have been atheists on earth - fools who have said in their hearts that there is no God. Let me tell you what an atheist is like. He is like a man going to hear an oratorio - the 'Messiah' or the 'Elijah' - performed by a hundred musicians, and who says that all those wonderful harmonies that intoxicate the soul were not previously arranged and designed by Handel or Mendelssohn, but were the accidental result of those hundred men playing at random upon a hundred instruments. But if an atheist could be taken to heaven, he would be an atheist no longer. He would be overpowered with the proofs, not only of God's existence, but with the tokens of his presence. What and to whom are those mighty hymns the angels sing? Who commands those mighty works which they perform? Not a God whose existence is argued out or doubtfully apprehended. Why has the city no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it? Because the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof. Why is there no temple? Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it. The throne of God and of the Lamb is in it; and his servants serve him, and they see his face, and his Name is in their foreheads.

2. God is in hell - Sheol, Hades. The devils believe in God, and tremble. There are no atheists in hell. God will be felt in the consciences of lost spirits. This is one of the most powerful ways of feeling God's presence. Hell is the carrying out of the Divine law. The Law-giver is known in the carrying out of his law. As in a jail the power of the state is felt.

3. God is in every part of this world. The meaning of the text is that God is in the most distant, even the uninhabited, places of the earth. The thought of the psalmist was that God could be found amongst the solitudes of nature. And it is not in crowded cities that we can most strongly feel the presence of God. On the sea, on the mountain-top, down in deep glens and valleys, in the morning or at midnight, studying the smallest or sublimest of God's works. But God is to be found amongst men, only so often face to face with the devil. Go on the Exchange, into the street, into the gin-palace, and there the world seems without a God, or without a God that cares for it. But go into that sick-room where the Christian is dying, or into that closet where the saint is wrestling with God, or where a sorrowing mother is pouring out a broken heart before God over a profligate son or daughter, or into that family where there is a daily altar before which all devoutly kneel, or glance into the dark cell of the prisoner, and you exclaim, "The darkness hideth not from thee."

II. THE RELATION OF THIS TRUTH TO SEVERAL CLASSES OF MEN.

1. To those who wish to escape from God. "Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down." In no part of any world can you fly from him. If, therefore, you cannot fly from him, there are two things which you may try to do - either to make yourself blind and deaf and dead to his presence; or to awake up more intensely to him, and welcome his presence. The former you cannot do forever; the latter you might do.

2. To those who depend upon God for support. "If I take the wings of the morning... even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." God is present everywhere, not only to judge the wicked, but to reward the righteous. The Bible tells me I have begun a very long journey; that I shall often become footsore and weary, often miss my way; but also that God will be with me; that as my day is so my strength shall be; that "they that wait upon the Lord," etc. It tells me that I shall die; that I must go into a far-distant country which eye hath not seen.

3. To those who are seeking the everlasting way. There are many ways leading to honor, pleasure, wealth, but none of them is the everlasting way. We are guided in them and to them by false lights which will go out and leave us in darkness. But God is always present, and he can light us and guide us into the one everlasting way. He is a Lamp and a Guide.

"Nearer, my God, to thee!...
E'en though it be a cross
That raiseth me;
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee." If God could or would come to me only at times, what should I often do? - S.

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Parallel Verses

KJV: Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

WEB: Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?