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I. INFINITE KNOWLEDGE. If a being is perfectly acquainted with me — if he knows all I do, and all I say, and all I think — he is, in an eminent sense, present with me. In this sense God is everywhere present; there is nothing hidden, nothing concealed from Him.

II. DIRECT, CONSTANT, AND UNIVERSAL AGENCY. Wherever a being immediately operates, there He is present. When God created the world out of nothing, He was present at its production: but the same power is requisite to sustain, as to create, the universe. If we imagine the lights of heaven to exist and move, and the processes of nature to be carried on by the laws of this Creator, yet let it be remembered, that there is no binding power in law; it is only the ordinary rule by which creative energy and power sustains the world, and the works He has formed. Thus it is with God's power in the laws of nature, not simply by ordination or by appointment, but by a perpetual impartation of mighty energy, which, if for a moment withheld, the world would cease to be. And He is not only employed in preserving His works, but, as far as our knowledge extends, He is perpetually calling new beings into existence and terminating the present condition of others. Both are perpetually passing the opposite barriers of life — entering into existence, and passing out of it: but neither event transpires without the immediate presence of God.

III. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS PURPOSES. The world was created for His glory: but if on its production he had retired from it, only sustaining it in being, we might have seen His power in creation; but His wisdom, His might, His goodness in the works of providence, would not have been displayed. But He governs the world which He has made, and His supremacy is so complete that nothing happens without His permission; and every purpose of the Eternal Mind will he fully and perfectly accomplished. "The purpose of the Lord shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure." To accomplish these objects He must be everywhere present; not only acquainted with external events, but with the thoughts and the intents of the human heart.

1. The grandeur and the incomprehensibility of Jehovah.

2. The nature of all true religion. All religion is founded on correct views of the Deity; it is the state, the habit of mind, which accords with our relation to God and His perfections. If, therefore, God be a Spirit, and by reason of His spiritual nature is everywhere present, then He must be worshipped in spirit and in truth; that is, in sincerity and with the heart.

3. Religion is a habit of mind. It consists not in isolated acts of worship; not in our regular attendance on the Sabbath in the house of prayer: but the conviction that God seeth us at all times should make us religious in all places.

4. Our subject is full of consolation to the good man. Oh, it is a delightful and cheering thought, that my heavenly Father is never absent from me.

5. However forgotten and contemned may be the doctrine of God's omnipresence, it is an awful truth to ungodly men.

(S. Summers.)

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KJV: Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?

WEB: Am I a God at hand, says Yahweh, and not a God afar off?