Homilist Psalm 139:7-10 Where shall I go from your spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence?… : — Look at this language as used — I. By the SAGE The philosopher has asked a thousand times, is God everywhere? Or is there a district in immensity where He is not? Taking the language as his question, he assumes — 1. That He has a "presence," a personal existence: that He is as distinct from the universe as the musician from his music, as the painter from his pictures, as the soul from the body. 2. That His presence is detected as far as his observations extend. He discovers Him far up as the most powerful telescope can reach, and down in the most infinitesimal forms of life: and he concludes that He is present where the eye has never reached, and where the imagination has never travelled. II. By the SINNER. In the mouth of the sinner this language means — 1. Thy presence is an evil. His presence makes the hell of the damned. The rays of His effulgent purity are the flames in which corrupt spirits burn and writhe. 2. Escape from Thy presence is an impossibility. III. By the SAINT. In the impossibility of escape I rejoice; for "In Thy presence there is fulness of joy," etc. (Homilist.) 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? |
    |