THE INESCAPABLE (unavoidable) PRESENCE OF GOD
Psalm 139:1-6
1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
a) 1-6 His intimate relationship with God. A man after my own heart. A lesson for us all. Not because we are perfect beings but knowing we’re unworthy incapable people in the firm hands of a Worthy and most capable being
Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
b) In 7-12 We learn how the knowledge of his inescapable presence comforts and assures the believer
It is this assurance that led David to say
• Even though if I walk in the shadow of death…
• He prepares a table in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 25)
c) Alternatively, 7-12 also teaches The threatening aspect of God’s inescapable presence to the unbeliever and the backslider.
A. A life of deception; thinking nobody knows or cares:
For example:
o Genesis 4:8-10 Cain murders Abel in the bush.
o 2 Sam 11 David’s perfect scheming with Joab, leading to Uriah’s death and marrying Bathsheba…. “But the thing David had done displeased(W) the Lord.”
B. Living in denial of the existence of any God or any future accountability:
Reference The parable of the Rich fool in Luke 12:20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
It’s only the fool who’ll say in his heart, THERE IS NO GOD (Psalm 14:1; 53:1)
