Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139:7
After an officer searched me, I stepped into the county jail, signed the visitor’s log, and sat in the crowded lobby. I prayed silently, watching adults fidgeting and sighing while young children complained about the wait. Over an hour later, an armed guard called a list of names including mine. He led my group into a room and motioned us to our assigned chairs. When my stepson sat in the chair on the other side of the thick glass window and picked up the telephone receiver, the depth of my helplessness overwhelmed me. But as I wept, God assured me that my stepson was still within His reach.
In Psalm 139, David says to God, “You know me. . . ; you are familiar with all my ways” (vv. 1–3). His proclamation of an all-knowing God leads to a celebration of His intimate care and protection (v. 5). Overwhelmed by the vastness of God’s knowledge and the depth of His personal touch, David asks two rhetorical questions: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7).
When we or our loved ones are stuck in situations that leave us feeling hopeless and helpless, God’s hand remains strong and steady. Even when we believe we’ve strayed too far for His loving redemption, we’re always within His reach.
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
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.
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.
INSIGHT
- How has knowing the vastness of God’s extensive reach affected your faith?
- How has He comforted you during a time when you felt hopeless and helpless?
God knows His people personally and intimately. This truth is evident in David’s words in Psalm 139. He says God created our “inmost being” (v. 13) and “all the days ordained for [us] were written in [His] book before one of them came to be” (v. 16). The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah affirmed this truth (Isaiah 49:5; Jeremiah 1:5). Later, Jesus declared, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14). In fact, He’s numbered the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30)! The apostle Paul wrote, we “are God’s temple and . . . God’s Spirit dwells in [us]” (1 Corinthians 3:16). And he added, “Whoever loves God is known by God” (8:3). The best news is that He loved us first (1 John 4:19).
PRAYER
Loving Father, help me to remember that You’re always willing and able to reach me and my loved ones. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen!!
Read: PSALM 139:1-12 (NIV) | Bible in a Year: 2 CHRONICLES 19-20; JOHN 13:21-38
