Where can I hide from God?

Psalm 139:7-12

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say "Surely the darkness shall fall on me", even the night shall be light about me; indeed the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and light are both alike to You

Where can I go from your Spirit: The Hebrew word used for “go” is yalak, which means to depart from or go away from. Basically this sentence is questioning the remote possibility of abandoning the Spirit.

Where can I flee from your presence: Is there anyway possible that one can possibly flee from the presence of God? In the true reality of things, we are always in his presence.

If I ascend into heaven, You are there: If I rise up, worship and pray, he is there.

If I make my bed in hell, behold You are there: To make one’s bed in a place suggests to make a place of rest, a place of comfort. Sheol, which is translated hell, is technically the underworld, the grave or place designated for the dead. Figuratively, it is a place of dead things, a place of separation from life. So even when we choose to find comfort or escape in dead works or things, even then, God is there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall hold me: The surface meaning of this is if we decide to take flight and flee to some far place of isolation – if we isolate and seclude ourselves, far away and siconnected from everyone, even in our place of isolation, God’s right hand (the expression of his power, strength, influence) will show up and lead us. Actually the Hebrew word translated into hold is achaz, which means to grasp, to take possession of, to seize. In that secluded/isolated/disconnected place we flee to, even there God shows up and grasps us.

If I say surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me: Darkness is choshek  which figuratively means destruction, misery, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness. And “fall on me” is from the word shuph, which means to bruise, crush, overwhelm. So if I somehow self talk to myself and conclude my destiny is one of misery, sorrow, ignorance, etc and it has overwhelmed me and I am helpless in it, even this adversity of night will be influenced by light.

Indeed the darkness shall not hide from you: Nothing can separate you from God. This is an awe inspiring revelation, because we are often taught that as long as you do right, you find favor with God. Once you do wrong, you are separated. Some say our sin separates and hides us. This almost suggests God is this sensitive and impotent being handicapped and limited by our actions. He is the Great I Am who creates and defines everything that is, how can he be handicapped by the fickle actions of what he created? Apostle Paul caught this same revelation in Romans 8:35. When you know the Sovereignty of God, his predestined covenant plan with you, you begin to understand that nothing in creation, not even your sins can separate or hide you from God.

But the night shines as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to you: He is God. No situation can impede or stop him from doing what he intends, especially when he already knew the end from the very beginning. And our relationship with him is based on faith through Christ, not ourselves. Night time in our lives might as well be daytime to him, because neither separates you from him

I am amazed how King David was able to grasp such a revelation of God in the Old Testament, when us New Testament Christians living under grace cant even begin to conceive of this.