Officially Memorial Day is a federal holiday to celebrate the heroes in the United States Armed Forces who died serving our country.
Unofficially many see this day as a start of summer and travel to different places with family.
It is a comfort to know that wherever we go this summer, God is always there with us.
The last time I wrote on March 14, 2024, we considered the first six verses of Psalm 139. This time I want to focus our attention to verses 7-12.
King David turns his attention to God’s omnipresence. In verse 7 he asks, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?”
David does not want to flee from God. That is not all what he has in his mind. He is thinking about what would be the case if a person should attempt it. We know this because David describes the universal presence of God in the next three verses.
Verse 8: “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” People think if they ascend to the highest point possible or if they descend to the lowest point possible, God cannot reach them. The Bible tells us that the heavens of heaven cannot contain God. The lowest point you can descend is Sheol [The place of the dead] also called hell, but God is there in hell too, punishing the unrepentant sinners.
The next thing people try to do to flee from God is to go either east or west. That’s what David says in verses 9 and 10: “If I take the wings of the morning (Dawn) and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. Even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” Dawn rises in the east and from David’s perspective in Israel the far side of the sea was west and so it’s from one horizon to another horizon. So, it is impossible to escape the presence of God by running to the east or fleeing to the west.
The final place where people think that they can get away from God is darkness. Verses 11 and 12: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night.’ Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
Psalm 18:11 says, “God made darkness his covering,” and Psalm 97:2 says, “Clouds and thick darkness are all around God.” God is there with you when you try to hide yourself in the darkness.
Take comfort, Christian, that God is with you everywhere. When you travel in your car to your workplace, God is with you. When you go to a different country for summer vacation, God is with you. Wherever you go, God’s hand shall lead you and his right hand shall uphold you.