Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:7
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
7. The power and presence of God are universal. The Psalmist’s question does not imply that he wishes to escape from God, but that escape would be impossible if he wished it. The ‘spirit of Jehovah’ in the O.T. is “the living energy of a personal God” (see Swete in Hastings’ Bible Dict. ii. p. 404): His ‘presence’ (lit. countenance) is His personal manifestation of Himself in relation to men. See Oehler, Theology of O.T. i. 57. Cp. Exo 33:14-15; Jon 1:3; Jon 1:10; Isa 63:9-10; Wis 1:7 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7 12. God is everywhere present: man cannot escape or hide himself.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? – Where shall I go where thy spirit is not; that is, where thou art not; where there is no God. The word spirit here does not refer particularly to the Holy Spirit, but to God as a spirit. Whither shall I go from the all-pervading Spirit – from God, considered as a spirit? This is a clear statement that God is a Spirit (compare Joh 4:24); and that, as a spirit, he is Omnipresent.
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? – Hebrew, From his face; that is, where he will not be, and will not see me. I cannot find a place – a spot in the universe, where there is not a God, and the same God. Fearful thought to those that hate him – that, much as they may wish or desire it, they can never find a place where there is not a holy God! Comforting to those that love him – that they will never be where they may not find a God – their God; that nowhere, at home or abroad, on land or on the ocean, on earth or above the stars, they will ever reach a world where they will not be in the presence of that God – that gracious Father – who can defend, comfort, guide, and sustain them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 139:7-10
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
The omnipresence of God
I. Lay down some positions.
1. God is intimately and essentially in all parts and places of the world. One of the heathen, being asked to give a description of what God was, tells us most admirably, God is a sphere, whose centre is every-where, and whose circumference is nowhere: a raised apprehension of the Divine nature in a heathen! And another, being demanded what God was, made answer, that God is an Infinite Point; than which nothing can be said more (almost) or truer, to declare this omnipresence of God. It is reported of Heraclitus the philosopher, when his friend came to visit him, being in an old rotten hovel, Come in, come in, saith he, for God is here. God is in the meanest cottage as well as in the stateliest palace; for God is everywhere present and sees all things.
2. God is not only present in the world, but He is infinitely existent also without the world, and beyond all things but Himself (1Ki 8:27; Isa 66:1-2).
3. As God exists everywhere, so all and whole God exists everywhere, because God is indivisible.
II. Rational demonstrations.
1. God is present everywhere.
(1) From His unchangeableness.
(2) From His preservation of all things in their beings.
2. But God exists not only in the world, but infinitely beyond the world also.
(1) From the infiniteness of His nature and essence.
(2) From the infiniteness of His perfections.
(3) From His almighty power.
(4) From His eternity.
III. Answer some objections.
1. These places which speak of going to, and departing from, places, seem to oppose Gods ubiquity, because motion is inconsistent with Gods omnipresence (Gen 18:21; Hab 3:3). I answer: These and the like Scriptures are not to be taken literally, but as accommodate to cur capacity and conception, even as parents, when they speak to their little children, will sometimes lisp and babble in their language; so God oftentimes condescends to us in speaking our language for the declaring of those things which are far above cur reach.
2. The Scripture tells us that hereafter in heaven we shall see God as He is: but is not that impossible? I answer, Such Scriptures are not to be understood as if the capacities of angels, much less of men, are, or ever shall be, wide and capacious enough to contain the infinite greatness of God. No, His omnipresence is not comprehended by angels themselves, nor shall be by man for ever; but it must be understood comparatively. Our vision and sight of God here is but through a glass darkly; but in heaven it shall be with so much more brightness and clearness that, in comparison of the obscure and glimmering way whereby we know God here, it may be called a seeing of Him face to face, and knowing Him as we are known by Him.
3. It may seem no small disparagement to God to be everywhere present. What! for the glorious majesty of God to be present in such vile and filthy places as are here upon earth? To this I answer–
(1) God doth not think it any disparagement to Him, nor think it unworthy of Him, to know and make all these which we call vile and filthy places; why, then, should we think it unworthy of Him to be present there?
(2) God is a Spirit, and is not capable of any pollution or defilement from any vile or filthy things. The sunbeams are no more tainted by shining on a dunghill than they are by shining on a bed of spices.
(3) The vilest things that are have still a being that is good in their own kind, and as well pleasing to God as those things which we put a greater value and esteem upon.
(4) It reflects no more dishonour upon God to be present with the vilest creatures than to be present with the noblest and highest, because the angels are at an infinite distance from God. There is a greater disproportion between God and the angels than there is between the vilest worm and an angel; all are at an infinite distance to His glory and majesty.
IV. Application.
1. Is God thus infinitely present everywhere, and thus in and with all His creatures, then what an encouragement is here unto prayer. The voice in prayer is necessary–
(1) As it is that which God requires should be employed in His service, for this is the great end why our tongues were given to us, that by them we might bless and serve God (Jam 3:9).
(2) When in private it may be a help and means to raise up our own affections and devotions, then the voice is requisite, keeping it still within the bounds of decency or privacy.
(3) In our joining also with others, it is a help likewise to raise and quicken their affections; otherwise, were it not for these three reasons, the voice is no more necessary to make known our wants to God than it is to make them known to our own hearts; for God is always in us and with us, and knows what we have need of before we ask it.
2. As the consideration of Gods omnipresence should encourage us in prayer, as knowing that God certainly hears us, so it should affect us with a holy awe and reverence of God in all our prayers and duties, and in the whole course of our lives and conversations. Certainly it is an excellent meditation to prepare our hearts to duty, and to compose them in duty, to be much pondering the omnipresence of God, to think that I am with God, He is present in the room with me, even in the congregation with me, and likewise in my closet, and in all my converse and dealings in the world. How can it be possible for that man to be frothy and vain that keeps this thought alive in his heart? (Bishop Hopkins.)
Omnipresence of God
I. The important truth which is here set forth.
II. The striking and emphatic manner in which this great truth is here presented (verse 7).
III. The effects which the contemplation of this sublime theme should produce.
1. Let the believer draw from it the consolation which it is so peculiarly adapted to impart. Fear not, for I am with you.
2. The omnipresence of God is adapted also to admonish.
3. This subject is full of terror to the ungodly. (Expository Outlines.)
The encompassing, all-pervading God
This psalm is as near an approach to Pantheism as the Bible ever gets; yet it is wholly distinct from Pantheism. It does not make everything a part of God, but insists that God is in everything and every place. The writer feels Him in every movement of the circling air, and hears Him in every sound. God is here, and there, and everywhere, in the heights and in the depths, in the darkness and the light, filling all star-lit spaces and searching each human heart.
I. The spirit and presence which no man can escape. It is a bit of his own story. He had not always found peace and joy in the overshadowing of Divine love. There had been a load upon his conscience, and torturing guilt in his heart. He had endeavoured to run away from the wrath which his sin had provoked, from the unsleeping justice which pursued him, from the witness of God in his own reproaching conscience. He had tried to silence the rebuking voice, to quiet the disturbing fears, to forget his own thoughts and hide himself from himself. And the effort had been vain, impotent, impossible. Everywhere he heard the still small voice, and felt the Unseen Presence. Everywhere God makes Himself felt by men, in kindness, if possible, and if not, then in wrath. Men must believe in Him; they cannot help it. Kill their religion a hundred times, and it has a hundred resurrections. It is in all men. It is the fire which never goes quite out. Atheism is never more than a wave on the sea of humanity, which rises, falls, and quickly disappears. God will not let Himself be denied and forgotten. He speaks in too many voices for that; through nature and conscience, sins, penalties, and guilty terrors; through lifes changes, uncertainties, sorrows, and misfortunes; through pain, and death, and human gladness, and human mystery; through returning seasons and unerring laws; through the works of righteousness and the wages of iniquity, He is ever about us. His presence is in every heart, and He laughs at the folly which thinks to escape Him.
II. Rest and confidence and joy which His Spirit and presence give to those who recognize Him every-where, and walk in His light and love. If a man aspires after goodness, he will wish to be always near the one Source of goodness. If he is making a brave fight against his sins, he will always want to feel the mighty hand upon him from which alone comes victory; and if he is worn and worried with the dark problems and mysteries of life, nothing will satisfy him but the thought that Divine light and wisdom are moving and working in all that darkness. Get to feel that His light and wisdom are everywhere, that His love, pity, and forbearance are everywhere, that His providential care is everywhere, that His ear is everywhere open to your prayers, and His mercy is everywhere on the wing to bring you answers, and then your remotest thought will be how you can escape Him. Your every-day cry will be, Come nearer, make Thyself felt. Compass me about, hold me fast. It is the all-pervading presence of God that makes life bearable to him, and the one thing which makes the Christian life possible. If God were not in your place of business your hearts would grow hard as nails. If God were not in your homes your sweetest affections would become stale and sour. If God were not in your places of temptation you would never enter them without falling. If the Spirit of God did not visit you in the thronging streets and the giddy world you would degenerate into coarse worldliness. If He were not everywhere, painting Himself afresh on your hearts and minds, you would lose all sense of His beauty. If He were absent from your scenes of sorrow, if you did not feel His hand holding yours in hours of pain, and by the death-bed side, you would be overcome with fear or die of heart-break. We live because He lives everywhere. We hope because He revives His promises in us everywhere. (J. O. Greenhough, M. A.)
The cry of the sage, the sinner, and the saint
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.)
The omnipresent God
I. God in all modes of personal existence. These are all covered by the contrast between heaven and hell, than which no words would suggest a completer contrast to every thoughtful Hebrew. Heaven was the scene of the highest personal activity; it was the abode of Him with whom was the fountain of life; there dwelt cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, all rejoicing in the highest exercise of thought and the noblest powers of service. Hell–or the grave, the place of the dead–was the end of thought, the cessation of employment, the abode of silence and corruption. And yet, dark and lonesome as was the thought of dying, there was this one ray of comfort in the prospect–that death was of Gods appointment; as much as the heaven of His own abode, it was beneath the rule of God. There are times when to us, too, there is unspeakable rest in the assurance that God is in the appointment of death as truly, though not as clearly, as He is in His own heaven. How many who dreaded the desolation of bereavement have found that God is there. They are not alone, for the Father, the Saviour, the Comforter, is with them; the discipline of bereavement is as Divine as the sweeter training of companionship. Did we but see what noble issues have been wrought for men by death; how it has refined affection and chastened passion, and given scope to patience, and cultured hope; how it has surrounded mens pathway with angels, and breathed a saintlier spirit into common lives; we should gain a nobler vision than before of the presence and meaning of God in death.
II. God in the yet untrodden ways of human history. The ninth verse gives us an image of the psalmist, standing by the sea-shore, watching as the rising sun broadens the horizon, and brings into view an islet here and there, which, by catching the sight, serves but to lengthen still more the indefinite expanse beyond. The fancy is suggested, half of longing, half of dread, what would it be to fly until he reached the point where now the farthest ray is resting, to gaze upon a sea still shoreless, or to land in an unknown region and find himself a solitary there? But he is not daunted by the vision; one presence would still be with him. Vast as the world may be, it is contained within the vaster God; his fancy cannot wander where he would be unguarded and unled. He still could worship; he still could rest. How wonderfully history confirms faith. The lands towards which the psalmist strained his wondering vision have come at length into the record of civilization. Even while he was musing God was preparing the countries in which, in due time, the Gospel was to develop, and the races by whom it should be spread. Could he now take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, he would find God here, revealed in the progress of Christendom, and the force of Western civilization. When Christ sent the apostles on their untrodden way He gave them a blank page on which to write their history. He did not reveal to them the times and the seasons; He only assured them that wherever they went He was with them. All was obscure except their faith that, as seed will grow, and leaven will spread, so the kingdom of God should advance. The presence of God in human history meant the reign of Christ in human history; where have the faithful gone and not found their God?
III. God in the perplexities of our experience. Most men probably look on spiritual conflict at first as a necessary evil; something which it were well if we could avoid, but which, since we cannot avoid it, we must go through with what heart we may; and they look to God to keep, and, in due time, to deliver them. But when, in the review of their struggles, they perceive what progress they have made by reason of it; how it has enriched their character, not only strengthening their piety, but also enlarging its scope and adding to their graces; when they find what a wise and benignant influence it has enabled them to exercise; what power of comfort it has given them, they begin to see that the conflict itself was of Divine appointment, and to cherish a larger, nobler view of Gods purpose and of mans discipline. They perceive that the obscurity, equally with the clearness, of a spiritual experience is ordained of God. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
The present God
There was something almost to be envied in the simple, easy, undoubting faith in the ever-present Spirit of God that breathes in the devotional portions of the Old Testament. Science had not begun to be. Men saw and felt circumambient force on every side, and with the instinctive wisdom of their ignorance this force was to them the varied yet immutable God, Himself unchanged, yet in manifestation ever new. We think ourselves, in point of intelligence, at a heaven-wide distance in advance of them. But has not our ignorance grown faster than our knowledge–as every new field that we explore in part abuts upon regions which we cannot explore, and every solved problem starts others which cannot be solved? If science has ever been antagonistic to faith, it has not been by superseding it, or even by interfering with it, but simply because the new knowledge of nature that has flashed with such suddenness and rapidity upon our generation has so filled and tasked the minds of not a few, that they have ignored for the time the regions where light still fails and faith is the only guide. But there are among the grand generalizations of recent science those that help our faith, and furnish analogies that are almost demonstrations for some of the most sacred truths of religion. Among these truths is that suggested by our text–the presence of the Divine Spirit with and in the human soul. Now, to the soul of man, bathed in this omnipresence, receiving all thought and knowledge through its mediation, living, moving, and having its being in it, what can be more easily conceivable than that there should also be conveyed to it thoughts, impressions, intimations, that flow directly from the Father of our spirits? It has been virtually the faith of great and good men in all time. They have felt and owned a prompting, a motive power, from beyond their own souls, and from above the ranks of their fellow-men. Inspiration has been a universal idea under every form of culture, has been believed, sought, recognized, obeyed. At all other points there has been divergence; as to this, but one mind and one voice. You could translate the language of Socrates concerning his demon into the most orthodox Christian phraseology without adding or omitting a single trait, and not even St. Paul was more confident than he of being led by the Spirit. But there is no need of citing authorities. Who of us is there that has not had thoughts borne in upon him which he could not trace to any association or influence on his own plane, seedling thoughts, perhaps, which have yielded harvest for the angel-reapers, strength equal to the day in the conflict with temptation, comfort in sorrow, visions of heaven lifted for the moment above the horizon like a mirage in the desert? These experiences have been multiplied in proportion to our receptivity. As the message on the wires is lost if there be none to watch or listen at the terminus, so at the terminus of the spirit-wire there must be the listening soul, the inward voice, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. But while we thus acknowledge God in the depths of our own consciousness, can we not equally feel His presence in the glory, beauty, joy-giving ministry of His works? Are they net richer to our eyes every year? Has it not happened to us, over and over again, to say, Spring, or summer, was never so beautiful before? This is true every year to the recipient soul. Not that there is any added physical charm or visible glory; but it is the Spirit of our Father that glows and beams upon us, that pours itself into our souls; and if we have grown by His nurture, there is in us more and more of spiritual life that can be irradiated, gladdened, lifted in praise and love, with every recurring phase of the outward world. Is not this ordained, that the vision of Him in whom are all the archetypes of beauty, and whose embodied thought is in its every phase, may be kept ever fresh and vivid–that there may be over new stimulants to adoration and praise–that with the changing garb of nature the soul may renew her garment of grateful joy, her singing robes of thanksgiving to Him who has made everything beautiful in its time? But God is still nearer to us than in the world around us. In Him we live, and move, and have our being. When I reflect on the mysteries of my own being, on the complex organism, not one of whose numberless members or processes can be deranged without suffering or peril; when I consider my own confessed powerlessness as to the greater part of this earthly tabernacle in which I dwell, and the narrow limits of my seeming power as to the part of it which I can control; when I see the gates and pitfalls of death by and over which I am daily led in safety; when I resign all charge of myself every night, and no earthly watch is kept over my unconscious repose–oh, I know that omnipotence alone can be my keeper, that the unslumbering Shepherd guides my waking and guards my sleeping hours–that His life feeds mine, courses in my veins, renews my wasting strength, rolls back the death-shadows as day by day they gather over me. Equally, in the exercise of thought and emotion, must I own His presence and providence. (A. P. Peabody, D. D.)
Universal presence of God
The laws and forms of nature are only the methods of Gods agency, the habits of His existence and the turns of His thought. Each dewdrop holds an oracle, each bud a revelation, and everything we see is a signal of His presence, present but out of sight. Every colour of the dawning or the dying light; every aspect of the changing seasons and all the mysteries of electricity make us feel the eternal presence of God. Shores, says one, on which man has never yet landed lie paved with shells; fields never trod are carpeted with flowers; seas where man has never dived are inlaid with pearls; caverns never mined are radiant with gems of finest forms and purest lustre. But still God is there, (R. Venting.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?] Surely ruach in this sense must be taken personally, it certainly cannot mean either breath or wind; to render it so would make the passage ridiculous.
From thy presence?] mippaneycha, “from thy faces.” Why do we meet with this word so frequently in the plural number, when applied to God? And why have we his Spirit, and his appearances or faces, both here? A Trinitarian would at once say, “The plurality of persons in the Godhead is intended;” and who can prove that he is mistaken?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From thy spirit; either,
1. From the Holy Ghost, the third person in the Trinity: or,
2. From thee, who art a Spirit, and therefore canst penetrate into the most secret parts: or,
3. From thy mind or understanding, of which he is here speaking, as this word seems to be taken, Isa 40:13, compared with Rom 11:34; for what there is called the spirit of the Lord, is here called the mind of the Lord. And as the Spirit of God is oft used in Scripture for its gifts and graces, so the spirit of God in this place may be put for that knowledge which is an attribute or action of God.
From thy presence; a man can go to no place which is out of thy sight.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Whither shall I go from thy spirit?…. Or, “from thy wind?” which some interpret literally, the wind being God’s creature; which he brings out of his treasures, and holds in his fists, and disposes of as he pleases; this takes its circuit through all the points of the heavens, and blows everywhere, more or less. Rather God himself is meant, who is a Spirit, Joh 4:24 not a body, or consisting of corporeal parts, which are only ascribed to him in a figurative sense; and who has something analogous to spirit, being simple and uncompounded, invisible, incorruptible, immaterial, and immortal; but is different from all other spirits, being uncreated, eternal, infinite, and immense; so that there is no going from him, as to be out of his sight; nor to any place out of his reach, nor from his wrath and justice, nor so as to escape his righteous judgment. It may signify his all-conscious mind, his all-comprehending understanding and knowledge, which reaches to all persons, places, and things; compare Isa 40:13; with Ro 11:34; though it seems best of all to understand it of the third Person, the blessed Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and the Son; and who is possessed of the same perfections, of omniscience, omnipresence, and immensity, as they are; who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and pervades them all; and is the Maker of all men, and is present with them to uphold their souls in life, and there is no going from him; particularly he is in all believers, and dwells with them; nor do they desire to go from him, but deprecate his departure from them;
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? which is everywhere, for God’s presence is omnipresence; his powerful presence and providence are with all his creatures, to support and uphold them in being; he is not far from, but near to them; in him they live, move, and have their being: and so there is no fleeing from him or that; and as to his gracious presence, which is with all his people, in all places at the same time; they do not desire to flee from it, but always to have it; and are concerned for it, if at any time it is removed from them, as to their apprehension of it. Or, “from thy face” e; that is, from Christ, who is the face of Jehovah; the image of the invisible God, the express image of his person, in whom all the perfections of God are displayed; and such a likeness, that he that has seen the one has seen the other; he is the Angel of his face or presence, and who always appears before him, and in whom he is seen. Now there is no fleeing from him, for he is everywhere; where God is, his face is: and a sensible sinner desires to flee to him, and not from him; for there is no other refuge to flee unto for life and salvation but to him; and gracious souls desire to be always with him now, and hope to be for ever with him hereafter; they seek him, the face of God, now, and expect to see it more clearly in the world to come.
e “a facie tua”, Pagninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Omniscience of God. | |
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. 13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
It is of great use to us to know the certainty of the things wherein we have been instructed, that we may not only believe them, but be able to tell why we believe them, and to give a reason of the hope that is in us. David is sure that God perfectly knows him and all his ways,
I. Because he is always under his eye. If God is omnipresent, he must needs be omniscient; but he is omnipresent; this supposes the infinite and immensity of his being, from which follows the ubiquity of his presence; heaven and earth include the whole creation, and the Creator fills both (Jer. xxiii. 24); he not only knows both, and governs both, but he fills both. Every part of the creation is under God’s intuition and influence. David here acknowledges this also with application and sees himself thus open before God.
1. No flight can remove us out of God’s presence: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, from thy presence, that is, from thy spiritual presence, from thyself, who art a Spirit?” God is a Spirit, and therefore it is folly to think that because we cannot see him he cannot see us: Whither shall I flee from thy presence? Not that he desired to go away from God; no, he desired nothing more than to be near him; but he only puts the case, “Suppose I should be so foolish as to think of getting out of thy sight, that I might shake off the awe of thee, suppose I should think of revolting from my obedience to thee, or of disowning a dependence on thee and of shifting for myself, alas! whither can I go?” A heathen could say, Quocunque te flexeris, ibi Deum videbis occurrentem tibi–Whithersoever thou turnest thyself, thou wilt see God meeting thee. Seneca. He specifies the most remote and distant places, and counts upon meeting God in them. (1.) In heaven: “If I ascend thither, as I hope to do shortly, thou art there, and it will be my eternal bliss to be with thee there.” Heaven is a vast large place, replenished with an innumerable company, and yet there is no escaping God’s eye there, in any corner, or in any crowd. The inhabitants of that world have as necessary a dependence upon God, and lie as open to his strict scrutiny, as the inhabitants of this. (2.) In hell–in Sheol, which may be understood of the depth of the earth, the very centre of it. Should we dig as deep as we can under ground, and think to hide ourselves there, we should be mistaken; God knows that path which the vulture’s eye never saw, and to him the earth is all surface. Or it may be understood of the state of the dead. When we are removed out of the sight of all living, yet not out of the sight of the living God; from his eye we cannot hide ourselves in the grave. Or it maybe understood of the place of the damned: If I make my bed in hell (an uncomfortable place to make a bed in, where there is no rest day or night, yet thousands will make their bed for ever in those flames), behold, thou art there, in thy power and justice. God’s wrath is the fire which will there burn everlastingly, Rev. xiv. 10. (3.) In the remotest corners of this world: “If I take the wings of the morning, the rays of the morning-light (called the wings of the sun, Mal. iv. 2), than which nothing more swift, and flee upon them to the uttermost parts of the sea, or of the earth (Job 38:12; Job 38:13), should I flee to the most distant and obscure islands (the ultima Thule, the Terra incognita), I should find thee there; there shall thy hand lead me, as far as I go, and thy right hand hold me, that I can go no further, that I cannot go out of thy reach.” God soon arrested Jonah when he fled to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
2. No veil can hide us from God’s eye, no, not that of the thickest darkness, Psa 139:11; Psa 139:12. “If I say, Yet the darkness shall cover me, when nothing else will, alas! I find myself deceived; the curtains of the evening will stand me in no more stead than the wings of the morning; even the night shall be light about me. That which often favours the escape of a pursued criminal, and the retreat of a beaten army, will do me no kindness in fleeing from them.” When God divided between the light and darkness it was with a reservation of this prerogative, that to himself the darkness and the light should still be both alike. “The darkness darkeneth not from thee, for there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” No hypocritical mask or disguise, how specious soever, can save any person or action from appearing in a true light before God. Secret haunts of sin are as open before God as the most open and barefaced villanies.
II. Because he is the work of his hands. He that framed the engine knows all the motions of it. God made us, and therefore no doubt he knows us; he saw us when we were in the forming, and can we be hidden from him now that we are formed? This argument he insists upon (v. 13-16): “Thou hast possessed my reins; thou art Master of my most secret thoughts and intentions, and the innermost recesses of my soul; thou not only knowest, but governest, them, as we do that which we have possession of; and the possession thou hast of my reins is a rightful possession, for thou coveredst me in my mother’s womb, that is, thou madest me (Job x. 11), thou madest me in secret. The soul is concealed form all about us. Who knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man?” 1 Cor. ii. 11. Hence we read of the hidden man of the heart. But it was God himself that thus covered us, and therefore he can, when he pleases, discover us; when he hid us from all the world he did not intend to hide us from himself. Concerning the formation of man, of each of us,
1. The glory of it is here given to God, entirely to him; for it is he that has made us and not we ourselves. “I will praise thee, the author of my being; my parents were only the instruments of it.” It was done, (1.) Under the divine inspection: My substance, when hid in the womb, nay, when it was yet but in fieri–in the forming, an unshapen embryo, was not hidden from thee; thy eyes did see my substance. (2.) By the divine operation. As the eye of God saw us then, so his hand wrought us; we were his work. (3.) According to the divine model: In thy book all my members were written. Eternal wisdom formed the plan, and by that almighty power raised the noble structure.
2. Glorious things are here said concerning it. The generation of man is to be considered with the same pious veneration as his creation at first. Consider it, (1.) As a great marvel, a great miracle we might call it, but that it is done in the ordinary course of nature. We are fearfully and wonderfully made; we may justly be astonished at the admirable contrivance of these living temples, the composition of every part, and the harmony of all together. (2.) As a great mystery, a mystery of nature: My soul knows right well that it is marvellous, but how to describe it for any one else I know not; for I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the womb as in the lowest parts of the earth, so privately, and so far out of sight. (3.) As a great mercy, that all our members in continuance were fashioned, according as they were written in the book of God’s wise counsel, when as yet there was none of them; or, as some read it, and none of them was left out. If any of our members had been wanting in God’s book, they would have been wanting in our bodies, but, through his goodness, we have all our limbs and sense, the want of any of which might have made us burdens to ourselves. See what reason we have then to praise God for our creation, and to conclude that he who saw our substance when it was unfashioned sees it now that it is fashioned.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? I consider that David prosecutes the same idea of its being’ impossible that men by any subterfuge should elude the eye of God. By the Spirit of God we are not here, as in several other parts of Scripture, to conceive of his power merely, but his understanding and knowledge. (205) In man the spirit is the seat of intelligence, and so it is here in reference to God, as is plain from the second part of the sentence, where by the face of God is meant his knowledge or inspection. David means in short that he could not change from one place to another without God seeing him, and following him with his eyes as he moved. They misapply the passage who adduce it as a proof of the immensity of God’s essence; for though it be an undoubted truth that the glory of the Lord fills heaven and earth, this was not at present in the view of the Psalmist, but the truth that God’s eye penetrates heaven and hell, so that, hide in what obscure corner of the world he might, he must be discovered by him. Accordingly he tells us that though he should fly to heaven, or lurk in the lowest abysses, from above or from below all was naked and manifest before God. The wings of the morning, (206) or of Lucifer, is a beautiful metaphor, for when the sun rises on the earth, it transmits its radiance suddenly to all regions of the world, as with the swiftness of flight. The same figure is employed in Mal 4:2. And the idea is, that though one should fly with the speed of light, he could find no recess where he would be beyond the reach of divine power. For by hand we are to understand power, and the assertion is to the effect that should man attempt to withdraw from the observation of God, it were easy for him to arrest and draw back the fugitive. (207)
(205) Some commentators suppose the third person of the Trinity to be here referred to.
(206) Or “of the dawn of the morning.” שחר , shachar, the word employed, “is the light which is seen in the clouds before the rising of the sun, and it is like as if it; had wings to fly with haste; for in a moment the dawn of the morning is spread over the horizon, from the end of the east to that of the west.” — Mendlessohn’s Beor.
(207) Dathe understands thy hand of God’s gracious presence to defend the Psalmist; and such may be the meaning of the words. But whether we take them in this sense, or according to Calvin, as expressing man’s being under the power of God, in whatever part of the world he may be, they illustrate the divine omniscience, which Calvin regards as the chief design of the inspired writer.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) Spirit.If this clause stood alone we should naturally understand by Gods Spirit His creative and providential power, from which nothing can escape (comp. Psa. 104:30). But taken in parallelism with presence in the next clause the expression leads on to a thought towards which the theology of the Old Testament was dimly feeling, which it nearly reached in the Book of Wisdom. The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world, but which found its perfect expression in our Saviours announcement to the woman of Samaria.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Whither shall I go That is, I can go no whither from thy spirit neither from thy power nor presence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
David next sets forth the omnipresence of God, vv. 7-12.
v. 7. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? v. 8. If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there, v. 9. If I take the wings of the morning, v. 10. even there shall Thy hand lead me, v. 11. If I say, v. 12. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Psa 139:7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, &c. Though the Psalmist acknowledged the divine omniscience to be full of wonders, and a height to which no human, no finite understanding could possibly ascend; yet he saw, at the same time, that it might be capable of the plainest and most convincing proofs; and that there were really obvious and incontestable proofs of it in nature. And these, or at least the two general heads to which they are, in all their forms and variety of lights, reducible, he himself has in the subsequent part of the psalm distinctly mentioned, viz. God’s being the contriver and author of the whole frame of things; and his constant, essential, and intimate presence with the system of creation, and with every individual comprehended in it. The last of these the Psalmist introduces by way of inquiry; how it was possible for any, if they were unnaturally inclined to it, and from an utter darkness of their reason, and ignorance of the most important privileges and consolations of derived and dependant natures, desirous of it,to fly from that vital and efficacious Spirit, which co-exists with, animates, and diffuses beauty, and order, and tendencies to happiness, throughout the whole of created being. “Whither, says he, shall I go, &c. Psa 139:8. If I ascend up into heaven, beyond which I cannot discern the most diminutive and contracted orbs of light,thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, or could plunge myself into the most obscure and unknown mansions of the dead, and the worlds invisible, where even imagination loses itself in darkness, behold, thou art there. Psa 139:9. If I take the wings of the morning, &c. i.e. If, with the swiftness of the rays of the rising sun, I could shoot myself in an instant to the uttermost parts of the western ocean, Psa 139:10, even there shall thy hand lead me, &c. i.e. I should still exist in God; his presence would be diffused all around me; his enlivening power would support my frame. Psa 139:11-12. If I say, surely, &c.The darkness and the light are both alike to thee; Equally conspicuous am I, and all my circumstances, all my actions, under the thickest, and most impenetrable shades of night, as in the brightest splendors of the noon-day sun. Psa 139:13. For thou hast possessed my reins, &c.” See Foster’s Discourses, as above, and Job 11:8. Bishop Lowth observes, that the common interpretation of the 9th verse does not satisfy him. He thinks that the two members of this distich, like those of the former, are plainly opposed to each other: that a two-fold passage is expressed, one to the east, the other to the west; and that the distance of the flight, not the celerity of it, is spoken of. “If I direct my wings towards the morning [or the east; If I dwell in the extremity of the western sea, &c.” See his 16th and 29th Prelections.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Ver. 7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? ] Here he argueth God’s omniscience from his omnipresence; and this the heathens also had heard of, as appeareth by their Iovis omnia plena; and – quascunque accesseris oras,
Sub Iove semper eris, &c.
Empedocles could say that God is a circle, whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere. They could tell us that God is the soul of the world; and that as the soul is tota in tota, et tota in qualibet parte, so is he; that his eye is in every corner, &c.; to which purpose they so portrayed their goddess Minerva, that which way soever one cast his eye she always beheld him. But these divine notions they might have by tradition from the patriarchs; and whether they believed themselves in these and the like sayings is much to be doubted.
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 139:7-12
7Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
11If I say, Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,
12Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
Psa 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit It is uncertain in exactly what sense this question is to be understood. Some see it as mankind’s attempt to flee from God because he is evil. Others see it as a rhetorical device to show God’s omnipresence. It is obvious that Your Spirit in this verse is parallel to Your presence in the next line. This is not the full NT Trinitarian (see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY ) use of the term Spirit, but it is a way of speaking of God’s active presence (cf. Gen 1:2). If I could paraphrase this concept it would be, There is no hiding place from God (cf. Jer 23:23-24). See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE PERSONHOOD OF THE SPIRIT .
Psa 139:8 If I ascend to heave, You are there This is literally scale (BDB 701, KB 758, Qal imperfect). This is very similar to Psa 103:11 in describing God’s omnipresence, as far as heaven above and Sheol below.
Notice how in the next few verses contrasts are used to show the full extent of truths about God’s omniscience and omnipresence.
1. ascend to heaven – make my bed in Sheol, Psa 139:8
2. wings of the dawn (i.e., east) – remotest part of the sea (i.e., Mediterranean Sea to the west), Psa 139:9
3. the darkness – the light, Psa 139:12
God is present everywhere. No one can flee from Him!
I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there There are many passages in the OT that speak of God being present in the realm of the dead (cf. Job 26:6; Ps. 15:11; Amo 9:2). The term Sheol is synonymous with the NT term Hades and should be translated the realm of the dead or the nether world. See SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead?
Psa 139:9 If. . . The hypothetical particle (BDB 49) appears only in Psa 139:8 a but is assumed in Psa 139:8b, Psa 139:9a, Psa 139:9b, Psa 139:11a.
The adverb even (BDB 168) is used in a similar way in Psa 139:10 a, Psa 139:12a.
Psa 139:8-12 answers the two questions of Psa 139:7. It is hypothetical language used to make a point.
in the remotest part of the sea Literally this phrase is from the sunrise to the sunset, which is similar to Ps. 130:12.
Psa 139:10 Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me Traditional translation has assumed this verse to express God’s personal guidance and protection. However, the Hebrew of Psa 139:10-11 suggests the personification of darkness or a personal enemy pursuing the man of God.
Psa 139:11 Surely the darkness will overwhelm me The words darkness, Psa 139:11; night, Psa 139:11; darkness, Psa 139:12; night, Psa 139:12 seem to refer to Sheol (cf. Psa 139:15). The ancient Jewish translations by Rashi and Eben Ezra, along with the NIV, suppose Psa 139:11 to be an attempted escape by (1) sinful man in the darkness or (2) the faithful from sinful persecutors.
NASBoverwhelm
NKJVfall on
NRSV, NJB,
Vulgatecover
TEVhide
JPSOAconceal
REBsteal over
The MT has (BDB 1003), which means bruise (cf. Gen 3:15; Job 9:17) but this does not seem to fit the context. Therefore, some scholars suggest an emendation to (BDB 962 I) hedge or fence about (i.e., protect or cover).
Whatever is meant by the darkness, God controls it, and His faithful followers need not fear it! It may even be an opportunity for revelation (cf. Gen 15:12) or deliverance (plague of Egypt, cf. Exod. 10:12-19; Psa 105:28).
Psa 139:12 the darkness is not dark to You Darkness can be (1) the opposite of light; (2) the enemy of light; (3) one’s personal enemy; or (4) simply night time.
Nightfall was terrifying to the ancients. They often personified its sounds and lights in the sky as gods or omens. YHWH controls the night!
Darkness and light are alike to You There is no where to run or hide from the Creator (cf. Psa 139:7)!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
spirit. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
presence. Hebrew = face. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 139:7-12
Psa 139:7-12
OMNIPRESENCE
“Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
ff I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me.
And the light about me shall be night;
Even the darkness hideth not from thee,
But the night shineth as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”
“Whither shall I flee from thy presence” (Psa 139:7). This line is parallel to the preceding one, the thought in both being, “How can one hide from God? He is everywhere!” In an old fashioned, one-teacher schoolhouse, an atheistic teacher wrote on the blackboard
“GOD IS NOWHERE.”
Whereupon a sixth-grade girl walked up to the blackboard and gave the inscription this treatment
“GOD IS NOW HERE.”
and as she sat down, she said, “Teacher you forgot to put in the space”! The astounded teacher made no further remarks.
Attempting to hide from God has been the chief business of the human family ever since Adam and Eve hid themselves in the Garden of Eden! Think of the myriads of ways in which men try to hide from God. They forsake all attendance of religious services. They become alcoholics, workaholics, dope addicts, or assume any lifestyle available in which they may hope to hide from the “all-seeing” eyes of God. What a vain and futile exercise of human folly! People cannot hide from God!
The omnipresence of God was the basis of the remarkable exhibition which the Moody Bible Institute displayed at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. The exhibition stressed an amazing deduction from this element in the character of God.
Since God is everywhere simultaneously, He is still seeing everything that has ever happened in the whole universe! Just as people can see the light of the constellation Andromeda which began its journey to earth two million light years ago, God’s presence as an observer is not limited either by time or space. His presence is eternal regarding all events, past, present and future!
“In Sheol … behold, thou art there” (Psa 139:8). This teaches that death itself cannot hide people from the knowledge and ultimate judgment of God. “The psalmist is aware of God’s presence even in Sheol.
“The wings of the morning … the uttermost parts of the sea” (Psa 139:9). The opposites mentioned here are the east and the west, symbolized by “the wings of the morning,” and “the uttermost parts of the sea,” the latter being a reference to the far western end of the Mediterranean. These are some of the most beautiful lines in the literature of the whole human family. True to the antagonist spirit of criticism, some interpreters allege that this image is borrowed from ancient mythology which describes the goddess of the dawn riding forth on the “wings of the morning.” This writer has read extensively the mythology of Greece and Rome but cannot remember any such myth. Helios did not ride “the wings of the morning” but “a chariot.” In case there actually existed some such terminology in ancient mythology, which we seriously doubt, “There is no reason to assume that the psalmist here accepted any such mythological notions.
“Thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (Psa 139:10). The bringing together in this verse, of God’s `hand’ and his `right hand’ is an undeniable earmark of David’s authorship, as is the case in the preceding Psa 138:7. AS Jebb said, there are a dozen such earmarks in this psalm.
“The darkness shall overwhelm me” (Psa 139:11). The marginal reading here is “cover me” for the last two words. Despite the fact that darkness cannot hide from God, wicked men still prefer the nighttime for their deeds of criminality. The New Testament takes note of this in such terms as “the works of darkness” (Rom 13:12; Eph 5:11).
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 139:7. This and several verses following will point out various parts of the universe where God’s presence exists always. Generally speaking, since He made all things that exist, it would be foolish to think that a man could find a hiding place from Him in any of the parts of creation. The Psalmist will now specify a number of “nooks and crannies” in which there would be no hiding from God. Spirit and presence are used for emphasis since the very presence of God would always mean that of his spirit according to the language of Christ in Joh 4:24.
Psa 139:8. Heaven and hell are named together merely as opposites in location. We know the first refers to the region of the planets, not to the place where God personally lives, for there would be nothing significant in referring to that place and saying thou art there. Hell is from SHEOL and Strong defines it, “hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat) including its accessories and inmates.” The Psalmist does not mean that God personally is to be found in that place, but that he had complete oversight of it. How foolish, then, is the thought of suicide and cremation as an attempt to run away from Him.
Psa 139:9. The vast expanse of the boundless sea is not sufficient to outreach the presence of the Lord who created them in the first place. Psa 139:10. Lead and hold are both used in a favorable sense, meaning the universal ability of God to care for his faithful servants. And by the same token, it would be useless for one to think of fleeing to that region to hide from the Lord.
Psa 139:11. Night shall be light is another figurative phrase, meaning that God can see in the darkness as well as in the light. For this reason it would be in vain to count on the darkness as a shield from the eyes of God.
Psa 139:12. This is practically the same thought as was expressed in the preceding verse. Certainly the One who could “command the light to shine out of darkness” (2Co 4:6; Gen 1:2-3) would be able to see through it and detect a man trying to hide.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Jer 23:23, Jer 23:24, Jon 1:3, Jon 1:10, Act 5:9
Reciprocal: Exo 20:18 – they removed Jos 10:16 – and hid 1Ki 8:27 – the heaven 2Ch 6:18 – heaven Jer 43:8 – General Hos 7:13 – fled Amo 9:2 – dig Mat 2:19 – an
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 139:7-12. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? From thy knowledge and observation; or, from thee who art a Spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? I can go nowhere but thou art there, observing and judging, approving or disapproving: nor are there any means imaginable by which I can escape the reach of thy all-penetrating eye, or withdraw myself from thy universal and unbounded presence: neither can an ascent to heaven, nor a descent to the state of the dead, secure me from thine inspection, or divide me from thee. Nay, though I were able, with the swiftness of the rays of the rising sun, in an instant to shoot myself to the remotest parts of the earth or sea, even there should thy hand lead me I should still exist in thee: thy presence would be diffused all around me; and thine enlivening power would support my frame. If I say, Surely the darkness, &c.; the darkness and the light are both alike to thee
Equally conspicuous am I, and all my circumstances, all my actions, under the thickest and most impenetrable shades of night, as in the brightest splendours of the noon-day sun. Dr. Horne, who very properly applies this doctrine of the divine omniscience and omnipresence to practical purposes, very justly observes here, We can never sin with security, but in a place where the eye of God cannot behold us; and, he asks, Where is that place? Had we a mind to escape his inspection, whither should we go! Heaven is the seat of his glory, creation the scene of his providence, and the grave itself will be the theatre of his power; so that our efforts will be equally vain whether we ascend or descend, or fly abroad upon the wings of the morning light, which diffuseth itself with such velocity over the globe, from east to west. The arm of the Almighty will still, at pleasure, prevent and be ready to arrest the fugitives in their progress. Darkness may indeed conceal us and our deeds from the sight of men; but the divine presence, like that of the sun, turns night into day, and makes all things manifest before God. The same consideration which should restrain us from sin, should also encourage as to work righteousness, and comfort us under all our sorrows; namely, the thought that we are never out of the sight and protection of our Maker. The piety and the charity which are practised in cottages, the labour and pain which are patiently endured in the field, and on the bed of sickness; the misery and torment inflicted by persecution in the mines, the galleys, and the dungeons; all are under the inspection of Jehovah, and are noted down by him against the day of recompense. He sees, and he will reward all we do, and all we suffer, as becometh Christians.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
139:7 Whither shall I go from thy {e} spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
(e) From your power and knowledge?
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. God’s omnipresence 139:7-12
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Evidently the confining awareness of God’s omniscience led David to try to escape from the Lord. His two rhetorical questions in this verse express his inability to hide from God (cf. Jer 23:24).