“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.“
Psalm 139:7-10

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Yesterday, we explored the omnipresence of God as described in Psalm 139:7-10. Today, let’s look at the next sentence in this grouping of verses.

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

Our planet is in the Milky Way galaxy, one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the known universe. The Milky Way is so large that if we were to count the stars at a rate of 1 star per second, it would take us 2500 years to count them all. To look at a picture of this galaxy, we would need hundreds of thousands of individual pictures put together—because it’s too big to photograph.

Traveling at 186,000 miles per second would take 100,000 years to get from one side to the other. I say 186,000 miles per second because, for the scientific people, you’ll remember that this is the speed of light. (Just so you know, you cannot travel at that speed!)

I share these astronomic thoughts, and yet these mind-boggling facts don’t even make up the entire solar system. So when the Psalmist writes, “If I go to the heavens…” the reality is we can’t be in all the heavens.

The heavens? They are so large and beyond our total understanding, yet David clearly states that the creator God is present there. And we get excited when we can make it to two events within the same two-hour period on a Saturday. We are finite, and He is omnipresent.

The next place is the “depths.” What does this mean? Some translations use the word sheol. In scriptures, this is known as “the place of the dead.” Why would David go from looking at the heavens to death? I think the truth expressed in this verse is that even David doesn’t fully understand. We worship a God to whom we can ask, “What is death like?” for He is even here. Jesus can tell you what death is like because He knows the depths of Sheol. He was under the power of death for three days! We can approach our deaths knowing that our union with Christ will not be severed by it.

And so, David celebrates the personal presence of God. His omnipresence means that there is no place we can go where He’s not present—not into the vast, unreachable universe, and not even death.

Questions for reflection and discussion:

  • How have you experienced God’s presence as you look to the heavens?
  • What confidence does God’s omnipresence bring to the aspect of death?

Church Reading Plan: Isaiah 64; Matthew 12