Psalms 139:7-12 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.
Matthew Henry’s
Commentary
Psalms 139:7-16
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_23:24); 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_14:10. (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_4:2), 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.
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