As a dad, I probably seem all-knowing to my boys, especially when we are playing games. Take hide-and-seek, for example. While it may be complex for them, it’s quite simplistic for adults. There are only about five really good hiding places in our house, so it’s not hard to find them when they go “missing.” To them, I am a master at hiding, but they usually only look in the obvious spots. They rarely check under or behind objects, and most of their hiding places are easy to discover.
As they grow older, the game becomes more complex, and you can start to see the difference in critical thinking skills between Theo and Milo. Just this past week, Theo almost had me stumped, while his brothers were completely flummoxed.
This disparity between us and God is worth considering. We often imagine that there are areas in our lives where He is unaware or places He won’t go. We believe we can hide from Him or that we can be so far away that He cannot locate us. However, most of the time, we are in plain sight, merely hidden by our own contrivances and practices. It’s like hiding under a blanket—obvious to an adult but confounding for a toddler. This phenomenon is beautifully captured in Psalm 139.
Psalm 139:1-12 ESV:
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Like David, when he writes this Psalm, we can recognize that these “locations” pose no problem for God. He knows our thoughts and our words before we even speak them. This is remarkable when you consider the implications. Morning, noon, and night, God is present at all times. For pagan cultures, this was a profound change; their gods were confined by time and space, while God transcends all of that. There is no earthly location beyond His grasp; from the sea to the mountains, God is there.
One final location we should all reflect on is darkness. Darkness serves as both a condition and an environment; it seems the psalmist means both. We all experience dark moments in our lives—times when we feel shrouded in night, in places where evil abounds. David states that this is not a problem for God; this is where He shines even brighter. This applies to the darkness we feel inside as well.
When we are trapped in dark thoughts or depressive moods, God is there. When the world seems darker and more troubling, God is still present. There is no place that God cannot go, and there is no place devoid of His presence. We should rejoice in this truth and thank God that nothing keeps us from Him. We might feel we are impossible to find… that we are too far gone… that the darkness covers us. But He knows exactly where we are. “Where can I go from your presence?” Nowhere.