July 17, 2023: Psalm 139:8 - God is Omnipresent

“If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” - Psalm 139:8

Let us go back to the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” (Genesis 1:1) The book of Genesis goes on to tell us that God created the heavens and the earth, He created everything that is in the earth, and He created man and woman in His own image. For the latter, the Bible states, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” (Genesis 1:26). This is because God is the Father, God is the Son (Jesus Christ), and God is the Holy Spirit. Is there anything too difficult for God, the Creator of everything? No, absolutely not. Thus, it is no wonder that God is present everywhere, He is all present or omnipresent. Because He is everywhere, nothing can be hidden from Him, just as I wrote about in my prior devotional with Adam and Eve in the garden.

God is present everywhere, and if we are saved by believing in His Son Jesus Christ, that knowledge is a good thing, a comforting thing for us. However, for unbelievers, to them it may be a bad thing or it may mean nothing to them at all, for now.

If we read today’s Scripture verse again, it says, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.” God made both heaven and hell, and His presence is in both places:

“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” (Proverbs 15:3)

“Hell and Destruction are before the LORD; so how much more the hearts of the sons of men.” (Proverbs 15:11)

God’s presence, however, is different for unbelievers than it is for believers. For believers, we will dwell with Him and have fellowship with Him in complete fullness of joy, without sin, shame, and sorrow. However, for unbelievers, who choose to reject His Son’s free gift of salvation from all sins, His presence will be one that is full of torment:

“Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, ‘If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.’” (Revelation 14:9-11)

While the passage above is referring specifically to the 7-year reign of the final Antichrist when everyone will be forced to take his mark or the number of his name and worship him or be killed and how everyone who does take it and worships him will spend their eternity in hell, the same is true for everyone who chooses not to trust in God for their salvation.

Notice the passage above says “…in the presence of the Lamb.” For unbelievers, they will be in hell and while the Lamb is present, they will not have fellowship with Him and will only know His wrath, for eternity. They will not know Him and experience Him as those who believe in Him do. Unbelievers will be separated from all His blessings, from all that is good and holy, because they chose to reject His salvation, thereby rejecting all that is good and choosing evil instead.

For more information, here is a link to an article from gotquestions.org that discusses God’s presence in hell: https://www.gotquestions.org/God-in-hell.html.

For believers, our desire is to be physically with Him, in His presence, and one day we will be with Him, whether it is the time when we are raptured - caught up to Jesus in the clouds at His glorious appearing before the start of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble when the final Antichrist reigns - or whether the time when we die and our soul is united with Him and we wait to receive our glorified bodies. For believers, until we are physically with Him, He has promised us in His word that He is always with us and will never leave us nor forsake us:

“Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

“And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

God reiterates this over and over again in His word because He knows that our instinct is to be fearful when we are in difficult situations, but He reminds us that if we are with Him, if we have put our trust in Him, we have nothing to fear, for He is with us, and that is a good thing. The enemy Satan wants us to believe that we are alone in our suffering, in our trials, in our difficulties in life so that he can come along and tempt us when we are weak, with his ultimate goal of pulling us out of the grip of Almighty God. When we are in difficult situations, we must not even entertain Satan’s temptations but immediately put them out of our minds. The best thing to do is to go to Scripture and read God’s words that remind us of His presence and His deep love for us. Remember when Satan tempted Jesus three times? It was when Jesus had gone to the wilderness to fast and had not eaten for 40 days and nights. After each time Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus replied to him, saying, “It is written…” (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10). We too must know Scripture, God’s word, because it is the best defense we have against the enemy, for if we know it and believe in the power of it, we won’t be entrapped in the snares of the enemy. Notice also that Satan tempted Jesus when He was alone in the wilderness. Jesus was weakened by His lack of food, He was all alone with no one to encourage Him, and He was in the wilderness, a desert, a place unknown and likely with difficult terrain. So does Satan do with us, when we are alone with no one to help us in a deserted place that we do not know; it is at that time that we must trust in the One who will never leave us nor forsake us: Almighty God. It is by having this type of trust in God that will get us through our trials of life and ensure that whether we are raptured or die, we will be in the presence of our beloved God and Savior Jesus Christ for all eternity, and oh, what a glorious day that will be!

“You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3-4) ✝️