Compelled To Worship: God's Omnipresence

Many of us are frustrated by our kids or friends of ours who check their phones at dinner time.  They’re physically present but they’re mentally somewhere else. My wife lovingly points this out to me when I check Facebook or text messages and I’m supposed to be giving her my attention instead of my social media notifications.

But unlike my easily distracted mind, God is laser-focused on everything and everyone, everywhere, at all times and in all places. That’s a hard thing to comprehend…

This attribute of God, if I’m honest, was the biggest surprise to me as I studied. I knew God was everywhere but I’m not sure how much time I’ve spent dwelling on it, especially the implications of it.  In other words, God is omnipresent but why does it matter? I hope to whet your appetite so that you will look into this more.  Maybe pick a morning, go for a hike, and meditate on these passages of scripture and what they mean for the believer’s life.

The puritan Richard Sibb said, “How shall finite comprehend the infinite? We shall apprehend Him but never comprehend Him.”  How true that is. He has made Himself known to us so that we might have relationship with Him, and yet because He is infinite, we’ll never fully-know all of Him even as we are fully-known by Him.

Omni – is the Latin word for ‘all’.  So His omnipresence means that He is everywhere-present at all times. He is in every place at every point in creation in every point in time. Got that? Me either…  Incidentally the next three attributes for this series are God’s omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. His presence in all places, His knowledge of all things, and His limitless power to do anything He pleases.

The chief text in scripture that spells this out best is:

Ps 139:7–12 (NIV)

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. ⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. ¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” ¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

What a passage.  I won’t belabor the details because the simple reading should give you a strong enough impression. He is everywhere and there is nowhere you can go to avoid Him.  You can’t outrun Him. You can’t hide from Him. And no matter how far away from home you are, He is still right there. He is ready to comfort, protect, conceal, and convict.

1 Kings 8:27

‘Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you.”

God is high. The Lord is in the heights of the heavens. The Hebrew is literally saying that He is in the heights of the highest places.

Now let’s compare this with the verses that declare that God is also near. What God says of Himself is that He is both transcendent and immanent at once.

Is 57:15     

¹⁵ For this is what the high and exalted One says— He who lives forever, Whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Think of the significance of this passage contrasted with Psalm 139. God almighty is not only on His universal throne over all creation, holding all things together by the Word of His power, but He has drawn near to His people. So near that He revives the spirit of the humble and the contrite. Is there anything more intimate than that?

The Sons of Korah declare in Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

He dwells in the highest of heavens and yet also dwells in the den of lions with His servant Daniel.  He can ensure that the universe, the planets, moons, asteroids, and galaxies are all orbiting in their perfect order and yet stay the hand of David when he is tempted to strike down King Saul at a vulnerable moment. He is preparing a place (heaven) for His people while at the same time appearing to Paul the terrorist, striking him blind, and conscripting him into the service of His own kingdom.

He is a God is with you in the toughest times. God’s omnipresence should be a comfort to us. That our all-powerful God is also very near and never far.

Earlier Psalm 139 intimated this to us in expressing that the Lord is before us, with us, behind us, and all around us.

God is both in the highest places and the lowest places all at once.  During the Great Commission Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 28:20, “Lo I am with you always, even until the end of the age.”  In Hebrews 13:5 He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

God’s omnipresence means a great deal then.  In fact it is a significant source of our comfort.  He doesn’t just hear us because He has superpowered ears. He hears us because He is very very near to His children.

You can be confident that He is with you in every trial, storm, and difficulty. You might even say that God cannot be any nearer to you than He already is.

Jeremiah 23:23 says, “²³ Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? ²⁴ Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD.  “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.”

So then, even in the Old Testament God declared the riches of His presence and proximity to His people.

His omnipresence gives us comfort when we are alone, afraid, or lost. He is right there with us as we struggle.  In that way, our trials and suffering have meaning.  We do not experience them alone but in tandem with God who dwells richly in the lives of the believers.  In John 15 Jesus said “draw near to Me and I will draw near to you”.  Not because He wasn’t near to us in the first place but because we break fellowship with Him in our disobedience. But like a Good Father, He welcomes us back into His arms.

His grace is always sufficient to help, encourage, and comfort me.

Yet this is also a convicting truth. Many run from God but can never actually avoid God because He is everywhere – present. Let’s instead run toward a God who is both all-powerful in far-off places, and very near within our own hearts.  Let’s pursue Him back as He relentlessly pursues us.  Let us draw near to Him instead of self-help books and quasi-religious counsel. He is our great Redeemer and source of life.

He has brought you back from death to life – so live in the awesome reality of His presence everywhere you go.

Some material was adapted from Pastor Steven J. Lawson's series on RightNowMedia and Ligonier Ministries - Attributes of God

Image cred: Grant Cardone @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtJOAL1Tk6U