UBIQUITOUS

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  Psalm 139:7

The raw concept of being “watched” is alternatively comforting or frightening, depending upon the relationship between the “watcher” and the “watched.” On the negative side is the stalking “Peeping Tom,” as well as the Orwellian threat of an all-powerful surveillance-state (“Big Brother”)—a specter perpetually haunting the modern ethos. The UFO culture provides occasion for similar terrors; Orson Welles chillingly began his 1938 “Panic Broadcast” with the announcement that powerful alien minds were scrutinizing Planet Earth with the cold detachment of a scientist observing under a microscope the transient creatures that swarm and multiply within a drop of water. On the other hand, there is a positive surveillance; it is of greatest comfort for a little child to know that Mother is protectively hovering nearby! Likewise, security cameras provide ease of mind for modern homeowners.

In Psalm 139, David proclaims an omnipresent God who is simultaneously present everywhere in the totality of His Being throughout the universe. Likewise, David affirms Divine omniscience: God is all-knowledgeable, with a present and simultaneous focused awareness upon every aspect of everything in the Universe—past, present, and future. Hebrews 4:13 affirms “there is no creature hidden from His sight”— not even Orson Welles’ transient microbes! As R.C. Sproul often observed, there isn’t a single “maverick molecule” that exists outside of God’s sovereign plan, direction, and awareness.

Our response to this knowledge corresponds to our relationship with God. For the wicked, it is the greatest terror (Revelation 6:16). For God’s children, it is the source of comfort and reassurance. J.I. Packer: “To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the godless, but it stabilizes the saints” (“In God's Presence;” 2000).

Terry L. Reese