Friday, December 30, 2011

The Presence of the Lord

   I've been revisiting some of my favorite verses lately, and I came upon one of my all-time favorite Psalms, Psalm 139. I think I've talked about this before, but it just continues to amaze me how the Bible really does become new every time I read it. It is a living book, translated to our hearts by the Spirit, and He shows us new things every time we dive in. I was going over Psalm 139 and I came across verses 7-8, which say, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there."
   This has never struck me before as anything very important, because I always skipped to the part about Him knowing me before I was formed. But for some reason, this part jumped out. Here's why: Why would David be asking God where he can flee? Why would David be fleeing from the God that he so passionately prays to in so many of the other Psalms? We know that David is "the man after God's own heart", and there are even comparisons of David's story to Jesus' life, a sort of foreshadowing. David was God's man. But here's the rub - David is famous for a few things in the Bible. He is known for facing down Goliath, not with his own diminutive strength, but with God's. He is known for being one of the best kings that Israel has seen. And he is also known for his affair with Bathsheba, and the issues involved with it, including having Bathsheba's husband killed. He's known for great things - and for terrible things.
  I don't know what the context was for David writing this Psalm. But I'm sure we've all been at the point where no matter how strong our walk is or has been with the Lord, we mess up. We sin, we fall, and we break. We fear God's wrath even while asking for His forgiveness and help. We fear because we know that God is always present and that His Spirit will never leave us. So where can we go from His Spirit? Or where can we flee from His presence? David makes a good point in saying that if we ascend into heaven, God will be there. That part is probably redundant. Clearly God is in heaven. But David makes an astounding point when he says that God is also there when we make our bed in hell.
   It makes perfect sense that God is present when we do good things and when our hearts are in the right place and when we really follow Him. It also makes sense that God would be there when we repent (in my mind, He's still sitting in heaven. I picture Him reaching a hand down to save me from my sin). But what blows my mind is that God is also present when we make our beds in hell. Notice the wording there - "when we make our beds in hell". We choose to sin, to act on the temptations that we face. When we sin, I think we have this stigma that God is angry and instantly turns His back to us. We don't feel that He is still there with us in the actual act of disobeying Him. And I think that's supported by by the fact that God turned His back - just for a second - on Jesus as the sins of the world were transferred from our souls to His as He paid for them with His life. It makes sense to us that God doesn't want to be present with us in the midst of our muck and dirt and mistakes. But this verse blows my mind, because it blows wide the way that I see God. Instead of assuming that He is far above our sin and detached from us when we sin, I can now see that God is (and has always been) present in my life, including the times that I sin. Which, if I'm being honest, is a lot of my life. And I'm willing to bet a lot of yours, too. We are sinners to the core, it's what we do. And that's why it's so amazing that God is willing to get His own clothes dirty, to sit in hell as we are making our bed there, and to offer help and support and love (sometimes it's tough love). He is a just and pure God - but that doesn't mean He is pristine and untouchable. He loves us enough to reach into our personal hells, our pits of sin, and to pull us out. Because David is right: we can't go anywhere that God can't or won't go. He's God. He is, as this Winter Conference is so aptly themed, boundless.
   So be encouraged, guys, as you're in a slump, as you're tangled in something that you don't think you can get out of. Know that my God, your God, our amazing God and Father is definitely present, definitely real, and definitely able and willing to step into life with you, good or bad, and hold you close to His heart. He is impossible to run from, and He relentlessly pursues us so that we can taste His love, especially when we choose to make our beds in hell.

God bless :)