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

Scripture reading: Psalm 139:1-10

The Puritan Stephen Charnock, wrote, “Innumerable worlds cannot be a sufficient place to contain God; He can only be a sufficient place to Himself.” That’s the reality of God being everywhere present! He is in constant touch with the universe He created. He is present on our planet, in the sky, in space, in heaven and in hell. But still, God is greater; He is beyond everything created.

We realize that God is not present everywhere in the same way. In hell, for instance, He is present with His judging power and in creation with His upholding power. Yet, there is nothing better than His special and favourable presence with us when His hand leads us and His powerful right-hand holds us.

In the Old Testament, God was present through His Shekinah glory cloud filling the tabernacle. But in the New Testament, that glory cloud hovered over His Son, as He came to be graciously and truthfully present with us when He pitched His tabernacle among us (John 1:14). After Pentecost, His glory cloud still fills His temple, God’s people. Through His Spirit, we can daily enjoy His favourable presence.

God’s Spiritual presence is so rich. He visits us when we are lonely, showing us our comforts in Christ. How we need a greater sense of His presence! Not just for our comfort, but especially in moments of temptation, so that we would say with Joseph, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

Suggestions for prayer

Thank God for Jesus, Who is God with us! Pray that you may be reminded of and comforted more by the presence of God’s Holy Spirit and that His presence would guard you against sin and temptation, today.

Rev. Pieter van der Hoek has been serving the Heritage Reformed Church of Burgessville since 2017. This daily devotional is also available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional.