Devotional:No Hiding Place:Psalm 139:7-12

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your Presence” (Ps. 139:7, NASB)?

When I was a kid growing up on the farm in Tennessee one of the favorite games that we kids played was “hide and go seek.” One kid would stand at a designated post with their eyes closed and count numbers. At the same time the other kids would try to find a place to hide hoping that they could make it to the home post without being seen. If the kid counting numbers could see you they could call your name and run to the post and call out where you were at; you would be out. If you could catch the counter out of place and far enough from the home post you could run to the home post and you would be safe. The goal for the kid counting was to be able to count out all the other kids. The goal of the other kids was to make it to home post safely. So, each kid would try to find a safe hiding place so that they would not be discovered by the counter.

When you think about it, that’s the way we are in life. We do something that we are not proud of. Maybe we are guilty of disobeying authorities. Maybe we have done something wrong, and we don’t want to be discovered. Students cheat on a test. Lazy workers hide from the boss. Unfaithful husbands and wives hide from their spouses; and the list goes on and on. We even try to hide from the Lord when we know that we have sinned. Where can we go to hide from the Lord?

In Psalm 139 the psalmist says that when it comes to the Lord, there is no hiding place. The Lord knows everything about us both inside and outside. He knows our thoughts; even the secrets of our hearts. He knows our thoughts before they enter into our minds because God is omniscient (Ps. 139:1-6). We cannot escape His presence. There is no place in heaven to the grave that we can hide from Him. His Spirit searches us out and is always knowledgeable of our where about. God is omnipresent. I remember the words of a song that we sang during those fun days: “There’s no hiding place down here. There’s no hiding place down here. O, I went to the rocks to hide my face, the rocks cried out no hiding place. There’s no hiding place down here.”

Since God knows all about us, and we cannot hide from His presence, what are we to do when we have sinned? The psalmist ends his songs with these appropriate words: “Search me O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way” (Ps. 139:23-24, NASB). There is no hiding place.

Prayer: Lord we are glad that we cannot hide from you. Even when we would hide from ourselves we cannot hide from You. Amen.