A Sure and Blessed Confidence
Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in sheol, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. These words declare the universal presence of God. We can no more travel beyond the over-arching sky of the divine presence which spans all the universe than a star can transcend the arch of the blue heavens and get beyond its range. But the psalmist had in mind something more than that when he uttered these words. His thought was of what God's presence means to those who love and trust Him and live in conscious fellowship with Him. And he speaks out of his own experience. He is expressing the great confidence of his life. He saw God everywhere, - in the high heavens, in the depths of the earth, in the uttermost parts of the sea; and in simple trust he had committed his life into His keeping. He saw God's hand underneath the whole universe, and he was sure that the same divine hand would uphold and lead him, whatever vicissitudes life might bring, wherever time and changes might take him. Nowhere in the psalms does David reach a greater height of confidence than here in this sublime utterance. In a simpler way the same confidence was expressed by a little boy in trying to comfort his mother who had lately been bereft of her husband, because of which it had become necessary to give up the old home and go elsewhere to live. It was a sad leave-taking, for everything about the old place had grown sacred to her. On the train that bore her away her little boy sat by her side, and kept trying to cheer her up. Presently, as the train sped onward, he looked out the window and said: "Why, mother, God's sky is over yet; it's going right along with us." Oh that we might all make this great truth our own. God's sky is always over, going right along with us. Only let us put our trust in Him, and we have nothing to fear, even though the wings of time carry us into far-distant and perilous seas, even though death lay us low in sheol. Wherever we go or whatever may befall us, we can rest in the sure and blessed confidence that our lives are encompassed by the same mighty and gracious presence that compasses the earth, the sea and the heavens; that around us are the same everlasting and loving arms that are round about the universe. Life confronts us with many mysteries, many trials, troubles and sorrows, and in the end a bed in a grave. But what of all that, if "I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care?"
