By David ReayMonday 11 Aug 2014LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Psalm 139:7-12
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens,you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths,you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say,”Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. (NIV)
A poem from earlier centuries described God as ‘The Hound of Heaven’. The image was one of God eagerly pursuing those who were either apathetic towards him or even running away from him. Those who prefer darkness will flee from the light. Those who want to run their own race will run from the one who wants them to surrender such independence.
Then again,there are those who do the opposite: they flee to God. Facing the futility of a godless life,refugees from the far country,fed up with the disordered mess of circumstances,they rush to God for refuge and some sort of meaning and hope.
As the Psalmist reminds us,there is no place on earth to which we can run that is utterly devoid of God’s presence. We can run,but we can’t hide. We can flee,but we can’t shake him off. The world is shot through with the reality of God,ambiguous and mysterious though it might be.
The most sensible thing to do in the light of all that is to switch directions. To realise that escape is not the answer. To run,but towards a different goal. To embrace the one whose embrace we have resisted. To flee to the one from whom we have fled.
Blessings
David Reay