Night Watches by John McDuff
The Omnipresence of God Where can I go from your spirit? Where
can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139 verse 7 The Omnipresence of God. How
baffling to any finite comprehension. To think that above us and around
us and within us there is nothing but Deity. The invisible footprints
of an omniscient, omnipresent One. His eyes are in every place,
on rolling planets and tiny atoms, on the bright seraph and the
lowly worm, roaming and searching scrutiny through the tracks of
immensity and reading the dark and hidden page of my heart.
All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do. God, I feel your presence near.
Everywhere over nature's face, wherever I turn my eye, your
living footsteps trace. Nothing can sever me from thee.
Everywhere you are with me. Oh God, shall this omnipresence
appall me? No, in my seasons of sadness
and sorrow and loneliness, when other comforts and comforters
have failed, when it may be in the darkness and silence of some
midnight hour, in vain I have sought repose. How sweet to think
my God is here. I am not alone. The Omniscient
One, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, is
hovering over my sleepless pillow. He that keeps Israel neither
slumbers nor sleeps. O my unsetting sun, it cannot
be darkness or loneliness or sadness where you are. There
can be no night to the soul which has been cheered with your glorious
radiance. Lo, I am with you always. How precious, blessed Jesus,
is this your legacy of parting love in the midst of your church
until the end of time ever-present, omnipresent, the true pillar
of cloud by day and of fire by night, preceding and encamping
by us in every step of our wilderness journey. My soul, think of Him
at this moment, in the mysteriousness of His Godhead nature, and yet,
with all the exquisitely tender sympathies of a glorified humanity,
as present with every member of the family He has redeemed
with His blood. Yes, and as much present with
every individual soul, as if he had none other to care for,
but as if that one engrossed all of his affection and love.
The Great Builder, surveying every stone and pillar of his
spiritual temple. The Great Shepherd, with his
eye on every sheep of his fold. the Great High Priest and Elder
Brother, marking every teardrop, noting every sorrow, listening
to every prayer, knowing the peculiarities of every case,
no number perplexing him, no variety bewildering him. able
to attend to all, and overtake all, and answer all. Myriads drawing hourly from His
treasury, and yet no diminution of that treasury, ever emptying
and yet ever filling, and always full. Jesus, Your perpetual and
all-pervading Presence turns darkness into day, I am not left
befriended to weather the storms of life, if your hand be from
hour to hour piloting my frail bark, gracious antidote to every
earthly sorrow. I have set the Lord always before
me. Even now as night is drawing
its curtains around me, be this my closing prayer. Blessed Savior, abide with me,
for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. Under the
shadowing wings of your presence and love, I will lie down and
sleep in peace. For you alone, O Lord, make me
dwell in safety. Psalm 4 verse 8