Jun 12
9
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD (John MacDuff, “The Night Watches”)
“Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Where shall I flee from Your presence?” Psalm 139:7
The omnipresence of God! How baffling to any finite comprehension! To think that above us, and around us, and within us — there is 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 in searching scrutiny through the tracks of immensity — and reading the dark and hidden page of my heart! “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!”
O God! shall this Your 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!” 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!
“Surely, I am with you always!” How precious, blessed Jesus, is this, Your legacy of parting love! Present with each of Your people until the end of time — ever present, omnipresent. The true “Pillar of cloud” by day — and “Pillar of fire” by night, preceding and encamping by us in every step of our wilderness journey. My soul! think of Him at this moment — as present with every member of the family that 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 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 — marking every tear-drop; 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 satisfy 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 un-befriended to weather the storms of life — Your hand is from hour to hour piloting my frail vessel. The omnipresence of God — 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 both lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me live in safety!” Psalm 4:8
For the temple shadowed forth not merely the work of grace upon the heart whereby the bodies of God’s people become the temple of the Holy Spirit, but also the whole church of God, who are living stones in that temple, which will one day shine forth in all its beauty and glory, and of which Solomon’s temple was but a feeble and imperfect type. Zerubbabel has laid the foundation below, and in each successive soul that he takes to glory there is another living stone laid in the glorious temple above. But the head-stone is not yet brought forth. There are many of the stones yet buried in the quarry; others are being hewed out of the rock, and dug from the hole of the pit; others are being chipped and hacked, to bring them into some fitting shape; and others, already squared and fashioned to occupy their destined place above, are lying for a short time amid the parings, chippings, and rubbish. The head-stone is not yet brought forth with shoutings.
But when the last vessel of mercy shall be safely gathered in, and the great, the glorious, the living temple shall stand forth in all its beautiful proportions and sublime grandeur; when Zerubbabel, the heavenly Architect, who laid the first and each successive stone, brings forth the head-stone, the key-stone of the arch, which binds in the roof and completely fastens the building, the arches of heaven will ring with shoutings; and there will be one universal burst of joy and exultation from the redeemed throng of “Grace, grace unto it.”
The sound of good works will not be heard there; creature righteousness will not be extolled there; there will be no discordant clink of man’s axe and hammer; there will not be a semi-chorus half round the throne above singing the praises of human piety and creature exertions; but there will be one universal song of harmony, extolling sovereign, superabounding grace.
And if the Lord does not teach us the first note of the song of the Lamb here below, depend upon it, we shall never sing it hereafter. But O, what harmony will come in a full body from the heavenly choir, when there will not be one discordant note, nor one jarring sound, but all will be in sweet melody, and “grace, grace,” will still be the song throughout the countless ages of eternity!
But what a deal of exercise and work upon the conscience it takes to make a man feelingly join in that note! What depths of man’s depravity must be known as well as heights of redeeming mercy! What an acquaintance is needed with the workings of a fallen nature! What troubles, exercises, perplexities, and temptations has the soul to wade through, and what testimonies and deliverances to experience before it is fit to join in that triumphant song.
Now, if the literal temple had been built up without any trouble whatever; if all had gone on smooth and easy, there would not have been any shouting of “grace, grace,” when it was finished. But when they saw how the Lord had brought a few feeble exiles from Babylon; how he had supported them amid, and carried them through all their troubles; and how he who laid the foundation had brought forth the head-stone, all that stood by could say, “Grace, grace unto it.” It was these very perplexities and trials that made them join so cheerily in the shout, and made the heart and soul to leap with the lips when they burst forth with “Grace, grace unto it.”
And who will shout the loudest hereafter? He who has known and felt the most of the aboundings of sin to sink his soul down into grief and sorrow; and most of the super-aboundings of grace over sin to make him triumph and rejoice. Who will have most reason to sing, “Grace, grace?” The lost and ruined wretch, who has feared that he should go to hell a thousand times over, and yet has been delivered thence by sovereign grace, and brought to the glory and joy of heaven. No other person is fit to join in that song; and I am sure no other will join in it but he who has painfully and experimentally known the bitterness of sin, and the evil of a depraved heart; and yet has seen and felt that grace has triumphed over all, in spite of the devil, in spite of the world, and in spite of himself, and brought him to that blessed place where many times he was afraid he should never come! Philpot extract from the mountain made a plain.