“I This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe! can never be lost to your Spirit! I can never get away from my God!” Psalm 139:6, 7 TLB
The Hebrew word “radap” means to be aggressively pursued. We cannot get away from God. He is literally everywhere. Read the verses in Psalm 139:8-12 “If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are there. 9 If I ride the morning winds to the farthest oceans, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your strength will support me. 11 If I try to hide in the darkness, the night becomes light around me. 12 For even darkness cannot hide from God; to you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you.”
For some, they may think they are too far from God’s reach, but that is a huge underestimation of the Almighty. Whatever you have done or haven’t done is nothing too big for our big God. In Psalm 139, it says, “If I try to hide in the darkness,” and some try to hide from God. Perhaps fear has told them God would punish them, but in 1 John 4:18 it says, “Perfect love casts our fear.” Perhaps shame of one’s self-perception causes someone to hide from God, but the Father’s perspective is that a person is His son or daughter. Perhaps guilt causes a person to hide from God, but God sent Jesus to pay for their guilt, setting them free from their wrong-doing. God is coming after us, and there is no reason to hide.
There are lyrics to a song that speak to relentless love: “There’s no shadow You won’t light up, mountain You won’t climb up, coming after me. There’s no wall you won’t kick down, lie you won’t tear down, coming after me.” No matter where we are, we cannot escape the reach of God, and He is coming after us to overtake us with His love, His righteousness, and His forgiveness.
God will come after us, but He is never going to push or force Himself on us. He knows us better than anyone; He’s our Creator. He knows our life is found in Him. He knows we have a need, and HE is our answer. He knows the peace we seek can only be found in Him. He is the one who satisfies our thirst and calms the storm within.
John said in I John 4:19, “We love Him because He loved us first.” We didn’t know what this kind of love was until we encountered God. When we did, we realized this is for what we were made. Then we let Him catch us and loved Him back.
Application: Read the full chapter of Psalm 139 and think how well God knows you and loves you.