Psalm 139:7-10 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Not that we would want to, but even if we tried, David makes it clear we cannot get away from the Lord. Go up as far as you can—travel to the farthest star. Go down as far as you can—dive to the ocean’s deepest trenches or dig to our planet’s core. He will still be there. Travel east to where the sun rises, travel west to where it sets (the far side of the Mediterranean Sea in the Holy Land), you still haven’t escaped him. Like it or not, he’s along for the journey, wherever your life ahead may take you.

But what’s not to like? “Even there your hand will guide me.” Life is filled with decisions. Where will I go to school? What career path will I pursue? Am I ready for marriage? For children? Should I buy or rent? Should I stay or leave? When have I put in enough time and can call it quits? There are decisions for the distant future we can’t even anticipate today. You haven’t, and you don’t, face this alone. Your Lord is with you, guiding you with his hand, even when it may not be clear where he is leading.

And he’s not critical if you need a little hand-holding right now. “Your right hand will hold me fast.” Isn’t that a dear picture? Like a little child, we slip our hands into his, and he gives us a reassuring squeeze to know that he isn’t going to let us slip away from him. We can’t get away from him, and he certainly has no desire to get away from us. We could not have been less appealing company when he gave up everything to live in our world, be rejected by it, and end up dead on a cross. But he did so to end the separation caused by our sins, to possess us and live with us forever.

Now he keeps holding on. Remember what Jesus said about his sheep in John 10? “No one can snatch them out of my hands” (vs. 28). Our Lord wants you to know the security and the peace that are yours because he promises to be with you whenever you need. He promises you will be with him when the very idea of “need” is nothing but a distant memory. He is with us always, because he is everywhere.