[Certain it is, that God is everywhere present. " If we should go up to heaven, he is there ; or down to the grave or the abodes of departed spirits, he is there." There is no point of space where he is not, or where he is not as wholly and entirely present as in heaven itself. " The heavens cannot con- tain him." He himself puts the question to every child of man ; " Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him ? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth ? saith the Lorda." It is in vain therefore for us to think of hiding ourselves from him, since in every place " he besets us both behind and before, and so lays his hand upon us," that it is not possible for us to escape. He is present with us, " to lead us," if we seek his guidance ; or "to hold us," if we would attempt to run from him.]
Together with the omnipresence of the Deity, the Psalmist further asserts also his omniscience —
[The eyes of God are continually upon the ways of the children of men. What men know only by searching, God knows by a single glance of his eye, and as perfectly, as if he had "searched" with the utmost care and diligence into the minutest parts and circumstances of every transaction. Even the thoughts, yea, and every imagination of the thoughts of men's hearts, are open to him, together with the whole frame and habit of our minds. Are we retiring to rest, or lying upon our bed, or rising from thence after our night's repose 1 he knows precisely in what state we are. He sees whether we are calling our ways to remembrance, and humbling ourselves before him, and imploring mercy at his hands, together with grace that we may serve him more acceptably; or whether our minds be running out after earthly objects, and occupied about the things of time and sense. Do we go forth to our respective callings ? he sees by what motives we are actuated, and by what principles we are governed. Whatever fraud we may practise in our dealings with men, or whatever artifice we may use to promote our own interests, he is privy to it : on the other hand, whatever dispositions we may exercise, or actions we may perform, for the glory of his name, he beholds them also. We may be so unostentatious, that even our right hand may not know what our left hand doeth : but he knoweth it, and marks it with his special favour. So likewise in the public assemblies of his people, he sees whether in our devotions we be humble, fervent, and believing ; or whether we have a mere form of godliness, without the power of it. In a word, wherever we be, in public or in private, he knoweth infinitely more of us than the best-instructed Christian in the universe can know of
a Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.