What does it mean that God is omnipresent?

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The great passage on omnipresence is Psalm 139: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there." God's Omnipresence: No Escape, and No Need to Escape J. N. Darby sets the frame in his synopsis of Psalm 139, titled "Man's heart searched out: God's omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence": Psalm 139 shows the complete exercise of heart that belongs to God's ways. Though the faithfulness of God perfects all His purposed blessing, not a thought escapes God. There is, morally speaking, no staying in His presence; but there is no getting out of His presence, nor where He sees not, though conscience might be glad to flee. But this brings in another aspect. He knows all, because also He has formed all. This connects us with the taking perfect notice of us in goodness. He cares for us, watches over every member that is formed, as He knows our every thought; if He does, He has His own too, and these are precious to us. J. N. Darby Darby captures both sides: the conscience that "might be glad to flee" — and the discovery that omnipresence is really God taking "perfect notice of us in goodness." C. E. Stuart presses this further. He shows that knowing God is omnipresent, as a bare doctrine, gives the soul no comfort at all — it is only when God's thoughts toward us are revealed that the truth becomes precious: The sense of God's omniscience as well as of His omnipresence cannot provide that [comfort]. Rather the contrary. God's eye on him is no comfort. From under that eye he cannot escape, wherever he goes... What then can minister relief? The answer to this is very simple and very blessed. God's thoughts as revealed can do it... He has got quite away from thinking about himself, and is now occupied with God. C. E. Stuart Stuart traces a beautiful arc in the psalm: from unease ("O Jehovah, Thou hast searched me, and known me") to wonder ("How precious also are Thy thoughts to me, O God!") to willing surrender ("Search me, O God, and know my heart"). God Is Spirit — Therefore Omnipresent William Kelly, in his exposition of Paul at Athens, explains why God can be omnipresent — it flows from His nature as Spirit: "God is a spirit," and so can be omnipresent, as man's conscience bears witness to His penetrating energy throughout all mankind, unless stupefied by sin and infidelity, which drown thought of Him. William Kelly Kelly grounds this in Acts 17:28 — "in Him we live and move and are" — showing that God's omnipresence is not merely observation from afar; all men exist in Him and cannot for a moment step outside His presence. Not a Doctrine Alone, but a Searching Power A writer in The Christian Friend (1888), reflecting on Psalm 139, draws an important distinction — omnipresence is not merely an abstract truth but an experience of being searched by the living God: What is brought before us in this psalm is the searching power of the Spirit of Jehovah. It is not merely the omniscience of God, nor His omnipresence, which is felt when the truth of this psalm is realized, but the soul is brought into the presence of God. The very innermost recesses of the heart are pervaded by an all-searching power. Moreover, there is no hiding from it, no place where it is not. "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Heaven? Not only God is there; His presence fills it. Hades? "Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering." Omnipresence Belongs to All Three Persons Samuel Ridout shows that Psalm 139:7 ascribes omnipresence specifically to the Holy Spirit — proving His full Deity: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" (Ps. 139:7-8). Here one of the attributes of God — His omnipresence — is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Indeed, He is spoken of as God — "Thy presence." Thus the Spirit is omnipresent, eternal, omniscient and omnipotent. He is God. Samuel Ridout An Attribute God Does Not Share A. J. Pollock opens his study of divine titles with this sweeping statement: The greatest word that can pass human lips is GOD — GOD from all eternity to all eternity, uncreated, self-sustained, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, THE MIGHTY CREATOR and SUSTAINER, the One in whom we live, and move, and have our being. A. J. Pollock And he carefully notes that while believers partake of the divine moral nature, omnipresence is among the attributes God does not share: We have been made partakers of the Divine nature, not as being lifted to the level of Deity, that could never be, not that we should be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, but sharing the moral qualities of the Divine life, such as love, purity, compassion, holiness, righteousness, possessing a nature that can commune with God. F. W. Grant on "Spirit" and Omnipresent Activity F. W. Grant traces the very word pneuma (spirit) to the idea of invisible, omnipresent activity: What more simple than that pneuma, originally breath or wind, should give its name to the power that, omnipresent in its activity, acts unseen and uncontrolled? Hence "God is Spirit," and the third Person of the Trinity, whom Scripture represents as the immediate mover, both in creation and in new creation, is pre-eminently the "Spirit of God." In his exposition of Psalm 139, Grant shows how the psalmist moves from dread to rest: It is omnipresence simply that is in question... the wings of the dawn and the uttermost parts of the sea convey the thought apparently of the utmost solitude; but "even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand hold me."... Darkness and light are relative only to man; for God there is no difference. Synthesis God's omnipresence means He is everywhere — in heaven, in the depths, at the farthest reaches of creation — and nothing is hidden from Him. As Darby puts it plainly, "there is no getting out of His presence." This flows from His very nature as Spirit: because He is not material, He is not confined to a place. But every writer here insists that omnipresence is far more than a philosophical abstraction. It has a deeply personal, searching character. The Christian Friend article distinguishes between merely knowing that God is everywhere and actually being "brought into the presence of God" — where the innermost recesses of the heart are laid bare. Psalm 139 traces the journey every soul must take under this truth: first, an uneasy conscience that would flee from God's all-seeing eye but cannot; then, the transforming discovery of God's precious thoughts — that He formed us, watched over us, and cares for us — which turns dread into delight; and finally, the soul freely inviting the very scrutiny it once feared: "Search me, O God, and know my heart." Omnipresence belongs equally to all three Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it remains, as Pollock reminds us, one of God's incommunicable attributes: believers share His moral nature, but omnipresence belongs to God alone.

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