"If God is omnipresent, does that mean God is in hell?"
The cache write needs permission — I'll proceed with the answer itself.
The question touches a real tension in Scripture: Psalm 139:8 says "if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there," yet 2 Thessalonians 1:9 calls the final doom "everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord." The answer holds together three distinct truths.
I. God's Omnipresence Is Absolute — There Is No Escape
J.N. Darby, in his essay on Psalm 139, states that "Every human being has been searched by Omniscience, whether he is conscious of it or not." He then quotes the Psalmist's sweep of impossibilities:
J.N. Darby"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. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."
His conclusion: "We can never get from under this searching process."
Samuel Ridout, using the same passage to establish the deity of the Holy Spirit, writes:
Samuel Ridout"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 (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.'"
Morrish's Bible Dictionary lists omnipresence as one of the fundamental attributes of God, citing Psalm 139:7-10 and Jeremiah 23:23-24.
II. The "Hell" of Psalm 139 Is Sheol, Not Gehenna
This is the critical distinction. F.W. Grant, in his detailed commentary on Psalm 139 in the Numerical Bible, is precise:
F.W. Grant"In the first [subsection of Psalm 139:7-12], Spirit and presence are, I suppose, the same essentially, while heaven and hell — Sheol or hades, not Gehenna — are wide asunder: it is omnipresence simply that is in question."
David's word is sheol — the realm of departed spirits, the invisible underworld that receives the dead. It is not Gehenna, the word Christ uses for the final lake of fire. The Psalmist's point is that no corner of existence — not even the domain of the dead — lies outside God's awareness and power. Morrish's Dictionary confirms the distinction: sheol is "an invisible place or state" referring to departed spirits; Gehenna is the specifically eschatological place of eternal punishment — "the lake of fire."
III. The Terrible Paradox: The Wrath of the Lamb Is Presence, Not Absence
Here is where the question reaches its sharpest edge. Revelation 14:10-11 describes the final doom of the lost:
"...shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever."
F.W. Grant, in Eternal Punishment, quotes this very passage while defining "everlasting destruction":
F.W. Grant"the lake of fire is eternal distance from God, and wrath, in which the whole man suffers and 'reaps corruption.' ... 'Everlasting ruin' is in fact the meaning of 'everlasting destruction,' — the awful doom of such as 'shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.'"
J. Wilson Smith, preaching on the wrath of the Lamb, drives this home:
J. Wilson Smith"He who was led as a Lamb to the slaughter shall sit as a Judge on the throne. Meekness is not weakness, gentleness is not feebleness... if you stand before Him then you will be driven away to 'drink of the wine of the wrath of God… in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.'"
The final punishment is not God's absence — it is God's holy presence experienced as wrath, forever.
IV. "Away from the Presence of the Lord" — The Loss of the Gracious Presence
Yet 2 Thessalonians 1:9 speaks of being "away from the presence of the Lord" as the character of their doom. This must mean exclusion from the gracious, life-giving, joyful presence — the presence that is eternal life itself. Grant notes that eternal life is defined by Christ as knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3): the lost are shut out from that knowledge forever.
A.J. Pollock holds both truths in a single paragraph:
A.J. Pollock"He is all goodness, all love, all righteousness, all holiness, all faithfulness. Every attribute and quality that we can admire is absolute in its fulness in Him... a Being who is love, who is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent... But sin has come in. There is distance, infinite distance, between this wonderful Being and the sinner."
Omnipresence and distance are not a contradiction. They describe different things. God fills all things — but how His omnipresence is experienced depends entirely on one's relation to Him. To the saint, it is life and security. To the lost, it is the undying holiness of a judge they cannot escape.
Synthesis
God is in every sense omnipresent — even sheol is not beyond His reach (Ps 139:8). But the final state of the lost combines two terrible truths at once: they will stand forever in the active, wrathful presence of the Lamb (Rev 14:10-11), while being forever shut out from the gracious presence that is life (2 Thess 1:9). They will not be free of God — they will simply never know Him as anything but the righteous Judge whose wrath "abideth on" them. As Grant writes: "As long as God lives, the wicked shall exist, and exist as objects of His abiding wrath."