What does it mean that God is omnipresent?
God is present everywhere at once — in heaven, on earth, in every hidden corner — and nothing can be shut away from Him. That truth raises two questions the commentators take up: does it mean God is somehow mixed into the universe He made, and is His constant presence a threat or a comfort?
Present in every place
One writer sets out the sweep of the doctrine plainly, gathering the places Scripture names.
James McBroomIn omnipresence there is the presence of God in every place. If it is heaven, He is there; it is His home. And earth: "Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD" (Jer. 23:24). "Sheol is naked before God" (Job 26:6; Psalm 139:8). God is everywhere: He fills all places at all times. He fills space, earth, sea, and land. He fills our homes; with Him there can be no in and out, no above and beneath.
Wholly present, not spread thin
Being everywhere does not mean God is divided up, with a portion of Him here and a portion there.
Samuel RidoutBy God's omnipresence we simply understand that He is Himself, in His divine completeness, everywhere present. He puts forth all His power throughout infinity constantly.
Not the same as pantheism
Filling all things is not being all things. God is not contained by the world He made, nor identified with it.
J. N. DarbyAs to omnipresence, God has no more to do with space than with time. He has created all things in a way we can grasp. In this creation nothing escapes Him. He is, morally speaking, omnipresent. He is not of it, or in it, but pervades it. He is "through all"! He upholds everything, as He creates everything.
The alternative view is answered with a simple picture:
A. J. PollockPantheistic theology is about as sensible as if I were showing you a table and told you that the carpenter who made it was not only in the table, but that the table was the carpenter himself.
Uncontainable, yet He comes near
The God no space can hold is the God who takes up residence in the smallest places.
Hamilton SmithGod, who bounds everything else, is Himself without bounds… "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Jer. 23:24). The humble heart is His throne, as regards His gracious presence (Isa. 57:15); and heaven is His throne, as regards His glorious presence (Isa. 66:1); and yet neither of these thrones will hold Him, for the highest heaven cannot contain Him.
Solomon faced the same tension when the temple was finished, and one commentator refuses to resolve it away:
Leslie M. GrantHe is infinite, without limits, and omnipresent, present everywhere at all times. We cannot understand the greatness of His being. He cannot be confined anywhere, yet in a very real sense He dwelt in the temple… This is a paradox in which we may rejoice.
No hiding place
God tells people He fills heaven and earth for a reason — to end a certain kind of self-deception.
William J. HockingGod often warns all men in His word of His omniscience, so that they may not fall into the foolish delusion of imagining that they can conceal themselves, or anything about themselves, from Him. "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD" (Jer. 23:24).
From dread to invitation
Psalm 139 itself moves. The same inescapable presence that first makes a person want to run becomes something the heart asks for.
J. N. DarbyThe natural man says, "Where shall I flee from Your presence?" But at the end (Ps. 139) he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart."
Seen in Christ
Commentators point to Jesus as the place where this attribute is displayed in a Man. Speaking to Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, He described Himself as in heaven while standing on earth.
Robert F. WallAt that very moment when He was speaking on earth He was "the Son of man which is in heaven." He is God and as such He is present everywhere at the same time. The incarnation did not change this.
(The wording quoted is from an older translation; the ESV of John 3:13 reads, "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.")
What it changes in daily life
The doctrine is not for the study only. Believed, it reshapes ordinary conduct.
C. H. MackintoshIf we could only bear in mind that God hears us and sees us — hears our every word, and sees our every thought, our every way — how differently we should carry ourselves! What holy watchfulness we should keep over our thoughts, our tempers, and our tongues!
Summary
- Everywhere — God fills all places at all times; heaven, earth and the grave are all open to Him.
- Wholly — He is not thinned out across space but present everywhere in His full divine completeness.
- Distinct — He pervades creation without being creation; the maker is not the table He made.
- Near — The God the highest heaven cannot contain still makes a humble heart His throne.
- Searching — Because no secret place hides you, the honest response moves from "where can I flee?" to "search me."