Psalm 139:7-10, Matthew 28:20, Jeremiah 23:23-24
The Inescapable God
David's meditation in Psalm 139 moves from God's omniscience to His omnipresence:
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. — Psalm 139:7-10
Heaven and Sheol — the highest and the lowest. The uttermost parts of the sea — the most remote. There is no place where God is not. He cannot be fled from, hidden from, or left behind.
What Omnipresence Does Not Mean
Omnipresence does not mean that God is everything — that is pantheism, the view that God and the universe are identical. God is present everywhere, but He remains distinct from what He pervades. He is not the universe; He is its Creator and Sustainer who fills all of it with His presence.
Omnipresence also does not mean that God is equally accessible everywhere. The Bible speaks of God 'drawing near' and 'being far' in relational terms that are distinct from His ontological presence everywhere. When Scripture says God is 'near to the brokenhearted' (Psalm 34:18), it is describing a relational nearness that is distinct from the general fact of His omnipresence.
The Double Edge
Like omniscience, omnipresence has a sobering and a comforting dimension.
Sobering: There is no private sin. The person who sins in secret is sinning in the presence of the holy God. Jonah discovered that you cannot flee from the presence of the Lord — the very fish that swallowed him was in God's sovereign hand.
Comforting: There is no situation in which the believer is alone. No prison cell, no hospital room, no foreign country, no dark night of the soul — God is there. Jesus' promise to His disciples: "I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20). Paul's confidence in the Macedonian prison (Acts 16), in the Jerusalem temple (Acts 23:11), in the Roman house arrest (Acts 28) — the presence of God was constant.
The most isolated human being on earth is never alone if they belong to God.