Cast Me Not Away

“Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).

David’s greatest fear was to be separated from God. A lot of the Psalms express this very fear. Separation from God should be our greatest fear too! To completely eliminate God from our life would be a horror too great to bear. To recognize the magnitude and scope of this void would be to recognize what we take for granted, and that is what God does for us every day, every hour and every second of our lives.

Unfortunately, man tends to think the only time God does something for him is when God does something grand, glorious and obvious. Man believes that God’s doings are restricted to miracles and divine interventions. Other than that, we think God pretty much takes a back seat and let’s “nature take its course”.

But here’s the thing about nature. God IS nature, or better put, nature is a manifestation and creation of God. God can be witnessed by all living creatures through nature, which reveals His nature. God is seen by all, whether they comprehend Him specifically or not is not the issue. But something supreme is understood by all.

“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12: 7-10).

"God’s entire divine nature is wholly and entirely in all creatures, more deeply, more inwardly, more present than the creature is to itself." (Martin Luther)

That spiritual feeling some folks experience when they are in nature is nothing more than the Holy Ghost inside of them reacting to the presence of God. Some are deceived into thinking that the creation is God, the Supreme Being. They worship the trees, mountains, animals, the ground and anything else to do with “nature”. They believe that in nature is some cosmic and universal life force. They are correct, there is a cosmic and universal life force. But it is God the creator and not nature the created that these deceived folks believe.

Sadly, some do understand that it is God being revealed through nature, but they refuse to acknowledge or accept it. Denying truth has no effect on truth, but does determine their consequence to truth.

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools…….Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves (Romans 1:21, 22, 24).

Did you catch that? God, “gave them up”.

God is in nature. God is nature. Those who claim to be “spiritual” but not Godly have been blinded by the devil. It is God they feel, it is God they are reacting to. But the devil has diverted those feelings to the creation and away from the creator.

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Generally speaking, man tends to think of God in terms of creation, but never in terms of God who maintains and sustains what He has created. God didn’t create heaven and earth and then walk away.  

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).

Did you catch that last part?

1. God is before all things.

2. God created all things (His job doesn’t stop here).

3. All things “consist” by God.

Consist means to hold together; as in the entire planet, stars, moon and the universe. God is active in, “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

“To uphold or to bear here means to preserve or to continue all that is created in its own state; for he intimates that all things would instantly come to nothing, were they not sustained by his power” (John Calvin).

Creation is past tense. “Consist” and “upholding all things” are very much active and in the present tense.

God, “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things….For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 28).

Our very being, our very existence is presently and actively held in God’s hands. Every breath we take, every move we make, God is there.

Which brings up an interesting point. God didn’t just create matter. God also created motion. God is the first cause of all things. God being the first cause, everything else is then the effect, or result of that cause. And the “things” in “upholding all things” goes beyond just physical things and motion. “Things” includes the, “visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers” (Colossians 1:16)

As Groucho Marx said in the movie, Animal Crackers, “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude”. The following “interlude” is from the second book of “Summa Contra Gentiles” by Thomas Aquinas. The brief snippet below sheds some light on God and creation and shows that God deals in realms well beyond just physical matter.

“Thus, God does not act only by moving and changing. On the other hand, every agent which cannot bring things into being except from pre-existing matter, acts only by moving and changing, for to make something out of matter is the result of some kind of motion or change. Therefore, to bring things into being without pre-existing matter is not impossible. Hence, God brings things into being without pre-existing matter….But God acts by no action which must be received in a patient, for His action is His substance….. Therefore, He requires no pre-existing matter in order to produce an effect.….. God who is pure act, must be absolutely prior to matter, and consequently the cause of it. Matter, then, is not necessarily presupposed for His action….it is evident that God’s action, which is without pre-existing matter and is called creation, is neither a motion nor a change, properly speaking. For all motion or change is the “act of that which exists potentially, as such.” But in the action which is creation, nothing potential pre-exists to receive the action, as we have just shown. Therefore, creation is not a motion or a change.” – Thomas Aquinas

“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me….“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. (Psalm 139: 2-5, 8-10).

Oh me, I truly hope you grasped the very last part from that Psalm. “Thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” God is present and active in each of our lives right now, right here, in all aspects of our life; from a simple heart beat and the air we breathe, to being with us whether its in Heaven or Hell. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, not in some philosophical or theological sense, but in very real terms.

It was by the word of God that heaven and earth was created (Genesis 1). It was by that same word, “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (1 Peter 3:6). But most importantly for us now, “the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store”.

To be “kept in store” is referring to the day by day operations, the maintenance and sustaining of heaven, earth and everything and anything connected with them. In other words, you, me, the dog, the sun, gravity, you name it and God literally has His hand in it, on it and around it.

Without God, there is nothing. Literally. I don’t know what you get if you take away nothing from nothing, but that’s what it would be like without God.

Now you understand David’s great fear and dread of being separated from God. Hopefully now you understand how entrenched God is in each of us, in every aspect of our life and how we simply would not exist without God. Even the atheist has a relationship with and dependency on God. They’re just too proud and arrogant to realize it.

Sin separates us from God. It is a spacer that pushes us away from Him. It blocks God from being in our life. Now you know why God, Jesus hate sin so much. Sin rips us away from Him. Repentance removes those spacers and acceptance of Christ as our Savior reunites us with our Lord.

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Keep me Lord. Forgive me Lord.

Bill Hitchcock