When Hagar, Sarah’s maid, fled from the face of her mistress she little understood that the eye of the God of heaven was upon her. Yet this was the case and the Lord was to teach her this lesson. The Lord, whose eye was upon her all the way she went, sent His Angel to her who found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. The words of the Angel to her were: “Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.” The Angel also gave her the promise of a seed that would not be numbered for multitude through Ishmael who would be born to her. It was now that Hagar realised that she was under the eye of the God of heaven for she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me.
God is omnipresent and omniscient. The Psalmist had to say concerning Him:
“His eyes do see, His eyelids try
men’s sons. The just He proves
But His soul hates the wicked man,
and him that violence loves.”
His eyes are upon the righteous and the wicked. So it is written, “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” This is because God sees and knows the sons of men full well. Nothing escapes His notice. He “will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Though God bides His time and delays judgment, it is not because He does not take notice or know what is going on. “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” There is no creature that is not manifest in His sight. This is a lesson which we all have to learn: “Thou God seest me.”
David in Psalm 139 gives expression to the realisation he had of God’s omniscience and omnipresence when he says, “Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts 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.” Again he gave expression to similar sentiments in the words that follow a little later:
“From Thy Sp’rit whither shall I go?
or from Thy presence fly?
Ascend I heav’n, lo, Thou art there;
there, if in hell I lie.
Take I the morning wings, and dwell
in utmost parts of sea;
Ev’n there, Lord, shall Thy hand me lead,
Thy right hand hold shall me.
Was it any wonder that he had to say in the midst of it all, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it”?
To the godless this message — Thou God seest me — cannot be a welcome one. The desire of the ungodly is to escape from the eye of God, to hide themselves in secret places where the eye of God cannot behold them. One of these secret places is forgetfulness of God. The thought is that if I forget God, God has ceased to exist for me and can take no notice of me. What foolishness there is in the heart of man! How unreasonable to suppose that because we have closed our eyes that the sun has gone out. Yet such is the perversity of the wicked that they would rather believe this than take cognizance of God’s omniscience and omnipresence. Let sinners lay to heart that there is no escape from an all-seeing God, and that when the books are opened at the great day of Judgment everything will be found written therein.
For the gracious soul this message — Thou God seest me — bears a different aspect altogether. How much comfort the tried, afflicted people of God have derived from these words, Thou God seest me. Under oppression, affliction and trouble, as well as in their seasons of favour and blessing, this comforting word holds true. Let them go down into the greatest depths, it is still — Thou God seest me. This was Job’s experience: “He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” And so it is in the personal experience of each one of His saints. They are comforted by this knowledge that the Lord is watching over them for good and that he will uphold them and keep them from falling. So, too, are they comforted in this — that the Lord knows them altogether, their sins, their faults, the corruption that is within them, and that, therefore, in the provision that He has made in Christ for them is provision to meet their every need.
Let us take this word then — Thou God seest me — and endeavour by a believing reception of it to make it our own, and let us hold it ever before our eyes and heart as a warning and as an encouragement day by day to guide us and to keep us in the way. It is a motto suitable for all — Thou God seest me.