Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? - Psalm 139:11

I was listening to the worship song “Holy Spirit,” which has the reframe

           “Holy Spirit, You are welcome here;
         Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere;
            Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for;
           To be overcome by Your presence, Lord, “

and thought about its use in worship services as an invocation. How does someone invite the presence of something that is already present? The Psalmists in Psalm 139 makes clear his belief that there is absolutely nowhere that he can be that is absent from God’s spirit. “If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.” Psalms‬ ‭139:8‬. ‭

So what is the experience worshippers feel in the moment? Its a change in their awareness and the emotional response to that change in a awareness. Contemplative religious traditions approach these moments differently and teach their adherents to respond to them differently as well. The moment in meditation and mindfulness and the ecstasy of being filled are the same experience of momentary surrender of self. These moments in Christian worship services shouldn’t be understood as inviting God in to the service rather as the worshippers briefly putting away self to fully experience God’s presence.

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