---
title: Psalms 139:7
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-139-7/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-139-7.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Psalms 139:7
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Psalms 139:7

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Where can I escape from your spirit, And where can I run away from your face?"

## JW Usage

JWs read Psalm 139:7 as poetic acknowledgement of Jehovah's far- reaching influence through his "active force" — consistent with their pneumatology where the holy spirit is impersonal divine energy rather than a person. They affirm the verse but do not connect it to the doctrine of God's exclusive omnipresence.

## Protestant Usage

David's rhetorical question — "Where can I escape from your spirit? Where can I run away from your face?" — frames omnipresence as a divine attribute belonging exclusively to Jehovah. The verse is load-bearing for the argument that Satan, in scripture, is never described in such terms. Satan goes to and fro on the earth (Job 1:7), prowls (1 Peter 5:8), can be resisted and made to flee (James 4:7), can be bound (Revelation 20:1-3) — all spatial verbs fit for a creature. Yahweh, by contrast, fills heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24); David cannot escape his Spirit. Granting Satan functional omnipresence ("Satan is behind every doubt", "Satan is at every door") collapses the Creator/creature distinction this Psalm protects.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Satan Is Not Omnipresent — Locomotion, Not Ubiquity](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/satan-functional-omnipresence.md) — Job 1:7 — Going to and fro on the earth [Holy Spirit]