Oh, I am well aware. David was probably using hyperbole but his point was that God would be with him always.
Yes, and I am very much in agreement with what you said about God not forcing anyone to be with Him. This is an idea I first heard listening to William Lane Craig’s commentary on hell. I think it gels well with God’s dedication to free will as a ultimate good in humans for it allows the choice between good and evil, far more valuable than the programed state.
When discussing hell with non-believers, who often take issue with the concept as some kind of coercion or unfairness, I always point out that since the coming of Jesus, God has given the choice of hell to you as another alternative to being with Him for all eternity.
Their common response is “that’s not fair! So I have to love God or I suffer for eternity?!”
To which I tell them that God cannot help his nature, that He is the locus of all good, and you have to accept that a world apart from him cannot logically be a good place. It is void of good.
It is like choosing a world void of heat, and then complaining that its too cold.
Where in G-d’s creation isn’t He found? If He created it, and is not found there, is he separate from it? (ie, the Hell you speak of?)
With full warning that it’s (only) the Jewish viewpoint of the Jew King David, but it literally means, to Jews, that G-d is everywhere. We are ‘within’ Him, and He encompasses all realms/worlds.
BTW, the Psalm you quote means that we (Jews) are always obligated by G-d’s commandments for us. (and Non-Jews by their 7 commandments.) In the highest heights the righteous are still obligated, and in the lowest depths the sinners are still obligated to perform the commandments.
You mean to tell me Christians look at it otherwise? ;)