God's Presence

In reading through Genesis 4, I was struck by the seriousness and severeness of Cain's situation after his proud, self righteous coming into the presence of God. By the time we come to verse 14, Cain says to God, "You are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence. I will now be a restless wanderer." "So Cain went out from the Lord's presence." (v.16) I can't imagine the utter feeling of abandonment and lonely desperation.
Cain is not the only one in scripture that came to this desolate place...In 2 Kings 17:18-20 "the Lord was very angry with Isreal and removed them from His presence...even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord...so the Lord rejected all...gave them into the hands of plunderers until He thrust them from His presence."
King David had seen the rejected state of King Saul after the Lord removed His Holy Spirit(1Samuel 16:14) and in Psalm 51:11 David cries to God, "Do not cast me from Your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me."
In Jeremiah 7:13-15 God says to Isreal, "while you were doing all these things (murder, adultery, perjury, following other gods...), I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen, I called you but you did not answer...I will thrust you from my presence." In 52:3 Jeremiah says, "it was because of God's anger that all this happened...and in the end He thrust them from His presence." It was God's last resort, final action, after He had done all to save.
In sharp contrast, we see the welcoming of God's presence to those who have a humble and obedient heart before Him.
Psalm 31:19,20 says, "How great is Your goodness which You have stored up for those who fear you...in the shelter of Your presence You hide them."
Psalm 89"15 says, "Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim You, who walk in the light of Your presence, O Lord."
Psalm 139:7-12 says, "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there, if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkenss will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.'"
How about God's presence and me?
God says in Jeremiah 5:22, "Should you not fear me? Should you not tremble in my presence?"
Psalm 90:8 says that "You (God) have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence." Yet He also promises in 1 John 1:9 that when "we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
In Ezra 9:15 we find Ezra leading the remenent of Isreal that God has allowed to return to the land in a prayer of humility, confession and obedience. He says, "O Lord, God of Isreal, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remenent. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in Your presence. Then in the next verse that Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of the Lord and a large crowd of Isrealites gathered around him and they too wept bitterly.
Oh the delight of Jude 24 that declares that God is "able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy."
O Lord, in Your mercy, keep my heart pure before You so that I might dwell in Your presence all the days of my life.