Our sermon title this morning is “The Secret Place”. “The Secret Place”.
The Scripture text before us for our nourishment, where this ‘secret place’, is referred to, is the first verse of the 91 st Psalm. Psalm 91, verse 1, which reads:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Children often have a secret hiding place – somewhere to get away where they can feel safe and secure.
Psalm 91, one of the most loved psalms in the Bible, describes a similar, but spiritual position of safety, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, that is, secure in the presence of God.
Verse 1 summarizes the entire Psalm, which, in its entirety, gives us a deeper understanding of the nature of this “secret place” and what it means to ‘dwell’ there.
Let us open our hearts to these precious words. Hear now the 91 st Psalm:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence.
He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side, And ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you.
Only with your eyes shall you look, And see the reward of the wicked.
Because you have made the LORD, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
In theirhands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.”
Amen.
The promise made in this exquisite Psalm is to all those Godly persons who have faced, and will face, challenges & problems; times of distress & fear, sickness and persecution…
Believers are assured of divine protection and security amid the dangers of life.
This is the one psalm quoted by satan when he tempted our Lord in the wilderness, as recorded in Matthew chapter 4, verses 5-6, which reads:
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
Of course our Lord quoted back Deuteronomy 6:16 that you shall not tempt the LORD your God .
The book of Hebrews chapter 1, verse 14, in reference to the angels, reads: are they not ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?
Even so, God’s sending forth angels to minister to believers must not be proof texted into a presumptuous demand for physical guardianship.
We can’t just go jump off a cliff or go swimming with alligators, presuming to be providentially protected from harm.
Considering the full counsel of Scripture, the fact is that believers do suffer, as it is also written that in the world you will have tribulation – that’s from John 16:33 – Jesus is speaking there; the complete verse reads:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
So Psalm 91 doesn’t promise believers a blanket indemnity from all ills, rather it tells us, as the apostle Paul wrote in the epistle to the Philippians, that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus . (Philippians 4:7)
All the Psalms and Prophets, and indeed all the Scriptures, testify of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who reconciles fallen mankind to God, restoring our access to the secret dwelling-place of intimate, personal relationship with the Almighty.
The ‘secret place of the most High’, then, is that spiritual closeness to God that reflects the Christian’s intimate union with Him as an adopted child of God in Christ.
Our text overviews the conditions of this blessed union and the benefits thereof.
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.
Note that it states: He that dwells in the secret place… it doesn’t speak of “He that visits.” To dwell is not to pop in from time to time. It is a condition of habitual residence.
The Hebrew word for “dwell” is “yashov,” which means: “to be quietly, constantly remaining in the same place – a place where rest is the distinguishing feature.”
This was typified in the last days of the old covenant when the temple was still standing, in the gospel of Luke in chapter 2, verse 37 where the prophetess Anna is presented, as follows: and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day …
Now beloved, the temple veil, which blocked off the inner sanctum, was torn from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross in AD30. We now have access, through Jesus Christ, to that inner sanctum - the holy of holies… – in the old testament typology this was the secret place, which was only accessible by the high priest of Israel once a year.
But now …the Forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek . Hallelujah! …
It can be said that the one who is in intimate, personal, secret, abiding communion with God, in terms of the old testament prefiguration, dwells near the mercy-seat, within the veil.
This privilege is not for the ungodly; neither is it for carnal believers, but for those walking with God.
There is a clear and personal distinction here between born-again believing Christians and unregenerate unbelievers. This distinction between the godly and the ungodly is ever so starkly presented in Psalm 1, which reads:
BLESSED is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; b ut his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
The secret place, then, is reserved for Christians who have been reckoned righteous in God’s sight by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Intimate friends, like Jonathan and David, during the reign of Israel’s first King, Saul, met for communion in secret and unknown places.
David wrote in Psalm 119 of the LORD thusly: You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.
Psalm 27:5 reads:For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.
…and Psalm 31:20:You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.
Nowadays, we might think of this secret place of protection as analogous to a shelter zone hidden from a storm.
Sheltered protection is commonly signified in Scripture by a shadow .
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the almighty.
The psalmist supplicates in chapter 17 verse 8: Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings
…and in chapter 36, verse 7 he sings: How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
Notice it is sheltering wings which provide the protective shadow, using the figure of the care of a mother-bird for her young.
Just as the Lord Jesus Christ said He often wanted to gather the children of Jerusalem: together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings…
…even as the outstretched wings of the cherubim covered the ark and mercy seat in the most holy place in the tabernacle and temple.
Listen to the construction specifications for the tabernacle as commanded by the LORD in Exodus 25, starting with verse 18::
18 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. 19Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. 20The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. 21And you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark, and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you. 22There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.
God had commanded Israel to build Him a Tabernacle, and in the Most Holy Place in that Tabernacle would rest the Ark of the Covenant containing the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. On top of that Ark was the “mercy-seat,” which was flanked by two cherubim or angels, one on either side of the mercy seat.
The mercy-seat was the place of God’s presence where He spoke to Moses; and also where Aaron would bring the blood of the sacrifice to make atonement for himself and Israel.
When Solomon built the Temple he built cherubim on both sides of the mercy seat in the most holy place according to the same design (you can read about the temple construction in 1 st Kings, chapter 6).
Now fast-forward to 30AD, when according to the account of the resurrection in John’s gospel:
…Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
The reference is fleeting and might be easily missed, especially without more than a cursory acquaintance with the Old Testament…
Mary saw two angels, one at either side of the slab of rock where Jesus' body had lain.
Those heavenly messengers were just as pictured by the cherubim on either side of the mercy seat in the temple.
The reality had come which the mercy seat of the tabernacle and temple had only pictured.
The empty tomb had for that moment become the antitype of the Most Holy Place.
Jesus had come to fulfill all of the Old Testament types and shadows, which pointed to Him.
When He was sacrificed on the Cross, He fulfilled the picture of the Passover lamb;
and lying in the tomb with the angels watching over His body, He fulfilled the figure of the mercy seat… but the grave couldn’t hold him, and He was gone.
And having ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on High, He is now our Living Mercy Seat in heaven,so as the writer to the Hebrews proclaimed:
"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).
The promise of our text then, is that there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.
The Christian brought into the very presence of the Most High and dwelling there, shall have security, safety and peace under the shadow of the Almighty.
…and the one who delights to make his home in the shelter of the Almighty will remain in that most blessed state.
As Jesus promised, “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” (John 6:37)
And as Isaiah said of the Lord: You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. (Isaiah 26:3)
And finally, our text features two especially lofty names for God:
‘The Most High’ in Hebrew is Elyon:a designation reserved for the LORD, indicative of His exaltation above all;
This name first appears in Genesis 14:18, when Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High (El Elyon).
and ‘The Almighty’ in Hebrew is Shaddai: another superlative name for the LORD, declaring His omnipotence.
It is found in the book of Job more than any other book of the Bible, as at the beginning of chapter 40:“The Lord said to Job: ‘Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? (El Shaddai)(Job 40:1) .
He who dwells in the secret place of El Elyon, shall abide under the shadow of El Shaddai.
In closing then, the one who dwells in ‘the secret place’ is living a life of communion with God, protected, refreshed, and comforted by Him, and that to all eternity; by the power of the Spirit of truth, through Jesus Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Let us pray:
Gracious Father, we thank You that You have sent Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the fulfillment of all the old covenant types and shadows; and in whom we are built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Give us understanding according to Your word, and strengthen our faith, that we may live all our days in Your presence and for Your glory. For Christ’s sake, amen.
[Preached by PCA Ruling Elder Gordon Graham]