Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 24.
Maclaren (A.), Last Sheaves, 160.
Norton (J. N.), Every Sunday, 257.
Pearson (A.), The Claims of the Faith, 64.
Pierson (A. T.), The Heights of the Gospel, 63.
Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, iv. 297 ; viii. 73.
Raleigh (A.), Rest from Care and Sorrow, 1.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Till He Come, 23,
Watkinson (W. L.), The Ashes of Roses, 114.
Christian World, Nov. 10, 1910 (J. H. Jowett),
Christian World Pulpit, Ix. 378 (W, Glover) ; kx, 285 (A, S, Renton) ;
Ixxi. 219 (G. H. Morgan). Weekly Pulpit, i. 3 (P. T. Forsyth),
GoD'S Inner Circle.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. — Ps. xci. i.
The beauty of the language of this poem fitly corresponds to the grandeur of the thoughts which it conveys. The Psalmist here sings " to one clear harp in divers tones"; and the central thouglit which he exhibits in its different aspects is that of God's response to man. For every advance on man's part there is an immediate and corresponding advance on God's £art. When man goes out to seek God, God meets him more than half-way. When he calls upon God, God will answer him. Loving faith on man's part will be met by faithful love on the part of God. This is in the first verse, of which the whole psalm is an expansion. If man dwells " in the secret place of the Most High," he shall abide " under the shadow of the Almighty." We have here the condition and promise.
^ In his later years, Calvin's colleague at Geneva was Theodore de Beza (1519-1605), the wiicer of the metrical version of Psalm Ixviii., which was the battle-song of the Huguenots. Taste for the culture of the Eenaissance, passion for poetry, worldly success and fame, had weakened the impression of the religious training of his youth. A dangerous illness revived bis former feelings. Escaping from the bondage of Egypt, as he called his previous life, he took refuge with Calvin at Geneva. In 1548, when he for the first time attended the service of the Eeformed Assembly, the congregation was singing Psalm xci., " Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." He never forgot the effect of jthe words. They supported him in all the difiiculties of his subsequent life ; they conquered his fears, and gave him courage to meet every danger.^
^ " The 9l8t Psalm is a mountain of strength to all believers " ; BO General Gordon wrote from Gravesend in 1869, one of the six
' E. E. Prothcro, ITu Psalms in Human Li/e, 185. PS. XXV.-CXIX. — 1 6
242 GOD'S INNER CIRCLE
quiet years which he used to speak of as the happiest of his life. Again, thirteen years later, in January 1882, he wrote thus from Mauritius : " I dwell more or less (I wish it were more) under the shadow of the Almighty."
I.
In the Secret Place.
1. "He that dwelleth in the secret place^of the Most High." We get the clearest idea of the meaning of this phrase by an examination of the different passages in the Psalms where the word here translated " secret place " occurs. Thus in Psalm xxxi. 20, we read : " Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence"; also in Psalm Ixxxiii. 3, where another form of the same word occurs, we read of God's " hidden ones." From these and similar passages we find that the word is usually connected with the idea of a fugitive hiding from his pursuers. It calls up before us the picture of a man running away from his enemies. Weary and panting, he knows not where to hide himself, and in his despair he flees to some friend of his and seeks protection, and the friend hides him in a secret place. The fugitive gives his all into the keeping of his friend. He places his life in his friend's hands, and he has now power of life and death over him. So, then, the man who dwells in " the secret place of the Most High " is he who ventures his all upon God. With a sure and steadfast trust, with a simple but unwavering faith, he gives himself, his all, into the keeping of God. He surrenders himself to God, and by that very act he is taken near to God ; he is put in the secret place of the Most High and becomes one of " God's hidden ones." By his act of absolute self-surrender he has attained to that state which the Apostle Paul describes in language very similar to that of the Psalmist — only going a little furtlier than the latter with his imperfect light could go — when he says, " Ye died, and your new life is hid with Christ in God."
^ We are like vessels which are near a lee shore in the night. The darkness of the open sea is safer for the skilled seaman than the line of the shore. Our safety is to stand out in the bosom of the dark ; it is to press into the mysteries of God. Why is it