^ This wonderful Psalm has always been a favourite with the Mystic and the Quietist. For it expresses what we may call the Beatitude of the Inner Circle. Most religions have distinguished carefully between the rank and file of the faithful, and that select company of initiates who taste the hidden wisdom and have access to the secret shrine. From the nature of the case some such distinction exists even in the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ Him- self allowed a difference between " His own friends " and those many disciples who are servants still. Only we must never forget on what this difference depends. The Father, who is Lord of heaven and earth, has seen good to hide His secrets from the wise and prudent, and to reveal them unto babes. While from the inmost sanctuary of Christian experience a Voice cries continually, " Whosoever will let him come freely — if he be content to come as a little child." ^
J T. H. Darlow, The Upward Culling, 38.
250 GOD'S INNER CIRCLE
1. What does the Psalmist mean by "abiding under the shadow " ? Does he mean to say that the shadow of the Almighty rests on the secret place? At first sight it would seem so, but such a conclusion would not be in harmony with the trend of thought throughout the Psalm. What he appears really to teach is that, when a niaii regularly communes with God in secret, then, wherever he goes, the shadow of the Almighty shall rest upon him, and in times of trial and danger shall shelter and protect him. As the pillar ^f cloiuLby day and the pillar of fire by night went before the children of Israel, and was both a guide and a shelter to them, so the shadow of the Almighty shall ever rest upon those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High. A shadow is produced when some object intercepts the light. Here it re- presents God placing Himself in front of the sun, to screen His people from heat. The sun shall not smite them by day, nor the moon by night.
^ The last poems of Miss Havergal are published with the title, Under His Shadow, and the preface gives the reason for the name. She said, " I should like the title to be. Under His Shadow. I seem to see four pictures by that : under the shadow of a rock in a weary plain ; under the shadow of a tree ; closer still, under the shadow of His wing ; nearest and closest, in the shadow of His hand. Surely that hand must be the pierced hand, that may oftentimes press us sorely, and yet evermore encircling, upholding, and shadowing." ^
2. Now it is one thing to be touched by the shadow of the Almighty, another to abide within that shadow. One has not lived long, or has lived only on the surface, who has never for a moment been touched by the shadow of God. It may have fallen upon us in one or other of several experiences. It may have come to us in some reverse of fortune, in some change in our prospects. Or it may have come to us in some bodily illness or the threaten- ing of some illness. Or it may have come to us, as so much with regard to the unseen world comes to us all, in the great silence of a bereavement. But there is probably not one of adult years who has not had at least one experience which has touched him to the quick and has brought him for the time being face to face with God. And yet, if we are strict with ourselves, we shall have
» C. H. Spur^eou, Till lie Come, 23.
PSALM xci. I 251
to confess that as the trouble eased the high seriousness which it brought began to pass away, so that probably not one of us lias worked out into our life and character the holy intentions which we proposed to ourselves on a certain day when our heart was sore. We have lost from ourselves a certain dignity, a certain superiority to the world which was ours in days that we can still recall, when some suspense was keeping our heart open, when in some precious concern of our life we were depending utterly upon God for something. To be touched — that is the work of God, the work of life upon us ; whereas to abide requires the consent of our will. In order to abide it needs that the whole man, who knows that in the personal crisis God was singling him out, shall live henceforth by the wisdom and calling, of that hour. It needs that he shall depart from all the iniquity which the light of that holy hour revealed to him.
^ The original meaning of the word here translated " abide " is " to wrap up in a garment for warmth and rest during the cool of the night." The reflexive form of the verb is here used : " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall wrap himself round in the shadow of the God of Might." Nearness to God is to be to him as the garment which the traveller wraps around him as he goes to sleep in the desert, when the chills of night descend. God's immediate presence is to be wrapped round about him for his protection.^