1. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. The blessings here promised are not for all believers, but
for those who live in close fellowship with God. Every child of God looks
towards the inner sanctuary and the mercy-seat, yet all do not dwell in
the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional appraoches,
but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence. Those who through
rich grace obtain unusual and continuous communion with God, so as to abide in
Christ and Christ in them, become possesors of rare and special benefits, which
are missed by those who follow afar off, and grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
Into the secrt place those only come who know the love of God in Christ Jesus,
andf those only dwell there to whom to live is Christ. To them the veil
is rent, and the awful glory of the Most High is apparent: these, like Simeon,
have the Holy Spirit upon them, and like Anna they depart not from the temple;
of them it is truly said that their conversation is in heaven. Special grace
like theirs brings with it special immunity. Outer court worshipers little know
what belongs to the inner sanctuary, or surely they would press on until the
place of nearness and divine familiarity became theirs. Those who are the
Lord’s constant guests will find that he will never let any be injured within
his gates.
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The omnipotent Lord will shield all those who dwell with
him; they will remain under his care as guests under the protection of their
host. This protection is constant—they abide under it, and it is
all-sufficient, for it is the shadow of the Almighty,
whose omnipotence will surely screen them from all attack. The more closely we
cling to our Almighty Father, the more confident may we be.
2. I will say of the Lord,
he is my refuge and my fortress.
To take up a general truth and make it our own by personal faith is the highest
wisdom. Those who believe should also speak—I will say—for
such bold avowals honor God and lead others to seek the same confidence. Let
others say what they will, be it ours to say of the Lord, “He is our refuge.”
But what we say we must prove by our actions; we must fly to the Lord for
shelter, and not to an arm of flesh. Let us, when we are secure in the Lord,
rejoice that our position is unassailable, for he is our fortress as
well as our refuge. Walls cannot keep out the pestilence, but the Lord can.
As if it were not enough to call the Lord his refuge and
fortress, he adds, My God! In him will I trust. Now he can say no more; my
God means all, and more than all, than the heart can conceive by way of
security. It was most meet that he should say, in him will I trust,
since to deny faith to such a one were willfull wickedness and wanton insult.
He who dwells in an impregnable fortress naturally trusts in it; and will not
he who dwells in God feel himself well at ease, and repose his soul in safety?
3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the
fowler. Assuredly no subtle plot will
succeed against one who has the eyes of God watching for his defense. We are
foolish and weak as poor little birds, and are very apt to be lured to our
destruction by cunning foes, but if we dwell near to God, he will see to it
that the most skillfull deceiver will not entrap us. And from the noisome
pestilence. He who is a Spirit can protect us from evil spirits; he who is
mysterious can rescue us from mysterious dangers; he who is immortal can redeem
us from mortal sickness. There is a deadly pestilence of error; we are safe
from that if we dwell in communion with the God of truth. There is a fatal
pestilence of sin; we shall not be infected by it if we abide with the thrice
Holy One. There is also a pestilence of disease, and even from that calamity
our faith shall win immunity if it be of that high order which abides in God, walks
on in calm serenity, and ventures all things for duty’s sake. It is not of all
believers that the psalmist sings, but only of those who dwell in the secret
place of the Most High. Too many among us are weak in faith, and in fact place
more reliance in a phial or a globule than in the Lord and giver of life, and
if we die of pestilence as others die it is because we acted like others. The
great mercy is that in such a case our deaths are blessed, and we are forever
with the Lord. Pestilence to the saints will not be noisome but the messenger
of heaven.
4. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his
wings shalt thou trust. As a hen
covers her chickens, so does the Lord protect the souls which dwell in him; let
us cower down beneath him for comfort and for safety. His truth—his true
promise, and his faithfulness to his promise—shall be thy shield and
buckler. Double armor has he who relies upon the Lord. He bears a shield
and wears an all-surrounding coat of mail—such is the force of the word “buckler.”
We will wear no other ornament; his truth will still be our shield and buckler.
5. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night. Night is when our fears turn the sweet season of repose
into one of dread, and though angels are abroad and fill our chambers, we dream
of demons and dire visitants from hell. Blessed is that communion with God
which renders us impervious to midnight frights, and horrors born of darkness.
Not to be afraid is in itself an unspeakable blessing, since for every suffering
which we endure from real injury we are tormented by a thousand griefs which
arise from fear only. The shadow of the Almighty removes all gloom from the
shadow of night. Nor for the arrow that flieth by day. That arrow is not
made which can destroy the righteous, for the Lord has said, “No weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper.” In times of great danger those who have
made the Lord their refuge, and therefore have refused to use the carnal
weapon, have been singularly preserved; the annals of the Quakers bear good
evidence to this; yet probably the main thought is that from the cowardly
attacks of crafty malice those who walk by faith will be protected, from
cunning heresies they will be preserved, and in sudden temptations they will be
secured from harm. Day has its perils as well as night, and we shall be their
victims unless we find both shield and buckler in our God.
6. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness. It is shrouded in mystery as to its cause and cure, yet
those who dwell in God are not afraid of it. They shall not be afraid of the
plagues which in darkness walk, nor for the destruction that wasteth at
noonday. Famine may starve, or bloody war devour, earthquake may overturn
and tempest may smite, but amid all, the person who has sought the mercy-seat
and is sheltered beneath the wings which overshadow it will abide in perfect
peace. God’s peace is not a thing of times and seasons; it does not rise and set
with the sun, nor does it depend upon the healthiness of the atmosphere or the
security of the country. Upon the child of the Lord’s own heart pestilence has
no destroying power, and calamity no wasting influence: pestilence walks in
darkness, but he dwells in light; destruction wastes at noonday, but upon him
another sun has risen whose beams bring restoration. Remember that the voice
which says “thou shalt not fear” is that of God himself, who hereby pledges
his word for the safety of those who abide under his shadow, and not for their
safety only but for their serenity.
7. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at
thy right hand. Terribly may the plague rage among
people; yet such as this psalm speaks of survive the scythe of death. It
shall not come nigh thee. It will be so near as to be at your side, and yet
not near enough to touch you. How true is this of the plague of church is
wasted, the very life of religion decays, but in the same place and time, in
fellowship with God, the believer renews his youth, and his soul knows no
sickness. In a measure this is also true of physical evil; the Lord still puts
a difference between Israel and Egypt in the day of his plagues.
8. The sight
will reveal both the justice and the mercy of God; in them that perish the
severity of God will be manifest, and in the believer’s escape the richness of
divine goodness will be apparent. Joshua and Caleb verified this promise. The
Puritan preachers during the plague of London must have been much impressed with
this verse as they came out of their hiding-places to proclaim mercy and
judgment to the dissolute age which was so sorely visited with the pest. Let us
but watch providence, and we shall find ourselves living in a school where
examples of the ultimate reward of sin are very plentiful. One case may not be
judged alone lest we misjudge, but instances of divine visitation will be
plentiful in the memory of any attentive observer of people and things; from
all these put together we may fairly draw conclusions, and we shall soon
perceive that there is after all a moral ruler over humankind, who sooner or
later rewards the ungodly with due punishment.
9–10. The
psalmist in these verses assures people who dwell in God that they will be
secure. Though faith claims no merit of its own, yet the Lord rewards it
wherever he sees it. He who makes God his refuge will find him a refuge; he who
dwells in God will find his dwelling protected. We must make the Lord
our habitation by choosing him for our trust and rest, and then we shall
receive immunity from harm. The dwelling here intended by the original
was only a tent, yet the frail covering would prove to be a sufficient shelter
from harm of all sorts. It matters little whether our abode be a hut or a
palace if the soul has made the Most High its habitation. Get into God and you
dwell in all good, and ill is banished far away. It is not because we are
perfect or highly esteemed among people that we can hope for shelter in the day
of evil, but because our refuge is the Eternal God. It is impossible that any
ill should happen to those who are beloved of the Lord; the most crushing
calamities can only shorten their journey and hasten them to their reward. They
are secure where others are in peril; they live where others die.
11. For he shall give his angels charge over thee. Not one guardian angel, as some fondly dream, but all the
angels are here alluded to. To keep thee in all thy ways. To be a
bodyguard, a garrison to the body, soul, and spirit of the saint. In all thy
ways is yet no limit to the heart which is right with God. It is not the
way of the believer to go out of his way. He keeps in his way, and then the
angels keep him. How angels thus keep us we cannot tell. Whether they repel
demons, counteract spiritual plots, or even ward off the subtler physical
forces of disease, we do not know. Perhaps we shall one day stand amazed at the
multiplied services which the unseen bands have rendered to us.
12. They,
that is God’s own angels, will cheerfully become our servitors. They shall
bear thee up in their hands; as nurses carry little children, with careful
love, so will those glorious spirits bear each individual believer. Lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone. Even minor ills they ward off. If we
cannot have the way smoothed it answers every purpose if we have angels to bear
us up in their hands. Since the greatest ills may arise out of little
accidents, it shows the wisdom of the Lord that from the smaller evils we are
protected.
13. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder. Over force and fraud shalt thou march victoriously; bold
opponents and treacherous adversaries will alike be trodden down. The young
lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. The strongest foe in
power, and the most mysterious in cunning, will be conquered by the child of
God. To those who dwell in God the most evil forces become harmless; they wear
a charmed life, and defy the deadliest ills. Their feet come into contact with
the worst of foes; even Satan himself nibbles at their heel, but in Christ
Jesus they have the assured hope of bruising Satan under their feet shortly.
14. Here we
have the Lord himself speaking of his own chosen one. Because he hath set
his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. Not because he deserves to be
thus kept, but because with all his imperfections he does love his God;
therefore not the angels of God only, but the God of angels himself will come
to his rescue in all perilous times. When the heart is enamored of the Lord,
all taken up with him, and intensely attached to him, the Lord will recognize
the sacred flame, and preserve the one who bears it in his bosom. It is
love—love set upon God—which is the distinguishing mark of those whom the Lord
secures from ill. I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
The man has known the attributes of God so as to trust in him, and then by
experience has arrived at a yet deeper knowledge; this will be regarded by the
Lord as a pledge of his grace, and he will set the owner of it above danger or
fear. None abide in intimate fellowship with God unless they possess a warm
affection towards God, and an intelligent trust in him. If we climb on high it
may be dangerous, but if God sets us there it is glorious.
15. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. He will need to pray, he will be led to pray aright, and
the answer will surely come. Saints are first called of God, and then
they call upon God; such calls as theirs always obtain answers. Not
without prayer will the blessing come to the most favored, but by means of
prayer they will receive all good things. I will be with him in trouble,
or, “I am with him in trouble.” Heirs of heaven are conscious of a
special divine presence in times of severe trial. God is always near in
sympathy and in power to help his tried ones. I will deliver him, and honor
him. The man honors God, and God honors him. Believers are not delivered or
preserved in a way which lowers them, and makes them feel themselves degraded;
far from it, the Lord’s salvation bestows honor upon those it delivers. God
first gives us conquering grace, and then rewards us for it.
16. With long life will I satisfy him. The man described in this psalm fills out the measure of
his days, and whether he dies young or old he is quite satisfied with life, and
is content to leave it. And show him my salvation. The full sight of
divine grace shall be his closing vision. Not with destruction before him black
as night, but with salvation bright as noonday smiling upon him he shall enter
into his rest.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
