| The Christian Life | July 1941 |
The Secret Place of the Most High
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”—Psalms 91:1
IT IS well for the Bible student to learn that when he is studying about “places” in the Bible, he is really studying about conditions. If for instance, we read about the priest performing certain duties in the holy, we are learning how the Christian, as a new creature, serves God. And if the priest’s service is in the most holy, we are learning about Christ our great High Priest and His service for us in heaven. With these thoughts in mind let us see what it means to be in the secret place of the Most High—represented by the “holy” of the tabernacle.
The word rendered “dwelleth” is a participle from the Hebrew verb yashab, and here means “sitting.” It includes the thought of calm repose, of resting. It gives the thought also of not resting merely for a little while, but of a permanent rest. And this phrase, “in the secret place,” gives the thought that this is the most retired and private part of God’s dwelling. He does not only, admit us to His presence, but to the very secret parts of His dwelling.
Sometimes we are inclined to think that such and such an one is not a Christian. Let us beware, dear ones, that we do not pronounce judgment. This statement is true of all God’s people. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” Who are we to say that this one or that one does not dwell in the secret place? God alone knows that. And if God admits such an one to fellowship in this holy place, who are we that we should deny him our fellowship? If they have that inestimable privilege of being in His secret presence now, are they not good enough to share our presence? How humble we shall feel and how sorrowful if we find that we have built up a wall that not only shuts us off from our brother, but, indeed, perhaps from the secret place.
If we dwell in the secret place of the most High we shall lodge or pass the night under the shadow of the Almighty. What a blessed thought!—pass the night under the shadow of the Almighty. Ever under His watchful eye we may feel safe. We need not fear the terrors of the night for He never slumbers nor sleeps. So then, on account of this blessed relationship with God, we may all through our pilgrim journey, rest in His care.
Let us, for a moment, study the pronouns in the first three verses of this psalm.
In the first verse: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High.” This is in the third person and refers to anyone dwelling in this place. If anyone is dwelling in this place then all the rest of the psalm is his portion. No one can take it away from him.
In the second verse, the first person is used. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Well may the Psalmist be prophetically speaking here for Christ, telling what God is to Him. And if God has been all this to Jesus He is recommending Him to His disciples: for in the third verse, the pronoun is in the second person, “Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.”
It well may be asked, what and where is this secret place? It is a condition pictured in the tabernacle by the holy. No one was allowed to enter this place but the priests, and entrance into it was through the first veil, called “the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” Brother Russell said this veil represented the carnal mind and we must be dead to that if we would become new creatures which we become when we have passed that veil.
In II Peter 1:3, we have a beautiful word picture by the apostle, who says, “According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” The linen curtains which went entirely across the top of the tabernacle and hung down on the inside of the north and south sides to within one cubit of the ground, and to the ground on the west side, represent the righteousness which is imputed to every one who is in this secret place. Hence, he has all things that pertain unto life and godliness. We might add that there is no flesh seen in this place, and if we are judging a brother according to the flesh we must go outside the secret place to do this. Let us bear this thought always in our mind. It will be a great help to us. While in the holy, none is recognizable in the flesh. (II Cor. 5:16,17) Only as new creatures in Christ Jesus are we to see, know and understand each other, and that His merit, His righteousness, completely covers us.
But let us notice how St. Peter still further elaborates upon this descriptive outline as he says, “whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” From our study of the tabernacle structure we learn that the boards representing these promises, went around three sides of the tabernacle, and every board was set in two sockets of silver. The boards were covered with gold and were coupled together with five bars, the middle one of the bars passing through all the boards. These boards being covered with gold shows they are related to something divine. They are the exceeding great and precious promises by which we become partakers of the divine nature. And being fastened in sockets of silver and being joined together by the five bars, they are immovable.
We might, for a moment, consider the men who dwelt in this place. These men, Aaron and his sons, typified Christ and His church, who, during this Gospel age, are being consecrated for a priestly work in the next age. We will note how careful they must he not to leave this place during the period of consecration. “And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you. … Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not.” (Lev. 8:33-35) If it was so important that these men abide in this typical place lest they die, of how much more importance it is, that we abide in the antitypical secret place lest we die.
It is in this place that we get a right estimate of ourselves. Before we can have any joy in being alone with God we must have learned not to fear being alone with ourselves. If our hearts are not right with God we cannot possibly delight in fellowship with Him: and our desire for fellowship with Him is proportionate to our desire to be like Him in our heart. Perhaps we are afraid of God and fear that He will reveal us to ourselves, for, at times, God does reveal men to themselves. Our prayer should ever be, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know ‘my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me.” (Psa. 130:23) In the secret place, one comes to a greater realization of one’s own insufficiency. In this place we see Christ, and seeing Him, we realize our own unworthiness.
So with Job, it was only when all other voices were hushed and God brought him up short that he came to see his sinfulness, and feel it so acutely that he cried, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” (Job 40:4) Largely upright though he had been, a man of blameless life, fearing God and eschewing evil, he had never before seen himself as at that moment. The unjust suspicious accusations of his three advisers served but to increase his justification of himself and blinded him to his real condition. But when face to face with God, all illusions vanished and he said, “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”—Job 42:5,6
So it was with Isaiah. When alone with God, he had a wonderful vision of the seraphims and heard them in their purity ascribing praise to God. Then there flashed across his mind the contrast between them and himself, so he was impelled to cry: “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (Isa. 6:1-5) We might expect to hear him say, “Blessed are mine eyes for they have seen the Lord of hosts”; but we hear only an exclamation of self-condemnation.
In this secret place we come face to face with God. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” Here we are stripped of all the common conventional disguises of our faults and sins and there is revealed to us the naked truth. Here we can understand the motives that are really back of all our doings.
Here is revealed many things we did not see. It is much like the stone, covered with moss and lichens, that appears so beautiful lying as it does in the pasture, what a sight we behold as we turn it over. Many hideous creeping and crawling things seek to hide themselves from our view. And so with us; when we are disturbed, there may be many things that we would like to hide from the view of others.
This secret place is a place of communion with God and meditation on the things of God How often our Lord felt it necessary to be alone with God that He might meditate on the things relative to His consecration. And we can imagine those priests during the seven days of their consecration, when they were cut off from the world and brethren, discussing the things relative to their consecration. And that is just what we, the antitypical priests, should be doing in these days of our consecration—discussing what it means. It takes all our lifetime here to complete our consecration and it should be much in our thoughts. What a wonderful change has come to the one who can say, so far as his flesh is concerned, “I abhor myself.”
THE LAW OF THE LEPER
There is a remarkable law that is applied to the leper that we may apply to ourselves. “If a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh; then the priest shall consider: and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean.” (Lev. l3:12,13) It is not until we see ourselves as wholly unclean that God says, “Be ye clean.”
One might feel that those in the secret place would become discouraged at seeing themselves as so wholly unworthy. It is only when we recognize our own deficiencies that God will apply to us the merit of Christ: It is only when we count ourselves as nothing that we can appreciate what a wonderful thing has been done for us through Christ. When Paul lamented his wretchedness he appreciated the grace of God through Christ all the more. So he remarks, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 7:25) “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”—Rom. 5:20
THE GOLD BOARDS OF THE SECRET PLACE
The exceeding great and precious promises of the secret place do not belong to the flesh of the new creature. God is not looking after the interests of his flesh but only after his spiritual welfare. He is not immune from the ills and diseases common to the flesh. God’s promise that “neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling,” we believe refers to his dwelling in the secret place of the most High. These promises are like the gold boards, steadfast and sure. Nothing can enter to harm one who is dwelling in this place. No evil can befall him, for God is fully protecting him, having given his angels a charge concerning him; “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14) There is a promise for every phase of the Christian life, by use of which promises he may be made partaker of the divine nature.
In our study of this 91st Psalm we have seen how Christ could speak of God as His refuge, His fortress, His God, and how He would trust Him. Subsequently He tells what He will be to them that trust Him. There note how God tells what He will do for those who put their trust in Him; “Because he hath set his love upon Me therefore will I deliver him.” Yes, God will admit him to the most holy, set him on high because he has known His name. He will grant him the highest honor that He can grant to any one, place him in glory by Jesus’ side.
OUR ELIM
In Hebrews 4:3 the writer says, “we which have believed do enter into rest.” The word “rest” in this case is taken from a word meaning “a place of resting down.” This secret place of the most High is really a place of resting down. We saw that the word “dwelleth” meant a place of resting, a place of refreshment, and it is truly such for the tired pilgrim as he journeys on toward his heavenly home.
“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” (Heb. 4:9) In this verse the word which is translated “rest” is the Greek word which means “keeping of a sabbath.” That is just what we are longing for. We are glad for this secret place, the place of “resting down,” but we long for the sabbath rest where we can lay our burdens completely down and enter into our eternal rest.