What does the Bible say about the value of a secret place?

(v. 1) The 90th Psalm opens by announcing the great fact that the Lord has been the dwelling place of His people in all generations. This psalm opens by stating the blessedness of the one who dwells in the dwelling place. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. If Psalm 90 describes the blessedness of the dwelling place, Psalm 91 presents the blessedness of the dweller.

We gladly own the fact that the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High must abide under the shadow of the Almighty; but where can we find a man who dwells in this secret place? Adam, the first man, described in the 90th Psalm, failing to abide in the secret place, was driven forth to be a wanderer, to wither in the evening of his life and, at last, be “cut off.” In this psalm there comes before us another Man, One of whom we read, “He that dwells … shall abide.” Who can this be but Christ, the One who, in His pathway through this world, ever abode in the secret place of the Most High? He could speak of Himself as “the Son of Man which is in heaven.” He walked on earth but dwelt in heaven.

Here comes a testimony concerning the Most High. We have in this verse 1 a general truth: the person that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Verse 2. The words of Jesus are brought out: I will say of Jehovah He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust. The apostle, in Hebrews 2:13, refers to this and other parts in the Psalms as the words of Christ. The apostle declares, I will put my trust in Him, to be our Lord's expression whilst walking in the midst of trial on the earth. Then (v. 3-13) we come to the testimony of the Spirit concerning Jesus. Verse 9. This was true in its perfectness of the Lord Jesus; it applies in all its extent only to Him. In verse 14 we get the declaration of the Father, "because he hath set his love upon me." This was true, and true only of Jesus. He was the only One who set His love on God. We love Him because He first loved us. In our Lord's sufferings we learn the principle and fulness of love.

He knew His name. God's greatness is shewn by despising nothing. His love is so great that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without His knowledge. Christ always trusted Him (Psalms 20, 21). In the case of Jesus is the practical exhibition of this truth - He dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High; in us in measure. Being one with Christ, we are able to appropriate this to ourselves. All His actings on earth came from the perfectness of communion with the Father. The promise was, He shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I do always those things that please the Father, and abide in His love (v. 2). What He calls for is complete recognition of Himself, then come all the promises. The one thing we have to do is to own God in all His fulness. Imperfectly, but in principle, we dwell in the secret of the Most High. Why we are often in trial, etc., is because we are not dwelling in the secret of the Most High. Verse 4, "He shall cover thee with his feathers," etc. As His power covers and shelters us, so His truth is our shield and buckler. God's truth always comes to us in Jesus. just so far as we are in the secret of the Most High, we are under the shadow of the Almighty. If we are going our own way, we shall have chastening and trial, and in mercy too. What we have to seek is to make the Lord our habitation. He leadeth us forth in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

The names by which God is referred to in the first two verses have a special significance. The “Most High” speaks of the absolute supremacy of God (Gen. 14:18-20). “The Almighty” speaks of absolute power (Gen. 17:1). Then we learn from the lips of Christ that the One who is supreme in position and absolute in power is the Jehovah of Israel — the Eternal God, the I AM. How safe then — how sure of blessing must be the one who dwells in His secret place.

(Vv. 1, 2) What then are we to understand by "dwelling in the secret place," to which such blessing is attached, as witnessed by every voice in the Psalm? To use our New Testament language, does it not speak of the inner life of secret communion lived with Divine Persons? Is it not this life to which the Lord's words refer when He says, "If I wash thee not thou hast no part with Me;" and again when He says, "Abide in Me"? Does not the apostle John bring before us this secret life, when he writes, "Our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ"? (John 13:8, John 15:4-7, 1 John 1:3). To have part with Christ, and abide in Him, is to live in communion with Him where He is. To live such a life is to dwell "in the secret place."

"He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Such is the opening statement (91:1). That which David counted on for himself (27:5), others may share in as well. And under the shadow of Him who is the Almighty, what can harm them? Protection from troubles and from dangers of any kind can such count upon (3-8). In security shall they dwell, and angelic guardian care shall they experience (10-13). Such is the language of this interesting Psalm. Two speakers are introduced. One speaks in verse 2 and again in the first clause of verse 9, translated by the Revised Version, "For Thou, Jehovah, art my refuge." All else to verse 13 inclusive is the utterance of another. Then God speaks, "Because he has set his love upon Me," etc., to the end of the Psalm. Abiding security therefore is assured to one so characterised. Length of days, too, shall he enjoy, and God will show him His salvation (14-16). How full an answer is this to the prayer in Ps. 90:13-17!

Psalm 90. Remarkable the way in which this book is introduced. The eye is on Jehovah coming in, and faith looks back to see the way they have been led. "Jehovah, thou hast been our dwelling-place." Psalm 91 shews what that dwelling-place was. Turning to Jehovah as coming up, He had been their dwelling-place. To Him a thousand years were as yesterday when it is past. He had come to deliver, but Psalm 91 gives Christ, He that dwelleth. He takes His place amongst these people whose dwelling-place Jehovah had been. He takes up the names of Abraham's God (Most High and Almighty), going farther back than Israel to whom He was known as Jehovah, to Abraham the root of the olive-tree. "Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God," looking on the prosperity of God's people on earth. God Almighty is a name God took in connection with coming out of the world, and He that knows the secret place knows where to look, God as a Father watches us, but it is not that we shall always escape suffering, we have something better than promise of that kind. We may indeed pass through the fire, but not a hair of our head shall perish, but here it is personal deliverance promised, and if we look for that we shall make terrible mistakes. "Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." God will take as much care of the remnant as of Christ. Whoever gets the "secret place of the Most High shall abide," etc.

The ninety-first psalm then takes up the theme, "He who dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." But who knows this secret place, so as to obtain this sure protection? Man as a race has lost the very knowledge of God's name. "When I come unto the children of Israel," says Moses, "and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them?" God has lost His name for men, but His name is just the expression of what He is. This, then, is the secret of man's ruin; he is departed far from God, and has become a stranger to Him.

Still God is, of course, always such, and referred to in trial as the One who will set all right. When the Lord is just coming into the world to set all in order, the question is raised, Where is the secret place of the Most High? Where is He to be found as a protection? Whoever finds Him will have the protection of Abraham's God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the place of promise. Jehovah is it, the God of Israel. And in fact the full divine care of the supreme God, the God of promise, is found, possessor of heaven and earth, revealed in connection with the Melchisedec priest.

310 But there is a knowledge of the secret place of the possessor of heaven and earth which is given only in grace. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty:" such is the announcement of Abraham's God, the God of promise and covenant. Messiah answers that He will say of Jehovah, He is His refuge, His fortress, His God. This is the secret place of the Most High. The promises of almighty security consequently are attached to it. In verse 9 Israel regard Messiah as having taken their God for His God, and declare with joy His exaltation and security. In verse 14 we have Jehovah's announcement of His mind as resting in Him who set His love upon Him. Thus this psalm has descended from the abstract and fundamental supremacy of Creator to the place of covenant relationship resting in promise to Abraham, in accomplishment of blessing in the millennium, when the Melchizedek blessing shall come upon him that through Jesus shall know the secret of the Lord*; and the security of the power of the God of promise shall keep them through, while Israel bless Messiah, because He, the heir indeed of the promise and centre of the blessing, has taken their God as His God, shewing that the secret of the Lord was theirs and for them. The psalm has tacitly assumed the existence of the evil and the judgment on it.