What is the shelter of the Most High (Psalm 91:1)?

(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."

(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.

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.

The Lord Jesus has proven in all his life on earth that His dwelling place (though not having where to lay His head) was actually in the secret place of the Most High. Where else could a Man find the ability to do what He did and to speak as He did? (v. 1). In the measure in which believers find the secret of God's presence (limited as it may be) we too shall enjoy the shadow of the Almighty, — which was the place of His dwelling unceasingly.

He could therefore speak of the Lord as "My refuge and My fortress," referring to His being always in the protecting hand of God. The psalm is remarkable in this way, that the Lord Jesus is seen simply as the One dependent on God for His protection, but in no way taking the offensive against the enemy, unless verse 13 is an exception. Yet even in this, the treading upon the young lion and the serpent, He showed no exercising of amazing power, but defeated Satan simply by His referring to the Word of God (Matt. 4:4,7,10). Later, at the cross, "He trod all His foes beneath His feet by being trodden down." This was indeed taking the true place of dependent Man.

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.

The Psalmist had some dim aspirations after such a secret person or place, but he sought for it mainly as a refuge: “He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. … He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust” (Ps. 91:1-4). God Himself was the singer's retreat from every peril.

The principle of perpetuity in life and blessing is first of all stated, and in terms which directly refer to the previous psalm. "He that abideth in the secret of the Most High shall lodge under the shadow of the Almighty." That is, the protection of One all-competent to protect is assured to the man who abides in the secret — or "dwells in the secret place" — of the Most High: the God who is going to take His place as that, in those millennial times which are to come for the earth, — King of kings and Lord of lords.

Manifestly, this is the "Lord" of the previous psalm, who has been a "habitation for us in all generations"; and, as plainly, this "habitation" is that very "secret," "or secret place" — of the Most High which it has shown us to have become such: man having dropped out of the knowledge of it, and lost the resulting blessing.

The subject of the fourth book of Psalms is, the bringing in the First begotten into the world; and it gives a kind of title to the book, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High"; this raises the question as to who is the Most High, and the answer is, that whoever has found out the secret, that one "shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty," i.e., of Abraham's God.

We have now (Psalm 91) another most important principle introduced; Messiah's taking His place with Israel, the place of trust in Jehovah, so as to afford the channel for the full blessing of the people. Three names of Elohim (God) come before us in this psalm: one that by which He was in relationship with Abraham, the Almighty; another which Abraham through the testimony of Melchisedec may have known prophetically, the millennial title of Elohim when He takes His full title over the earth (compare Gen. 14:18-20), the Most High. Both, as all the names of God, have their proper meaning: one complete power; the other absolute supremacy. The question then arises, Who is the God who has this place? Who is this supreme God over all to the earth? Who shall find His secret place to dwell in? He who has found this shall be completely protected by almighty power. Messiah (Jesus) says, I will take the God of Israel as that place, Jehovah. In verses 3-8 we have the answer. Doubtless it is true of every godly Israelite, and they are in view, but led by the Spirit of Jesus, the one perfect faithful One who took this place indeed.

In connection with the earth and His people at different times, God has revealed Himself by different names, which are characteristic of different relationships. It is, of course, always the same God, although known in a different relation. In Psalm 91 we get all these names of God (except Father, which was not then revealed) grouped together in their proper connection. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, he is my refuge and my fortress: My God [Elohim]; in him will I trust." That is, he who has the secret of who the Most High is, shall have the blessings of Abraham's God. Jehovah is the God of the Jews, and so Messiah, in the second verse, answers as it were, the riddle put in the first, saying, "I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress: my Elohim; in him will I trust." In verses 3-8 the Spirit declares the consequences of this (verse 9 is the Jewish people speaking), and Jehovah puts His seal upon it in verses 14-16.