Okay, I want to turn your attention
this morning to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. And I've called this
message Dwelling in the Secret Place. Dwelling in the Secret
Place. One of the old catechisms asks
the question, what is the chief end of man? And some of you will
know what the answer is. The chief end of man is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. Chief end of man, to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. What about you? How does that
match up to your experience of the things of God? Would you
say that in your life you glorify God and enjoy Him forever? Think about your weekday life.
think about your weekdays which is very busy and please don't
think for one minute that I'm standing here as I've heard various
preachers in the past telling us how holy they are and how
early in the morning they rise and how much of their time they
devote to prayer and I think yes you just go and try working
in the real world and doing a real job Monday to Friday and then
we'll see how much of that sort of thing you're able to keep
up because there's an awful lot of hypocrisy in ministerial circles
about how good they live their lives and how devoted to God
they are. You get in the place of work in the world and there
are pressures upon you and you don't have two minutes to think
about anything other than what your employer wants. So I'm not
standing here in any way wagging the finger about different people's
experience. But think about it. Perhaps you
have a reading slot daily or whenever you can manage. Or a
prayer routine. And then you come here for Sunday
worship. I'm asking myself this as well.
Is that what you would really call glorifying God and enjoying
Him forever? Or do you aspire to a higher
experience of God and salvation? This is what I think is in Psalm
91. In Psalm 91, there are things to do with this really close
relationship between a believer and his God. Now, you know that
the application of the Psalms is threefold. Let me remind you. It's always the experience of
the Psalmist. And we're not quite sure who
wrote this. There's speculation. Some think it was written by
Moses. Others, and I think this is more likely, it was written
by David in one of his situations. It was a real physical situation
led the Psalmist under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to write these
words. And he must have been in a situation
where he was in a place which he regarded as a place of safety,
and he thought about dwelling in the secret place of the Most
High, and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. All of these
things were very relevant to the psalmist, if it was David,
or whoever it was. Certainly, it applies to the
Psalmist. It also applies very much to Christ, all of them. For Jesus said, these Old Testament
Scriptures, they are they which speak of me. In all of the history
books, and the poetry books, and the prophetic books, all
of those words are speaking of Christ. And you must find Christ
there. And if you do not find Christ
there, you've missed him completely. As somebody once said, from every
village in England, there is a road that leads to London.
From every verse of the Old Testament, there is a road that leads to
Christ. And the knowledge of God in Christ. And the thing
to do, the thing preachers must do, is to find that road and
get on it. So it applies to the psalmist,
it applies to Christ, and it's the experience of Christ as he
undertakes for his people. But also, we mustn't ever forget
that it has very powerful application to the believer himself or herself,
the believer's experience, identifying with the words that are written
here. So let's see it. First of all, quickly, let's
see it applied to Christ. Then we'll see it applied to
the believer in four characteristics and four promises. So first of
all, as it is applied to Christ. You know, even Satan quotes this
psalm. Let's just read it through. He
that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is
my refuge and my fortress. My God in him will I trust. Surely
he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from
the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his
feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh
thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation,
there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come
nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear
thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a
stone. Is that not? I'll just pause
at that point. Satan, in the temptations of
Christ, Matthew chapter 4 verse 6, and in other accounts in the
Gospels of the temptations, Satan quotes these very words, this
psalm to Jesus, saying, throw yourself down from here, for
has he not said he will give his angels charge over thee?
Who? Over Christ, over the Son of God, to keep thee. The angels shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone. Satan quoted these words
as applying to Christ. Of course this psalm applies
to Christ. It applies to Christ when God
went forth for the salvation of His people, when God became
a man, when Christ set aside His heavenly glory and became
flesh, adopted the children's flesh, that He might save the
children from their sins, when for a little while He was made
lower than the angels, or made a little lower than the angels
as Hebrews tells us. that through death as a man with
human blood, infinitely precious human blood, that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of death. He walked
the earth as a man, and all of these things apply to him. He
trusted God as a perfect man. He, our Lord Jesus Christ, trusted
God as a perfect man, and his people in him. there is a righteousness
which is the righteousness of God which the epistles tell us,
the New Testament tells us is the righteousness which is through
faith of Jesus Christ as a man. There's a mystery here. There's
a mystery. The righteousness which is through
faith of Jesus Christ. He, as a man, when he laid that
divine glory aside, made a little lower than the angels, for a
while lower than the angels, and walked this earth for the
salvation of his people. He, as a man, had faith in God,
his Father. He prayed to his father. He walked
in the presence of his father. His father promised all these
protections for him in accomplishing his purposes. Look at verse 13.
Thou shalt tread. This is the father speaking to
the son. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and the adder. Meaning all the powers of darkness
and evil. The young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under thy feet. Because he hath set his
love upon me, because Christ has set his love upon the Father,
therefore the Father, I will deliver him. I will set him on
high. He is exalted. He's got a name
that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow. Because he hath known my name.
He, Christ, has known the Father like no one else has ever known
the Father. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him. I
will be with him. And he did, didn't he? How often
in the Gospels do we see Christ going aside to pray to his Father? He shall call upon me, and I
will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor him. He was delivered. He was
raised from the dead. He was honored. He was raised
for our justification and exalted on high that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow with long life, eternity. Will I satisfy
Him and show Him my salvation? Yes, clearly it applies to Christ. Clearly it does. But where I
want to focus this morning is on its application to a believer,
and to you as a believer, if such you are this morning. Four
characteristics. I'm not going to... It's in verse
one, and then in the final verses. And the filling, I will leave
you to make that application for yourself. But for the sake
of time, I want to look at four characteristics of the believer
and four promises that God makes to the believer. The first one
is this, that he dwells in the secret place. He that dwelleth
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. Lovely words, aren't they? Beautiful
poetry. He that dwelleth, you know, has
ever the English language been taken to such sublime heights? He that dwelleth in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. God's true children dwell in
the secret place of the Most High. Those who are his true
children are the objects of his electing love. and they're characterized
as those who dwell in the secret place, the secret place of the
Most High. The secret place. Is that where
you dwell? Are you a believer? Do you dwell
in the secret place of the Most High? What is it? What is it?
Well, it's a secret place. It's something that is beyond
the experience of the natural man. It's something which is
completely beyond the experience of mechanical religion. You know,
the mechanical religion that says, you know the doctrine and
you turn up at the meetings and you do this, that and the other,
and then all things will be clear to you. No, it's completely beyond
that experience. This secret place of the Most
High is where Jehovah meets the sinner, and it's in Christ, and
in Christ alone. And in there, in that secret
place, God in Christ shows the sinner the riches of his mercy. There in that secret place, he
reveals the mystery of the gospel to his friends. That's what Jesus
said. He said he would reveal that
mystery to his friends. In Mark chapter four and verse
11, Jesus says to his disciples, unto you, they asked him why
did he speak in parables, and he said, unto you it is given
to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. in that secret place
of the Most High. To those whom the Father has
set His love on from before the beginning of time, to you it
is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God. You cannot
work it out by rational thought. You cannot understand it by working
it out for yourself. It is by Holy Spirit, revelation,
and that alone that we come to a knowledge of the truth. It's
what Colossians 1, 26 calls the mystery. Gospel mystery. The
mystery in the secret place of the Most High. The mystery which
has been hid from ages, and from generations. The natural man
doesn't know it. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them. But now, it's made manifest. It's made open. It's made obvious
to his saints. Who are his saints? His set-apart
ones. his elect people, those who he
brings to know, whereas others don't, he brings his saints to
know the blessings of the gospel of his grace. John 15, verse
15, Jesus says, henceforth to his disciples, I call you not
servants, why? For the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. He's a servant, doesn't need
to know. The servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends,
Why? Why does Jesus call those who
believe him his friends? Because all things that I have
heard of my father, all those heavenly secrets, he has made
known. What's the true mark of friends?
I wrote an article years ago for Evangelical Times on this
verse and it's, what marks out true friends? And one of the
points was true friends share secrets that they don't share
with others. You know, if you've truly got friends, you share
secrets that you don't share with others. Jesus says, I've
called you my friends because I've shared the secrets of eternal
life with you. I've shared the secrets of eternity
with you, of gospel grace, of justice and justification. I've shared these secrets, I've
made them known to you. This is the place, this secret
place of the Most High. It's the place of gospel revelation
and enlightening. It's where you know that God
is a just God and a Savior. It's where you know that He is
just and justifier of the one whose faith is in Christ. That's
a secret place. The world doesn't know it. Religion
doesn't know it. Only the one who has that revelation
from on high by the Spirit of God in the gospel of His grace
knows what it is. How shall a man be just with
God? Ah, God must be just. Yes, He's just. He cannot overlook
sin. He's a purer eyes than to behold
iniquity, yet in Christ He has done all so that He can justify
the ungodly. He has made propitiation, turning
away of just anger in the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses
His people from all sin. He is a just God and a Savior.
He's made satisfaction. He's made righteousness over
to His people. He who knew no sin being made
sin, their sin for them. then makes his people the righteousness
of God in him. And what does that bring? Eternal
acceptance in the beloved, in Christ who is the beloved. This
secret place of the Most High is like the sanctuary in the
Old Testament temple, the sanctuary. Do you remember Psalm 73? where
the Psalmist was envious at the wicked. He said, I've flogged
myself to death. I'm paraphrasing, but he said,
I've tried my hardest to be a good religious person. And what happens? I just, I suffer all sorts of
problems. And look at the ungodly who don't
even bother. They have prosperity. They're
overflowing with goods. They have a happy time. They
don't even die badly. They die, and he says all of
these things, and he's just about to walk out on it. And then he
thinks, if I say thus, I will offend against the assembly of
God's people. I'll offend... Child of God,
I can't do that. I cannot offend against God's
people. I cannot upset that which is the apple of God's eye. No,
I can't do that. And then he says, and then I
went into the sanctuary, and then knew I their end. What was
it about the sanctuary that showed him where he really stood, compared
with where the ungodly stood? It's the sanctuaries, the temple.
It's full of the symbology of the gospel of God in Christ. I went into the place that shows
me the gospel in Christ. That's where he went. That's
the secret place. It's the place that shows us
the gospel in Christ. And human intellect can't aspire
to it? It can't, let alone attain, it can't even aspire, it doesn't
even have the feeling, the desire to be there. It's only by Holy
Spirit revelation. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, the
wind blows where it listeth. And you hear the sound thereof,
but you don't know where it's come from or where it's going
to. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God. It's by
God's grace that we're saved. It's hidden from the earthly
wise and prudent. This is what God says. This truth,
this secret place, this gospel is hidden from the wise and prudent
in earthly terms and revealed to those who are babes in the
world's eyes regarding wisdom. Is it not a blessing when we
look and we see who has God saved? You know, it says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 Not many noble, not many wise, not many in the world's
eyes, but God has taken the foolish things of this world, the things
that the world despises, the things the world counts as nothing.
And you see somebody who the world's measures, the world's
academia would count as insignificant. And by the blessings of the grace
of God, he's raised them up. He seated them in heavenly places
in Christ. Psalm 25 verse 14, the secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them
His covenant. The secret, this is it, the secret
place, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him because
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. The fear of the
Lord. Not the casual breezing into the presence of God as if
he's just a friend like anybody else that you might come into
the presence of. No. Knowing who God is. Knowing his holiness. Knowing his power. Knowing his
awesome characteristics. the fear of the Lord, those that
fear him. It's only in that right relationship
of childlike love and respect and fear of the Lord that there
is truly knowledge of the living God. He will show them his covenant. He will show them his covenant
grace. And he gives a promise. So that's
the first characteristic. They dwell in the secret place
of the Most High. And his promise is they shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty. They shall abide, they
shall remain eternally there. And where is it? It's in the
safekeeping of Almighty God. This is it. Those who are the
objects of Gospel grace, who have had that secret, that mystery
of eternity revealed to them by the Spirit of God, they dwell
in the secret place of the Most High, and they shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty. They'll remain there, eternally,
in the safekeeping of Almighty God. There's that hymn that says,
Abide with me, fast falls the evening tide. It was written
by that minister, Church of England minister when he was dying. Abide
with me. Abide with me. I need God's presence in this
situation. The soul dwelling in the secret
place shall abide there. Where? Where is it to abide under
the shadow of his wings? Jesus said, John 15 verse 4,
Abide in me and I in you. He says, I am the vine, and you
are the branches. You remain in me, and I in you. You remain attached to the root
stock that gives the sap that comes up into the branches, and
the branches thereby bear fruit. Abide in me, and I in you. He shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. And what is it to abide there?
It's to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. is to experience the
manifestation of God to man in Christ. That's where we experience
it. No man has seen God at any time,
says John. John 1, verse 18. No man has
seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in
the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known. He has revealed
Him. And this is a daily, minute by
minute, dwelling in God's secret place. It's not the just have
snacks the quiet time once a day, or if you're too busy not even
that often, it's not that. It's abiding in that secret place,
a minute by minute dwelling in God's secret place. We used to
sing a hymn from Sinking Sand, He Rescued Me. And it had a verse
which I used to think was becoming a little bit presumptuous, you
know, because there was a movement at Keswick called the Higher
Life Movement, and it's riddled with error. And there was a verse
of this hymn that says, Now on a higher plane I dwell, and with
my soul I know it's well, but how or why I cannot tell, he
should have lifted me. From sinking sand he lifted me. You remember that hymn. But it
is true. that the child of God dwelling
in the secret place of the Most High and abiding under the shadow
of the Almighty is indeed dwelling on a higher plane. This isn't
a cause for self-congratulation. This isn't a cause for despising
of others, but this is a cause of asking, why me? To be blessed
in such a way that the living God has given me a sense of his
presence that I abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Okay,
that's the first one. The second one is to know God's
name and we're going to jump down to verse 14 and the second
part of the verse. I will set him on high because
he hath known my name. Set on high because he hath known
my name. It's impossible to glorify and
to enjoy God, which is how I opened this message, the chief end of
man, to glorify and enjoy God forever. It's impossible to glorify
and enjoy God without knowing His name. And knowing his name
in the Bible doesn't just mean knowing the letters that form
the handle by which you know somebody. Not like we have names,
it doesn't really matter what you're called. You know, we get
used to that. What matters is what does it
mean? What does it signify? To know
God's name is to know what he signifies. Jeremiah 31 verse
34, And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, saying,
Know the Lord, You know, you need to know the Lord. No. No.
For they shall all know me. All his people shall know me.
From the least of them. Oh, but they need teaching. No.
God will teach them. From the least of them to the
greatest of them. For I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more. God teaches his people
his name. Because he has known my name.
What is it that they shall know? His name. which is his attributes,
which is that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the end, that everything that is, is because of him, and
that without him there is nothing, that whether we look at the wonders
of creation and of the universe, we know it's all because he is
the Alpha and the Omega. What caused things? Why am I
here? What's going to happen to me?
How are things going to be when I grow old and I die, or maybe
when I die young? It's all in His hands, for He
is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the one who is holy. He
is the one who dwells in unapproachable light. He is the one whom we
must come before with fear, knowing who He is. For it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God if you're outside
of Christ. It's a fearful thing. Our God is a consuming fire.
The God of the Scriptures today is a consuming fire outside of
Christ, but in Christ, accepted in the beloved, friends, told
the secrets of heaven. He is the God who is omnipotent.
He shall know his name. We know he's all-powerful. You
know, we use the words, but so often we live as if he's not
omnipotent. He is omnipresent. He is everywhere. He is omniscient. He knows all
things. He can do all things. He's everywhere. He is righteous. And we must
be righteous if we're to see Him. Follow righteousness, without
which no man shall see the Lord. We must have the righteousness
of God. How righteous must we be? We must be as righteous as
God is. And where are we going to find
that? We can only find it in Christ, who has made us the righteousness
of God in Him. He is the God who is unchangeable,
where we change every day. He is the God of electing grace.
He is the God of unflinching, absolutely strict justice. He must be, or He would cease
to be God. Yet, He is the God of justification. And if it's justification of
sinners, then it can only be, and must only be, a justification
of particular redemption, where Christ came and covenanted for
the people whom the Father gave to Him from before the beginning
of time, so that we might know Him, we might know His name.
John 17 verse 3, and this is life eternal. glorify God and
enjoy Him forever. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. How do you do that? And
Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. This leads to praise from the
heart. To know the name of God leads to praise. It leads to
a desire to glorify our God, to honor Him, to hasten that
day when every knee shall bow. Do you know His name? Do you
know who he is? Moses said to him in the burning
bush, who are you, Lord, that I might tell them when I go and
speak to my brethren in Egypt? He said, tell them this, I am
that I am. Those are the words that Jesus
used in the garden of Gethsemane. Who do you seek? Jesus of Nazareth.
I am. And they fell backwards. Saul
of Tarsus. going, breathing out threatenings
against the Church of Christ on the road to Damascus, met
the risen Lord, the shining light, and Saul fell from the animal
that he was riding on. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
who you're persecuting. I am Jesus, who you're persecuting.
This is his name, I am Jesus. I am that I am. And he has promised
to you who know his name, that he will set you on high. He will
set his people on high. What does that mean? To know
his name is to be amongst those for whom salvation is accomplished. This is assurance. This is the
true basis of assurance. What can trouble you now? What
circumstance of life, whatever it might be, whether it's Triumph
or tragedy, whatever it might be, whether it's financial loss
or the loss of a loved one, or what can it be that can trouble
you now? Because all of these things are
in the hands of this One, whose name you know, because you dwell
in the secret place of the Most High. Because He hath known my
name, I will set Him on high, and nothing can thwart that.
The next one then is the love of God. The first part of verse
14. Because he has set his love upon
me, therefore will I deliver him. Those who dwell in the secret
place of the Most High know the name of God and they love God. These people love God. Do you
love God? Do you? Do I love God? If so,
why do we love God? Do we know what it is to love
God? But if we love Him, do we know why we love Him? Well, the
Scripture tells us. We read in 1 John chapter 4 verse
19, we love Him because He first loved us. because he showed us
his gospel. This is why he showed us, when
others didn't know it, he showed us his gospel. He showed us his
saving grace. He showed us the propitiation
that was made in his blood, how the anger of a just God was turned
away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who satisfied the
justice of God for the sins of his people. Knowing his name,
knowing his salvation, knowing his saving attributes, leads
to loving God. Do you love God? How is it made
known? How is it made known? Turn back
to 1st John, chapter 4. 1st John, chapter 4. Verse 7, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through him. here in his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his
son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then he goes on
to talk about that love manifesting itself in love for one another. And then he says, verse 19, and
so we do, the people of God, we love him. We set our love
upon God because he first loved us. He first loved us. To glorify and enjoy God is to
experience His love for us and our responding love for Him.
And it's manifested in love for one another. It's a selfless
love. And what's the promise that goes with it? Because He
has set His love upon me, therefore will I deliver Him. God will
deliver Him. God will be His rescue in all
situations. This isn't God saying, if you
do this, then I will, you know, because you love me, then I will
deliver you. No, it's not conditional in that
way. It's not conditional on a man exercising his love and
therefore as a reward for that love, God delivers him. No. because he is the one who dwells
in the secret place by Holy Spirit revelation, who knows God's grace,
he knows his name by electing grace, he loves God because God
first loved him, he is the object of God's promise to deliver him
from wrath, from judgment, from condemnation, from peril. He
will deliver him. Because he has said his love
upon me, because he's characterized as one who loves God, he knows
that God will deliver him. Therefore, I will deliver him.
I will deliver him. God promises to deliver his people
from wrath, from judgment, from condemnation, and from peril. And then finally, in this time
that we've got together, he calls upon God. The one who dwells
in the secret place of the Most High, knowing God, glorifying
God, enjoying Him forever, calls upon Him. Verse 15, He shall
call upon Me, and I will answer Him, and I will be with Him.
He shall call upon Me. Those who dwell in the secret
place of the Most High pray from the heart. They pray from the
heart. They don't pray from religious
duty, like Islam, how many times a day when you hear the call
and the cry, you have to go to the place of prayer. No, not
that. Those to whom the Holy Spirit
has revealed God's gospel truth have it in their heart to pray.
2 Samuel 7 verse 27 it says of David concerning the temple that
God put it in his heart and David found it in his heart to pray
to God. Why was it there? Why was he
motivated to pray? Because God had put it there,
the Holy Spirit had put it there. It wasn't the manufactured prayers
of the duty prayer meeting. Oh, you know, the most important
meeting of the church. I'm sorry, I have to differ with
that. The most important meeting of the church is when we gather
for worship and the Word of God is proclaimed. But there are
those who say the most important meeting is the prayer meeting,
and it becomes the duty prayer meeting. When people go and churn
out the same format and formula of prayers, that's not praying.
This calling upon God comes from the heart, and it's put there
by the Spirit of God, within the soul of the one who's dwelling
in the secret place of the Most High. No, it's not the mechanical
daily routine that the quiet time can become. Don't let it
become that. It's one thing to have a routine
and that's good, but don't let it become a mechanical daily
routine. That's not praying. The prayer
meeting is not praying. It's that which comes from the
heart which is calling upon him. He shall call upon me, this one
dwelling in the secret place of the Most High. When Saul of
Tarsus was taken into Damascus, having met with the risen Lord,
the mark of his true spiritual life that God said to Ananias,
go to him. And he said, I'm wary of him.
I'm frightened of him. And he says, don't be afraid
of him, for he prayeth. He's praying. The Spirit of God
has put it in his heart to pray. He's praying. What did parents
look for in their children, in their sleeping children? you
know, the infants, you want to hear, is he breathing? Is he
breathing? Can he feel a pulse? You know,
those things, they're signs of life. This prayer is like a baby
breathing. This is the pulse of spiritual
life within, that this one who dwells in the secret place of
the Most High calls upon God, naturally, from within, and God
answers him. It has a heart's desire to pray
to God. A heart's desire, whatever the situation, whatever the fleeting
situation, throughout this busy life that we live, Lord, help
me. As Nehemiah came into the presence
of the king, who could have had him struck dead for his audacity
or for his sadness of appearance, and The king asks Nehemiah, what's
wrong with you? There's something wrong with
you. You don't look happy. And what does Nehemiah do in
that moment, in that fleeting moment? He sends a prayer up
to heaven. Lord, help me. Give me the words
to speak in this situation. Lord, help me. Lord, guide me.
Lord, show me. Lord, restrain me. Get glory. get honor, get praise from dead
men in trespasses and sins all around. This is the prayer of
the heart that goes up. Show me more of gospel truth.
Show me more of Christ's substitution for me. Show me more of these
things that I might more glorify and enjoy you forever. And the
promise God gives, I will answer him. He shall call upon me and
I will answer him. There's no doubt, is there? There's
no possibility of sometimes always he shall call upon me and I will
answer him but don't expect the answer in your time in our time
he answers in his time think of Abraham the promises he made
to Abraham he promised Abraham and Abraham prayed and he promised
but when did God fulfill his promises in God's own time in
God's own time and so he does and the answer that he gives
may not be what we expect. The answer may make more intense
the thing that caused us to call upon him in the first place.
There's a situation and it causes you to call upon God, but his
answer might make more intense that situation that caused you
to call upon him. He might desire to put you where
you know that Christ alone is precious. He might want to put
you in answering your prayer where you're emptied of yourself
so that you can be filled with the fullness of Christ. And this
is how the quickened, the made alive soul, glorifies and enjoys
God, truly. A prayer will go up. He shall
call upon me. A prayer will go up. Lord, please, if we're truly
children of God, this should be the desire of our hearts in
this busy world. Let me experience more keenly
the preciousness of Christ and his righteousness that's made
mine. You know, that might be a prayer
from the heart, let me know more of it, because that's truly to
enjoy God forever, to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. And
the answer might come, yes, but first, you must learn more of
your own wretched, sinful, natural state outside of Him. You must
learn that, as Paul said, in me, that is in my flesh, there
dwells no good thing. That might be the first thing
that you need to be taught before you can experience more of the
preciousness of Christ and his righteousness made over to us.
And how different is that from this false religious world? that's
all around. This false religious world I
heard many years ago. You can't love others until you've
learned to love yourself. That's not what the scripture
says. The scripture says in me that is in my flesh there dwells
no good thing. No good thing by nature. No. And he gives these summary promises.
Look at them in verses 15 and 16. I will be with him. God promises to those that dwell
in the secret place of the Most High, to those whose highest
aspiration is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, I will
be with Him in trouble. God's presence. I will deliver
Him. Deliverance from anything that
would stop us from arriving where God has determined to take His
people. I will honor Him. He exalts His people with Christ.
With long life, will I satisfy him? Does this mean that every
believer's going to live to a ripe old age? Not at all. What it
really means is, I will satisfy him with the length of life that
I give him. That's what God does. He satisfies
his people. So you get somebody like Robert
Murray McShane up in Inverness in, when was it, late 1700s,
early 1800s, I think, I may not be completely accurate, but he
died at the age of 29. Some of these old saints did.
They died very young of infectious disease. Died at 29. But do you
know that even to this day, the impact of that man's ministry
is still felt in places. 29 years old, God satisfied him
with the length of life that he gave him and took him to be
with him. Dwelling in the secret place
of the Most High is glorifying and enjoying God in our personal
experience. I hope that these thoughts from
this psalm have given something for us to think about as we meditate
upon these things. Amen.