Psalm

[0:00] Seeking the Lord's help, I direct your attention this evening to Psalm 91, reading verses 1 and 2. Psalm 91, reading verses 1 and 2.

[0:16] He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

[0:31] I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust.

[0:46] 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.

[1:06] The psalmist was speaking out of the experience of his heart.

[1:19] These were not natural desires. These were desires indicted by the Spirit of God.

[1:30] This was the fruit of revelation, the fruit of the work of grace in his soul. The Lord had begun with him.

[1:42] And he knew something of the truth of God. What it was to know the Almighty, hear his voice, to know his power, to shelter beneath his wing.

[1:59] And here we have some sweet truth stated clearly by the psalmist who knew his God and had walked with him.

[2:11] Knew the blessed nature of the refuge and could say, My God, dear Anne Steele, once penned a hymn which she wrote, My God, my Father, blessful name, O may I call thee mine.

[2:37] May I with sweet assurance claim a portion so divine. And when she came to die, her dying utterance, recorded in the diary of her niece, was this, I know that my Redeemer ever is.

[2:56] We must come here where the psalmist came. God who searches all our hearts knows what we have.

[3:06] knows what he's spoken to us. Knows what he's given to us. Knows whether our ears are circumcised. To hear his voice.

[3:22] Individually. The voice of God. What do you know of the exceeding great and precious promises? What do you know of the use of God's instrument, the foolishness of preaching?

[3:38] Has it been made an instrument in your soul? Has it touched your heart? Has it had a gracious effect upon you? It is the instrument of God's voice to his dear people.

[3:50] He would use his servants for their souls profit. And the foolishness of preaching is his instrument.

[4:02] As in the wisdom of God, man by wisdom knew not God, so it pleased him by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

[4:14] It is not his servants, they're by the instrument. It is his power through that instrument that touches the hearts of his dear people.

[4:30] Houts them down in a sense of his love and mercy. Sends the arrows of conviction into their soul. Brings them to his mercy, see. Strengthens them with all might in the inner man.

[4:42] Oh, the blessed nature of that manner which fell from heaven. Well, the ministry is the same. It is used as that manner that fell from heaven.

[4:54] Now we come to the text tonight. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. There can be no more sacred spot in this earth.

[5:09] What a spot it is to dwell in the secret place of the Most High.

[5:21] The secret place of the Most High is not secret to God's dear people. It's secret from the prying eyes of the godless world. It is secret to them.

[5:33] Oh, has the Lord brought you by his Spirit into this secret place.

[5:47] Separated from this world, called by his Spirit. This secret place centred in eternity past in the Trinity of Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in divine purposes regarding his dear church.

[6:12] That he would send his dear son here into this world to open a door of hope for his dear people on Calvary's cross. This was the secret purpose and will of God.

[6:25] Hidden from the eyes of the wise and prudent and revealed to buy. And the Lord has sent his dear son and has fulfilled his eternal covenant ordered in all things ensured.

[6:40] Oh, has he brought you into this secret place? Has he brought you into communion with himself? Has he effectually called you out of nature's darkness into his marvelous light?

[6:58] work. The Lord's work is a sovereign work. It is a divine work. It is workmanship. But it is the Lord's work.

[7:12] He has said, I will work. He does work. Oh, the mercy of being given an exercise in your heart to know whether he has begun a work of grace in your soul.

[7:30] That is a right exercise of heart. Oh, may I call thee mine. The apostle said, regarding his exercise of soul, not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I pressed toward them up for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ here.

[7:57] To him writers said this, show me, show me that I am born of God and that my treasure is above.

[8:08] I believe there are two things here, an exercised soul whose eyes have been opened and has a desire to know they are in this secret place, pressing toward the mark, that the Holy Spirit in their heart, the Spirit bearing witness with their spirit, that they are Christ, that they are his, that they are the children of God.

[8:38] And there is a second thing here, is to come there. One place is no less secure than the other.

[8:51] In the covenant purposes of God, his church rose with him mystically as he left the tomb. His work was a finished one.

[9:05] His dear children were redeemed. In that moment he said it is finished. The work was done. the entire church in all ages was redeemed.

[9:18] But they have to be brought spiritually in this world to dwell in that secret place. To feelingly know that their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

[9:39] All his dear people long to have that ceiling of the Spirit. That inward witness. And I wonder whether that is your path tonight. Show me. You will not be satisfied short of the Lord showing you.

[9:53] Nobody else will show you. Only he and he alone can bring you to that blessed place of hope. That's what it is. When the Lord visits your soul, and often he works here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept, that hope is not damped.

[10:16] It never dies. It comes under great strain and pressure. Remember as a young lad, about 17 or 18, in one of our chapels here in Wiltshire, singing that hymn, When thou my righteous judge shall come, to take thy ransomed people home, shall I among them stand?

[10:39] Shall such a worthless worm as I, who sometimes am afraid to die, be found at thy right hand? And in this prayer, forbid, forbid it by thy grace, be thou, dear Lord, my hiding place, in this the accepted hour.

[10:57] Thy pardoning voice, thou let me hear, to still my unbelieving fear, nor let me fall, I pray. Sovereignty lies there in the learning of it. Our God is an absolute sovereign.

[11:14] It's like Queen Esther. She went into the king, it depended entirely on him, but he extended the scepter of mercy to her, and you see, it was humbling, but her eyes were up to heaven.

[11:28] Oh, as his dear people go, they seek his presence, they come as beggars, the man the Lord commended when he went into the temple and he said, that was the prayer, God, be merciful to me a sinner.

[11:45] Oh, his dear people, and they come not once in their life, many times in the pathway of life, the Lord will bring his dear people like he did Hezekiah to their knees, and they feel their prayers are like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter, but, he'll bring them to himself.

[12:03] What's he doing? He's leading them experimentally, spiritually, to the secret place of the Most High, there to reveal his atoning love and blood to them, and to show them, as he does, the beauty of the truth, yea, sacred seal of Father, Son and Holy Spirit upon it, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, to save our souls, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all concerned in one united glorious purpose, the Father decreeing, the Son performing, the Spirit revealing.

[12:53] Oh, what do you know of this beautiful play, for to be found in this place will be heaven at large, to have a sweet union with the eternal Son of God, to know that he is your Redeemer, to know that he is your refuge.

[13:25] Dear Isaac Watts speaks in that opening him in our book, for him being our eternal home, our refuge from the stormy blast, our eternal home, he that dwelleth, oh, what a favoured character he is, in the secret place of the Most High.

[13:52] His name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. God, the Lord died to save him, and he is brought experimentally, feelingly, under divine revelation, to this place of hope.

[14:10] Now, this is the word that led me to this text, shall abide. you know, that speaks to us of the finished work of Christ.

[14:28] He is the Alpha and the Omega. Beautifully, Scripture lies over this word of God. Of those whom thou hast given me, he said, in his prayer that concluded the Last Supper, I've lost none.

[14:44] They have ever abode in his purposes, they've ever abode in his love, and his promise to his dear church is this, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

[14:59] Once in him, in him forever, thus the eternal covenant stands, none shall pluck them from their dear Redeemer's hand.

[15:13] To his and his forever, Father, I will. The day whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.

[15:25] Here is the absolute certainty of the salvation of the church. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide.

[15:37] And you know, here is a sacred security. God in his eternal purposes, his faithfulness, his unchangeability, has decreed that they will ever abide beneath the shadow of the Almighty.

[16:02] Oh dear friends, do you see what that is? Calvary's cross. The shadow of the Almighty. We see here in the figure that is used, the burning heat of the desert.

[16:22] We see here the wrath of God of God against sin. We see here the consequences of being lost in the desert of this world and lying under the wrath and heat, vengeance and justice, anger of Almighty God.

[16:58] But there's a shadow. There's one who stands between garments, says the hymn writer, dyed in blood, to see instead of me as semen, I approach to God.

[17:15] Are you under that shadow tonight? If not, you are wholly exposed to the wrath of God. Have you been to that mercy seat and pleaded that one and only name?

[17:32] Have you been to the mercy seat, however young or old you are, and know what it is to find access as a sinner, to hear the voice of God and to know that he is a God who hears and answers prayer?

[17:51] Oh, the blessed nature of coming to this place. Here is the refuge, the shadow of the Almighty.

[18:08] There is the doctrine of propitiation. We read this in Paul's letter to the Hebrews.

[18:19] He is the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation is a very simple, straightforward doctrine.

[18:32] The work of Christ has satisfied his Father's holy law and his majesty and justice in that the divine justice of God fell upon his dear son as a substitute.

[18:47] For his dear people. He bore their sins in his body on the tree. He bore the full wrath of Almighty God.

[18:59] Oh, the deep mystery, the second person in the Trinity, in his incarnation, taking into union with his deity, the body and soul, created by the Spirit in the womb of the Virgin, should come here, holy, harmless, sinless, undefiled, and should, on Calvary's cross, become the shadow of his dear church to shield them from the heat and anger and wrath of God against their sins.

[19:36] And I tell you here what lies under this shadow, one simple word, P, propitiation, an experimental sweet knowledge as revealed by the Holy Spirit that wrath is not descending on your soul, that there is a shadow, and that there is one who stands between and garments dyed in blood.

[20:03] It is he instead of me is seen when I approach to God. Blessed place this mercy, see. Spoken of in the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, the blood sprinkled mercy, see.

[20:20] There, as we read in the old order of the Passover, blood upon the lintels of the doorpost and upon the doorpost was this, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

[20:35] And there is the shadow of the almighty. His dear people are sheltered from the wrath of God, and God is satisfied.

[20:46] He is just to his own attributes, to himself. He is wholly satisfied with the sacrifice of his son. It was holy, it was spotless, perfect.

[21:01] It was the only acceptable sacrifice that could perform and produce this shadow to hold the heat, the wrath of God from his dear children. And the beauty of it is this, he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High, the eternal and everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, he will abide forever, now and eternally, under the shadow of the Almighty.

[21:35] And under that shadow he will enter glory, shielded from the wrath of God and his anger against his sin.

[21:49] He will be brought the immediate presence of Almighty God and all his sins be washed away in that fountain open for sin and all unquillness.

[22:01] What about your sin? either he must stand naked in that great dying to give an account before a holy God of all the deeds done in the body or else.

[22:19] As those who stand on that right hand of the throne, they are sheltered under the redeeming love and blood of Christ, they have an advocate, an intercessor, or as the scriptures speak, a great high priest.

[22:37] We have not an high priest who cannot be touched for the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.

[22:49] We may find grace and help in time of need. Have you ever been there? What do you know of the mercy sin? What do you know of propitiation?

[23:01] Wrath of God, not upon your soul, upon Christ. What do you know of the peace of God which flows through his peace speaking blood?

[23:14] Oh, I tell you this, once in him, in him forever. Thus, the eternal covenant stands, none shall pluck them from their dear redeemer's hand.

[23:33] I have lost none of those whom have given me, said Christ. They're redeemed with Jesus' blood redeemed. The price has been paid.

[23:46] They're delivered from the bondage of Satan, the chains of darkness into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Always they will remain there, never to be left, however far they sin and fall, whether they're Peter, who blasphemed his name and lied within hours of the Last Supper, having had Christ sweetly revealed to him in his soul, enabling him to say, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

[24:20] And then I never knew him. yet, abiding, I've prayed for thee, that thy face fail not.

[24:33] Oh, how the Lord prayed for him, not for Judas, out of the secret, lost, hung himself. Poor Peter, under this blessed shadow of the Almighty, went out and wept bitterly, shielded.

[24:51] Oh, we read in God's Holy Word, it's out strict to mark in him, but who should stand? But his dear people, as taught by his Spirit, ever abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

[25:06] They ever go to him, and can and do. David, in his great sin of adultery and murder, long after he'd penned the 23rd Psalm, came back to that mercy seat, that place of appreciation, that blood sprinkled mercy seat between the two cherubims, made of gopher wood, speaking of the humanity of Christ, covered in gold, speaking of his deity, holding the holy law of God, and over it the sacrifice in the sanctuary of the sprinkling of the blood, and there is speaking of that mercy seat, and that place, where the wrath of God is averted from his dear people, and there's a shadow.

[26:01] We read of it in the minor prophets, awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is mine equal, smite the shepherd, the sword of God's wrath.

[26:13] The beauty of that promise given to Ebed Melech in the book of Jeremiah, very sweet to us when we were a student. Thou shalt not fall by the sword.

[26:25] Thy life will I give for a prey unto thee, because thou hast put thy trust in Me. O, to come to that place of appreciation, the sword of God's wrath and His divine justice, and to know the beauty of that promise, thou shalt not fall by it.

[26:43] No, because you have a shadow. Have you got a shadow tonight? And to go back one step and ask you this, do you want one? Do you desire one?

[26:59] One said in that lovely hymn, other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee, leave, ah, leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.

[27:10] he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and therefore now we have a blessed confession.

[27:28] The dear psalmist goes on to say I will say of the Lord. He has walked in experience in the sweet truth of the Gospel that lies here and known the secret place of the Most High.

[27:51] Known what it has been to abide under the shadow of the Almighty and in doing that before God who searches all hearts he can say I will say of the Lord.

[28:03] I ask you tonight what can you say of him? What can you in sincerity and truth and all honesty say that you know of him? Has he brought you to this precious place where you can truthfully say what the psalmist says here he is my refuge and my fortress is he other refuge have I known hangs my helpless soul on thee is it true?

[28:37] oh to be brought to feel our need of him and to experience in the pathway of life this refuge in the great storms of life to flee for refuge to the hope set before us in the gospel have you fled to Christ for refuge have you been brought to that gracious wisdom other refuge have I none hangs my helpless soul on thee oh what a mercy to be brought there and then to experience the blessed refuge children of Israel as they journeyed through the wilderness from the Red Sea are brought into times a great trial why they were in the desert there was no food there was no water and they were dependent upon God and so it is with his dear children walking in this life they walk through a wilderness a desert they are dependent spiritually on

[29:47] God for the bread and water of eternal life and they need it and the Lord has provided the ordinance of his house and the ministry of his holy word and his holy word and the footstool of mercy where they may go to seek this refuge but you know as the children of Israel journeyed it all made provision that remarkable time as they left the Red Sea and entered the desert and they needed water they came to the bitter waters of Marah they murmured and complained couldn't drink them but the Lord directed his dear servant miraculously to a tree which when thrown into it sweetened the water and there was the water of life provided in the desert he led them to heal him only spoken of in a few lines in the

[30:49] Bible the palm tree and the wells oh what a resting place it was they would if they could have done stayed there all the journey they wouldn't have gone any further they had to move on they had to move on and to be dependent upon the law to give them those sips those tastes of water and you know he commanded Moses on one occasion to strike the rock and the water gushed out beautiful figure of Christ of water that flowed from his side oh the provision spiritually there is in the ministry of his word preaching of the gospel in his holy word when the spirit takes the things of Jesus and reveals them in the heart when he sets his people aside as he's done in my life on several occasions now and take me to hospital alone into operating theatre and there to prove his presence and to drink of that water everlasting life and be strengthened by his word hear his voice and to know and feel the shadow of the almighty and beautifully it's spoken of in the 107th psalm that they pass through the storms of life they're tossed to and fro and stagger like a drunken man then they cry unto the lord he answers them they have blessed answers to prayer and thus he bringeth them to their desired haven the lord took Israel right through the wilderness and they crossed the red sea and figuratively as the pattern is into the promised land and it is so with his dear children that they enter the promised land as they cross the

[33:02] Jordan of Death I will say of the lord can you say it tonight is he your refuge and this word fortress suggests the battle the conflict dear Luther penned that lovely hymn a mighty fortress is our God have you proved him in the solemn battles of temptation and conflict with Satan and conflict with your own fallen nature to be your refuge out of those conflicts comes the cry of his dear church lord help me oh what a blessed mercy if we have been brought into this sacred battleground for we wrestle not says the apostle in his letter to the church against flesh and blood but against principalities against power against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places as solemn in the church of

[34:12] God everywhere wherefore he says take unto you the whole armour of God it is a solemn conflict Bunyan wrote that book the holy war in it he outlines the conflict showing that conflict of Satan in Eden when he brought man down under solemn temptation and as in Adam all die we being all sons of Adam are foreign creatures what a solemn place we're in and yet the lord who has moved and worked he is the second Adam says scripture he has come in his humanity to be the fortress of his dear people to surround them with those arms of love and mercy to arm them in the battle feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace the breastplate of righteousness the shield of faith the sword of the spirit the helmet of salvation the blessed armour it is in the battle oh the fortress in

[35:34] Bunyan's holy war Immanuel conquered entered Mansoul and took over in a mighty work of conversion he brought those who had been had had allegiance to satan to have allegiance to himself and that is what god does oh how he comes to bring his dear people to be protected against the solemn work of satan who would destroy them what a blessed mercy then if we can truthfully say as the psalmist does he is my refuge and my fortress and we come to this place then my god is he your god go back one step again tonight is it your desire that you can utter these sacred words before him who searches all hearts my god my father blissful night oh may

[36:48] I call him mine it is a great mercy dear Daniel he came up that morning from the chamber of death he was only a human being and he must have been a night of intense fear I would guarantee that the whole night was spent in prayer wrestling every minute of the darkness and in the dawn beautiful words is thy god whom thou service able to deliver thee from the lion and then this my god my god hath sent his angel my god he had the very evidence of it he was a lion and those dear men who went into the fire shaved out Meshach and Abednego they knew in the fire their god it was a personal individual experience which nobody else had the king could look on but he had no idea what had happened they had in the fire they'd walk with Jesus he was there they would never forget it's the end of their dyke and they came out without so much as the smell of burning upon them but there they'd walked with the eternal son of

[38:17] God and oh how we see my god dear Jacob at Penal I'll not let thee go except thou bless me he blessed him there all the sweet truth that lies here favoured people that can in all truth and sincerity before a holy god utter this word which rests on revelation and experience my god it is a blessed place to come to to walk in the experience of his love the experience of his presence the experience of his mercy and come where Jonah came when he came out of the well-ars-belly salvation it was experience it wasn't theory it wasn't dry doctrine it was a solemn experience of salvation salvation is of the

[39:31] Lord out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heard me oh have you any answers to prayer one is sufficient every grace and every favour comes to us through Jesus blood no prayer is ever answered except through that rich atonement on Calvary's cross have you any promises God ever spoken a promise into your heart only one that is the very instrument very place to abide under the shadow of your mighty when Jacob was at Peniel he had a promise given him at Bethel many years before I'll be with thee beautiful word that was in the days of his unregenerous years he came to Bethel and there the Lord opened his eyes and he heard his voice the first time and then he gave him a word be with you in all places with us over there goes

[40:35] I won't leave me I brought thee again to this place and he brought him again to the promised land and there he wrestled and there he pleaded the promise the Lord had given him and I want to bless his mercy if we can say Lord thou saved Lord thou saved he gave his dear servant the apostle Paul when he gave him the thorn in the flesh he gave him a promise my grace is sufficient for thee oh what a promise that was there he could rest and did I say of the Lord can you say anything of the Lord you will only be able to say what the Lord has revealed to you to Peter he revealed himself and he could say to him thou the Christ the Son of the living God Thomas said I'll not believe unless I see Jesus came and he said trust you that I had the effect was there my

[41:41] Lord that's a sinner in all his guilt and shame and sin and he comes to that sacred place my Lord and my God sinners can say and only they how precious is the Saviour in all of life's past where you know in weakness in sorrow in death physical mental temptation whatever we name it a refuge for sinners the gospel makes known it is found in the merits of Jesus alone oh exhort you to seek that refuge there is no other refuge in this world ever young you may be ever old you may be here is the only shadow of the

[42:45] Almighty here as we read in a further part of this he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trot and as our text ends tonight I'll say of the Lord in him will I trust that is for the future until time is no more and trust is turned to sight and we meet him face to face and prove it is our God in the sweet experience of it and that what he gave to us here what he spoke to us here was effectively from him I tell you this he will know his own workmanship he will indeed oh to be brought then to know this place he that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty

[44:05] I will say of the Lord he is my refuge my God in him will I trust Amen