Psalm 31:20 You shall hide them in the secret of your presence from the pride of man… The word rendered "presence" is literally "face," and the force of this very remarkable expression of confidence is considerably marred unless that rendering be retained. I. THE HIDING-PLACE. "The light of Thy face" is "secret." What a paradox! Can light conceal? Look at the daily heavens — filled with blazing stars, all invisible till the night falls. The effulgence of the face is such that they that stand in it are lost and hid, like the lark in the blue sky. "A glorious privacy of, light is Thine." Light conceals when the light is so bright as to dazzle. They who are surrounded by God are lost in the glory, and safe in that seclusion, "the secret of Thy face." The old Greek mythologies tell us that the radiant arrows of Apollo, shot forth from his far-reaching bow, wounded to death the monsters of the slime and unclean creatures that crawled and revelled in darkness. And the myth has a great truth in it. The light of God's face slays evil, of whatsoever kind it is. Thus "the secret of His countenance is the shelter of all that is good." Nor need I remind you how, in another aspect of the phrase, the "light of His face" is the expression for His favour and loving regard, and how true it is that in that favour and loving regard is the impregnable fortress into which, entering, any man is safe. Only let us remember that for us "the face of God" is Jesus Christ. He is the "arm" of the Lord; He is the "name" of the Lord; He is the "face." All that we know of God we know through and in Him; all that we see of God we see by the shining upon us of Him who is "the eradiation of His glory and the express image of His person." So the open secret of the "face" of God is Jesus, the hiding-place of our souls. II. GOD'S HIDDEN ONES. "Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy face." Whom? Those that flee for refuge to Thee. The act of simple faith is set forth there, by which a poor man, with all his imperfections, may yet venture to put his foot across the boundary line that separates the outer darkness from the beam of light that comes from God's face. Remember that Jesus Christ is the hiding-place, and that to flee to Him for refuge is the condition of security, and all those who thus, from the snares of life, from its miseries, disappointments, and burdens; from the agitations of their own hearts, from the ebullition of their own passions; from the stings of their own conscience, or from other of the ills that flesh is heir to, make their hiding-place — by the simple act of faith in Jesus Christ — in the light of God's face, are thereby safe for evermore. But the initial act of fleeing to the refuge must be continued by abiding in the refuge. But not only by communion, but, also by conduct, must we keep in the light. An eclipse of the sun is not caused by any change in the sun, but by an opaque body, the offspring and satellite of the earth, coming between the earth and sun. And so, when Christian men lose the light of God's face, it is not because there is any variableness or shadow of turning in Him, but because between Him and them has come the blackness — their own offspring — of their own sin. You are not safe if you are outside the light of the countenance. These are the conditions of security. III. WHAT THE HIDDEN ONES FIND IN THE LIGHT. This burst of confidence in my text comes from the psalmist immediately after plaintively pouring out his soul under the pressure of afflictions. His experience may teach us the interpretation of his glad assurance. God will keep all real evil from us if we keep near Him; but He will not keep the externals that men call evil from us. Though it may leave the external form of evil it takes all the poison out of it and turns it into harmless ministers for our good. Again, we shall find if we live in continual communion with the revealed face of God, that we are elevated high above all the strife of tongues and the noise of earth. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. |
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