The Assurance Of The Secret Place

“The LORD is my light and my salvation;

whom shall I fear?

The LORD is the stronghold of my life;

of whom shall I be afraid?

“When evildoers assail me

to eat up my flesh,

my adversaries and foes,

it is they who stumble and fall.

“Though an army encamp against me,

my heart shall not fear;

though war arise against me,

yet I will be confident.

“One thing have I asked of the LORD,

that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD

and to inquire in his temple.

“For he will hide me in his shelter

in the day of trouble;

he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

he will lift me high upon a rock.”

What a marvellous assurance of confidence in the LORD is presented in this Psalm! And each of us needs such confidence—if not today, then we will need such confidence very soon! Confidence such as demonstrated in this Psalm doesn’t just happen, it is the result of passing through times of trial where we learn to depend on the Lord our God. Because we are born from above and into the Family of God, our Father is always working in our lives to change us into the image of His Son. We will each pass through various times of testing, trials that will test our faith. We should be comforted in the knowledge that God will never waste the trials we are passing through by allowing us to suffer needlessly. Our God is always working to use the situation in which we find ourselves to glorify His Name and to benefit us by making us stronger and teaching us to lean on His grace. You have heard me say, and I will now repeat the truth, we serve a God Who is too wise to make a mistake, and too good to needlessly hurt us. God is demonstrating the power of His transforming grace at work in your life when He permits you to pass through the time of testing.

Peter, writing Jewish followers of the Christ who were experiencing extreme opposition, encourages us when he testifies, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” [1 PETER 1:3-7].

The Apostle returns to this same theme when he writes shortly after, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And

‘If the righteous is scarcely saved,

what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’

Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” [1 PETER 4:12-19].

The Apostle to the Jews encourages us to look beyond the moment to what lies beyond this dying life, to what awaits us in the coming life. We are being encouraged to see the trials of this moment as permitted by our Father to reveal His power at work in our lives. In fact, Peter says that we should rejoice because we know how things will end. We are not living for this moment; we are living in light of eternity. We have our eyes fixed far beyond this moment.

The one writing the Letter to Hebrew Christians invested time to speak of those who had gone before, writing particularly of what they had suffered because of their faith. Then, he pens this summation that should encourage each of us. “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” [HEBREWS 11:13-16].