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We have here two distinct aspects of the one life in their living relations with one another. The first clause furnishes the living reason for the second; while the second is the necessary complement of the first. The luxuriance of the figures which the psalmist employs is due to the exuberance of a profound faith that has mastered all difficulties and contradiction, and dares to assert to the utmost possibilities of language the perfect security of those that dwell in the secret of the Most High. We are here in truth at the very highest point of pre-Christian revelation with regard to man's spiritual relation to God, and it would be difficult even now to express the truth in question more grandly and truly than it is here expressed.

I. THE SECRET OF THE TRUE LIFE. There is something inspringly grand in the conception here offered, that the secret of man's truest and noblest life is identical with the secret of the Most High. The brute may find its life in the relations of the visible and temporal. But it is precisely in this that man is essentially different from the brute. He is not true man until he occupies the eternal standpoint; he does not begin to live until he has the vision of God. When man finds God's secret place, he finds the place of eternal calm.

1. Such a life is marked by "inwardness." In finding the secret of the Most High, man finds his most inward self. He enters into the inner temple of spirit, and feels the throb of life at its deepest point where it reveals its affinity to the essential life of God.

2. Again, to dwell in the secret of the Most High is to know God and be in fellowship with Him. By knowing God I do not mean an intellectual belief in His existence or a correct conception of His nature and attributes. I mean by it the direct consciousness of His presence. The life enters into the inner realm where God is seen, and gazes upon the glorious vision.

3. Such a life will be actuated and inspired by the highest ideals of service. Those that stand in the presence of God are of necessity "ministers of His that do His pleasure." Those that truly walk with God will walk like God.

II. THE SECURITY OF THE TRUE LIFE. There are three stages.

1. In the first (vers. 1-8), the idea of temporal security predominates. The man of God is immortal until his work is done.

2. In the second stage (vers. 9-13), the figures used are more suggestive of spiritual or quasi-spiritual foes.

3. The next and last stage (vers. 14-16), leads us from security and victory to honour and glorification. The relation between the victorious man and God grows wondrously near; it is a relation of mutual knowledge and of mutual love. The language grows indefinite, the glory gathers in nebulous suggestion of a dazzling beyond, the godly man becomes transfigured before us, and a cloud receives him out of our sight.

(John Thomas, M.A.)

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KJV: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

WEB: He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.