He that was afar off without any shelter from the rough storm of an
accusing conscience, is now able to look up to the God who has forgiven
him and say, “Thou art my hiding-place.” He finds his shelter and his
safety in the presence of that very God whose law he had broken. He does
not say, “Thou hast provided a hiding-place,” but “Thou _art_ my
hiding-place.” He who had been exposed without protection to the sore
buffetings of his own conscience, confirmed as it was by the just
sentence of God’s holy law, had been so completely restored that he had
found in God Himself a hiding-place.
In that sacred hiding-place he realized two results, safety and praise.
When hidden there he was safe, just as our own life is safe when hidden
with Christ in God, and therefore he could say, “Thou shalt preserve me,”
and when hidden there he would live in the very atmosphere of
thanksgiving, so he said, “Thou shalt compass me about (or surround me)
with songs of deliverance.” A song of deliverance is a song of praise
from one that has been delivered. The Song of Moses was a song of
deliverance when he stood on the shores of the Red Sea after he had seen
the hosts of Egypt overwhelmed in the flood. {8a} David’s was a song of
deliverance when God had brought him up out of the horrible pit and
established his goings, and had put a new song in his mouth. {8b} The
song of the great multitude before the throne is a song of deliverance,
when, brought out of great tribulation, clothed with white robes and
palms in their hands, they sing, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb.” {8c}
Observe the connection between this safety and these songs of
deliverance. The songs are not merely the consequence of the safety, but
a part of it. Hidden in the Lord, we are compassed, or surrounded, by
them. Whichever way we look, whether forward in hope, or backward in
memory, or upwards in trust, there is in every direction something to
call forth the praise, and the spirit of thanksgiving is in itself a
protection against assault.
There is just the same connection between praise and safety in the
description of the restored Zion: “Thou shalt call thy walls Salvation,
and thy gates Praise.” {8d} Praise is there represented as part of the
defence. The enemy cannot enter because the gateway is filled by praise.
The song of deliverance is so hearty and so loud that the voice of the
tempter is not heard. And thus it is that the forgiven man, hidden in
Christ Jesus, praises God, because he has been saved, and confirms his
safety by the very act of praising Him. Does not this teach us a lesson
as to our own communion with God? Whatever it is that weighs on the
heart and disturbs the spirit, whatever the storm be that beats upon us,
whether it be care from without or conscience within, whether it be the
pain of trouble or the still greater pain of the sense of sin, the
forgiven man may go straight to Him and say, “I flee unto Thee to hide
me.” {9a} And if hidden in Him, can anything really hurt us? Is not His
salvation a sufficient wall? Shall anything that can really hurt us
enter in by those gates which He has closed with praise? In holy peace,
then let the songs of deliverance rise before Him. Let the unspeakable
blessedness of the divine safety call forth the notes of thanksgiving.
If the sweet note of praise was heard by the prisoners from the inner
dungeon at Philippi, {9b} shall it not be heard by the whole church of
God from those who have found a hiding-place in their Lord?