My text carries us back, by that word 'them,' to the previous verse,
where we have a double description of those who are thus hidden in the
inaccessible light of His countenance. They are 'such as fear Thee,' and
'such as trust in Thee.' Now, that latter expression is congruous with
the metaphor of my text, in so far as the words on which we are now
engaged speak about a 'hiding-place,' and the word which is translated
'trust' literally means 'to flee to a refuge.' So they that flee to God
for refuge are those whom God hides in the 'secret of His face.' Let us
think of that for a moment.
I said, in the beginning of these remarks, that there was here an
allusion, possibly, to the Temple. All temples in ancient times were
asylums. Whosoever could flee to grasp the horns of the altar, or to
sit, veiled and suppliant, before the image of the god, was secure from
his foes, who could not pass within the limits of the Temple grounds, in
which strife and murder were not permissible. We too often flee to other
gods and other temples for our refuges. Ay! and when we get there we
find that the deity whom we have invoked is only a marble image that
sits deaf, dumb, motionless, whilst we cling to its unconscious skirts.
As one of the saddest of our modern cynics once said, looking up at that
lovely impersonation of Greek beauty, the Venus de Milo, 'Ah! she is
fair; but she has no arms,' so we may say of all false refuges to which
men betake themselves. The goddess is powerless to help, however
beautiful the presentment of her may have seemed to our eyes. The evils
from which we have fled to these false deities and shelterless
sanctuaries will pursue us across the threshold; and as Elijah did with
the priests of Baal upon Carmel, will slay us at the very foot of the
altar to which we have clung, and vexed with our vain prayers. There is
only one shrine where there is a sanctuary, and that is the shrine above
which shines 'the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ'; into the
brightness of which poor men may pass and therein may hide themselves.
God hides us, and His hiding is effectual, in the secret of the light
and splendour of His face.
I said, too, that there was an allusion, as there is in all the psalms
that deal with men as God's guests, to the ancient customs of
hospitality, by which a man who has once entered the tent of the chief,
and partaken of food there, is safe, not only from his pursuers, but
from his host himself, even though that host should be the
kinsman-avenger. The red-handed murderer, who has eaten the salt of the
man whose duty it otherwise would have been to slay him where he stood,
is safe from his vengeance. And thus they who cast themselves upon God
have nothing to fear. No other hand can pluck them from the sanctuary of
His tent. He Himself, having admitted them to share His hospitality,
cannot and will not lift a hand against them. We are safe _from_ God
only when we are safe _in_ God.
But remember the condition on which this security comes. '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 on his head, 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. 'Who among us shall dwell with
the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?'
That question does not mean, as it is often taken to mean--What mortal
can endure the punishments of a future life? but, Who can venture to be
God's guests? and it is equivalent to the other interrogation, 'Who
shall ascend to the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy
place?' The answer is, If you go to Him for refuge, knowing your danger,
feeling your impurity, _you_ may walk amidst all that light softened
into lambent beauty, as those Hebrew children did in the furnace of
fire, being at ease there, and feeling it well with themselves, and
having nothing about them consumed except the bonds that bound them.
Remember that Jesus Christ is the Hiding-place, and that to flee to Him
for refuge is the condition of security, and all they who thus, from the
snares of life, from its miseries, disappointments, and burdens, from
the agitation 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. It is of no use to take shelter in the light
unless we abide in the light. It is of no use to go to the Temple for
sanctuary unless we continue in it for sacrifice and worship. We must
'walk in the light as God is in the light.' That is to say, the
condition of being hid in God is, first of all, to take refuge in Jesus
Christ, and then to abide in Him by continual communion. 'Your life is
hid with Christ in God.' Unless we have a hidden life, deep beneath, and
high above, and far beyond the life of sense, we have no right to think
that the shelter of the Face will be security for us. The very essence
of Christianity is the habitual communion of heart, mind, and will with
God in Christ. Do you live in the light, or have you only gone there to
escape what you are afraid of? Do you live in the light by the continual
direction of thought and heart to Him, cultivating the habit of daily
and hourly communion with Him amidst the distractions of necessary duty,
care, and changing circumstances?
But not only by communion, but also by conduct, must we keep in the
light. The fugitive found outside the city of refuge was fair game for
the avenger, and if he strayed beyond its bounds there was a sword in
his back before he knew where he was. Every Christian, by each sin,
whether it be acted or only thought, casts himself out of the light into
the darkness that rings it round, and out there he is a victim to the
beasts of prey that hunt in darkness. 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 His countenance.
These are the conditions of security.