Pastor's Blog

 

The Secret Place

Wade E Taylor

“Deep calls to deep. At the noise of Your waterspouts, all Your waves and Yours billows are gone over me.”Psalm 42:7

The Psalms of David are filled with the heart-cry of a man seeking for a deep personal relationship with the Lord Himself.Again and again, David expresses a burning desire to intimately know the Lord on two levels of experience.

First, he desires to know the Lord face to face.

“As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after You, O God.My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”Psalm42:1-2

Second, he desires to know the Lord as one in whom he can place infinite trust.

“In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do to me.”Psalm 56:11

David has come to understand that he cannot find the satisfaction and fulfillment that he deeply desires from other relationships.Nor is he satisfied with knowing the Lord only as his Savior, or as being the King of all kings who can do great things for him.

Rather, he now desires to know the Lord as a person with whom he can share times of intimate fellowship.When he fell short of this experience, David repented before the Lord.

“I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”Psalm 32:5 NKJ

Now, David is free from all guilt and condemnation and he can say from within the depth of his being:

“You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble; you shall surround me with songs of deliverance.”Psalm 32:7 NKJ

David has come to understand that only the Lord can satisfy the longing of his soul, and he has totally turned to the Lord (You are my hiding place).There is a clarity in the expression of his trust and expectancy in these words as they flow out from a repentant heart of love, appreciation, and worship (You shall surround me with songs of deliverance).

In this new level of intimacy with David, the Lord spoke to him and imparted this very encouraging promise:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye.Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding,which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you.”Psalm 32:8-9 NKJ