Bill Johnson - Dwelling in the Secret Place
So the people who turn their affection toward the ongoing manifestation of the abiding presence of the Spirit of God dwell in a habitation where, even when it’s dark, it’s only a testimony of His nearness. All right, verse 1 of Psalms 91: «He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in Him will I trust.' Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
A thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked, because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling, for He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands, they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra; the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Because He has set His love upon me, therefore I will deliver Him; I will set Him on high because He has known my name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble; I will deliver Him and honor Him. With long life, I will satisfy Him and show Him My salvation.»
This is a wonderfully well-known psalm because of its elements of safety, protection, and vindication throughout. I want us to go through this because I believe there are specifics that the Lord wants us to take hold of today, especially in light of what is going on all over the world. Today is supposed to be the day we start a revival series, but I am going to restart; this is what I’m doing. This is just revival-flavored antivirus software. All right, verse 1—we’re going to go through this verse by verse, so please follow with me in your Bibles.
«He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.» Stop right there. He who dwells—remember the scripture talks about abiding in Christ? If we abide in Him, His words abide in us. When it talks about dwelling in the shelter of the Almighty, we’re not talking about a point of theology; we’re talking about a lifestyle. In other words, it’s not just a verse you’ve memorized; it’s the development of an ongoing lifestyle of consciousness and awareness of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. Many people stop short of a divine encounter because they are satisfied with good theology. The Word is the invitation to meet the person. This is not supposed to be just a verse I quote—valuable though it is; it’s supposed to be the endeavor of my heart, the discovery of the manifest presence of God upon me as a surrendered son, upon me as a yielded vessel.
He says, «He who dwells in the shelter of the Almighty shall abide under the shadow of His wings.» The shadow of the Almighty—the shadow is a dark place. I’ll never forget my grandmother—my mom’s mom—was losing her eyesight, and many of us would take turns reading to her from Scripture. She would memorize entire psalms, and my uncle would memorize books of the Bible; they were really into that memory thing, which becomes contagious after a while. I remember she wanted me to read her a particular book by Corrie ten Boom. In this book, as I recall, it was some sort of devotional she had written. She talked about dwelling under the shadow of the Almighty and made this statement that I’ve never been able to shake: sometimes it’s dark because He’s so close. Sometimes it’s His nearness that causes things to be out of focus—it’s that shadow of presence. Sometimes we mistake the moment we’re in by natural interpretation instead of realizing what Scripture says: Scripture says you’re in the shadow of the Almighty.
So the people who turn their affection toward the ongoing manifestation of the abiding presence of the Spirit of God dwell in a habitation where, even when it’s dark, it’s only a testimony of His nearness.
Verse 2: «I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God; in Him I will trust.'» I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge, my fortress, my God, and in Him I will trust. This is the only proactive position in the psalm—one is implied later, but this action point of this psalm is: «I will say of the Lord, He’s my refuge, my portion, in Him I trust.» I always take this and turn it into a personal declaration: «God, You are the one that I trust. You are my refuge.» For years, when I came to this, I didn’t like the wording because I wanted to make it personal, and then it hit me: the wording is chosen for a reason. We are still supposed to confess and declare that He is our trust, but this is actually a confession we are to make to one another: «I will say of the Lord; I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge, my fortress, my God, and in Him I will trust.»
So when I was thinking about this, here’s this passage in Colossians: «Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.» What is that? It’s actually a confession of truth: Scripture and even in song. It’s interesting that they would apply psalms, hymns, spiritual songs—psalms are biblical songs; hymns are things that have been written; spiritual songs are spontaneous. They should be sung to each other, which is not a practice that we typically do, but we should maybe learn how to do it.
Here it says, «I will say of the Lord.» There’s another place in Isaiah 35 where it states that we say to the one with weak knees, with a feeble heart, «Be strong, take courage.» The very next verse says that then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears, the tongue of the dumb will be loosed. It’s guarding what we say to each other. Being intentional in our decrees to one another is a huge part of this thing we call faith—this life of faith, this walk with Christ. It’s the caution and the proactive position of declaring what God has said and what God is saying in this environment—not feeding and fueling the fear gripping so many hearts.
So here’s the one intentional action in this psalm: «I will say of the Lord: He is my refuge, my fortress, my God, and in Him will I trust.»