The Secret Place of the Most High

[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to a podcast by Lance Lambert Ministries. For more information on this ministry, visit lancelambert.org or follow us on social media to receive all of our updates. In this episode, lance takes Psalm 36:7,9 and asks who the secret place of the Most High is. Let's listen to the Secret Place of the Most High. [00:00:28] Speaker B: Another word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we praise thee that Thou has been here with us in the midst, and it's always, Lord, a wonderful thing to us to find Thee and to know Thee, leading and directing and meeting with us, touching us. And now, Lord, as we come to Thy word, we pray that Thou wilt grant that the Holy Spirit Himself will fulfill that ministry particularly given to him, of leading us into all truth, of giving divine enlightenment and understanding. Concerning Thy Word, O Lord, we commit ourselves to Thee. Not one of us of ourselves with our natural wisdom or intelligence, can really fully understand and Thy Word. Even if we understand the words, we don't grasp the real meaning. O Father, we pray that Thou will grant that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened. And O Lord, we pray together for Thy people everywhere, and especially those in need. We remember Anna Ripsch this morning and Christina in their need. And we remember Anne Edwards Evans, Roland's wife, and that family. Lord, Thou knowest all the need there. We lift these dear ones up to Thee and that little lad who's got to go through the operation again on his eye, Lord, we pray for these ones must be many others, Lord, who Thou knowest all about. We commit all to Thee, Lord, wilt thou meet every need thou seest? According to Thy word, my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Lord, then hear us. We ask all this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. I want you to turn, if you will, to Psalm 36. This is the other passage that's been on my heart for some time. You remember I spoke some weeks ago from a little verse in Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 14 and he, the Lord shall be for a sanctuary. And I pointed out that this scripture about a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, it goes on to speak of underlies quite a number of New Testament passages dealing with us as the Church of God. And in the final analysis the Church is nothing less than the Lord Jesus Christ in His people he shall be for a sanctuary. Now, we spoke quite a time about that a few weeks ago, and then last week I got off my heart Psalm 27 those verses about one thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in his temple, for in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. And so on. Now, this week I would like just to take these verses. Psalm 36, verses 7 and 8. How precious is thy loving kindness, O God. And the children of men take refuge under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life. In thy light shall we see light. Now this is how it's rendered in the New American Standard Bible, which I think is really an excellent version. Verses 6, 7 and 8. Again, how precious is thy loving kindness, O God. And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of thy wings. They drink their fill of the abundance of thy house, and thou dost give them to drink of the river of thy delight. For with thee is the fountain of life. In thy light we see light. Now the wonderful thing again is this comes back to what we were talking about earlier on earlier, earlier occasions, that really the whole thought of God is to find a dwelling place amongst his people, just as the apostle Peter says in 1 Peter, chapter 2. Unto whom, verse 4. Unto whom coming that is Christ, a living stone rejected indeed of men. But with God elect precious ye also, as living stones are built up a spiritual house. And then he changes the thought to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, because it is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect precious, that's Jesus Christ. And he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame. So the inference is that when we believe we are somehow integrated into this building program of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, the foundation, if you like. We as living stones quarried out of the same rock, out of the divine nature of God, out of eternal life, out of the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, sharing his character, his life. We are built together to be a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice. Now, that's what we've been doing this morning, really. Of course, naturally, sometimes it's much nicer to have much nicer. And I put the accent on the nice to have a sort of more ordered time where one person sort of leads everything. You don't get mistakes that way. It can be as dead as doornails, but at least it's sound and a sort of. In that sense, it doesn't offend anybody. But we have had a time in which, poor as we are, we have, as priests, offered up spiritual sacrifices under the direction of our high priest, so that everyone has offered up a sacrifice. Many of us ought to play, some of us perhaps only in the heart, but we have offered up to God our spiritual sacrifices. Now, that can't just be done by sort of getting a collection of people and saying, we're going to have a kind of time where we're all just going to contribute in that way. You'll just have community hymn singing, or you'll have favorite passages of scripture, or you'll have testimonies which we've all heard a thousand times. And this brings the whole thing into disrepute. But when you get living stones built together, when there's been some kind of shaping and disciplining and educating, molding and forming, then you can have this kind of time. Because we are really, as it were, sharing the one life of Christ. We're sharing the one government, the head. We are sharing the one intelligence of the Holy Spirit. We are sharing in the body of the Lord Jesus. We are sharing Christ. God is faithful through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 9. Into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Not into fellowship with his Son, but into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, the fellowship of his Son, putting it in perhaps a simpler, more direct way, is this. God is faithful through whom you were called into the sharing of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I have the same Christ you have. You have the same Christ I have. There are not as many Christs as there are Christians. Christ doesn't divide himself up into lots of little individual portions. There's only one Christ, and the Christ that I am in is the same Christ you are in. We are in Christ by the grace and power of God. And the Christ is in all of us. So we have a double unity. We are all in the same person, and the same person is in all of us. Now, this is what is called the church. It suffered terribly, by the way it's been used amongst Christians and evangelicals as well. We refer, as I've said before, to going to church. We refer to leaving our handbag or our umbrella in the church. We left our Bible in the church. And on this you won't feel find the use of this word Anywhere in the New Testament. Of course, in the Old Testament, you could have left an umbrella in one sense in the temple, or you could have left something else there in the temple, but not in the New Testament. There's no reference at all to any building as the church or to an institution as the church. An organization. Merely as an organization. The church is really the Lord Jesus Christ. For we see, we read again. Let me just refresh your mind. 1 Corinthians, chapter 12 and verse 12. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Now think about that. What does that say? Think. Let me read it again. For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. Many members. You are members of Christ. I'm a member of Christ. You are members of Christ. The word member just means limbs, limbs of Christ. This oneness is just simply wonderful. For really, in the final analysis, the church is just that oneness with God. Just think about it for a moment. By the grace of God, I am one with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. By the grace of God. Ron is one with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Shaw. Sigurd. Here. Alan. Here. John. Here. Gerald. Here. We're all one with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how can we all be one with God through and in our Lord Jesus Christ without something having taken place between us? If my spirit and his Spirit has been joined together and is one, he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. What has happened to us? We also have become one. So simple is this glorious spiritual entity that we call the Church. It's been devalued, unfortunately, by the way we use it and by the conceptions that now surround it. Now let's come Back to Psalm 36. How precious is thy loving kindness, O God. This wonderful word, loving kindness. In the Old Version, beautifully rendered by the word mercy, and in the Revised Standard Version, by the word steadfast love. In the Revised Version and the Old American Standard Version and now the New American Standard Version, by the word loving kindness. Loving kind is a very hard word to really translate. It is a word in Hebrew which means much more than just love and much more than even persevering love. That's why, of course, the old translators put it as the word mercy, because it was the kind of love that will put up with anything and persevere in spite of all the rebellion and difficulties. Is it Fine. It really is perhaps rather awkwardly put as covenant love, and it is sometimes used of the love between a husband and a wife in an especial and unique relationship, one to the other. How thy steadfast love, O God. Thy covenant love, O God. Thy persevering love, O God. Thy mercy, O God. How great, how precious is thy loving kindness, O God. Now what is the end of this persevering love? What is the object of this steadfast love? Why this mercy which is so precious? Here it is. The children of men, take refuge under the shadow of thy wing. The thought of a gathering. The Lord Jesus said, how often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks. The thought of a great mother bird, as it were, gathering her chicks together with her beak bringing some in and with her wings bringing the rest in, until all are safely under the shadow of the wind, nestling in protection. The children of men, take refuge in the shadow of thy wings. That's what you and I have done. I think of that other wonderful Psalm, Psalm 92. Listen to these. 91. Sorry. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The secret place of the Most High. That goes back to last week, doesn't it? One thing have I asked that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord, to inquire in his temple? For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion in the COVID The secret place of his tabernacle. Will he hide me? He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. The secret place of the Most High. What is the secret place of the Most High? No. Who is the secret place of the Most High? Think of the APostle Paul, Colossians 3. 3. Our life is hid with Christ in God. The secret place of the Most High. A life hid with Christ in God. Is your life hid with Christ in God? One of the great battles in the Christian life, one of the great satanic objectives, is to get us out of covering, to get us to expose ourselves, to get us, as it were, to come out and meet the enemy on his own ground. He will use Scripture to do that. He will use legitimate things to do that. He will pressurize us somehow or other to get us out of the secret place of the Most High from under the shadow of his wing, so that he might destroy us. But you see here we've got something, I think, very wonderful he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Abide in me, and I in you. So simple, these fundamental truths of the Christian life and so often overlooked to our great detriment spiritually. The children of men take refuge in the shadow of thy wings. The secret place of the Most High. Have you found the secret place of the Most High? Now you're a believer. You're a believer. You know that the Lord Jesus is your salvation. But have you found him as the secret place of the Most High? Do you understand that the Lord Jesus is the habitation of God? The temple and the tabernacle were the pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ as the dwelling place of God. The Lord Jesus said, destroy this temple in three days. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again. It all symbolized him, it prefigured him. The secret place of the Most High. Now let's go on to verse 8. They drink their fill of the abundance of thy house. Now what does the psalmist mean? First he's talking about the shadow of God's wings, and the next minute he's speaking about the Lord's house. The psalmist was not as silly as some people think. The psalmist had greater understanding than many New Testament Christians. You're a New Testament Christian or supposed to be, but you understand, often we have less understanding. You know, this idea that the dear people in the old Covenant, they were sort of primitive lot, prehistoric, you know, sort of wandered around the desert like Bedouins, didn't have too much. They're very, very sort of bound to things and days and places. But you know, I find that some of the Old Testament saints, many of them had a greater understanding than us. The psalmist here seems to have connected the house of the Lord with the secret place of the Most High. He's connected the house of the Lord with dwelling in in the shadow of God's wings. Now see what happens when we find the secret place of the Most High? They drink their fill of the abundance of thy house. What a wonderful phrase. They drink their fill of the abundance of thy house. There's nothing like a Christian life that's related to other believers. When we just become Christians and become saved units that we're trotting off and doing what we think we ought to do here, there and everywhere, there's often a blight on our Christian life. Have you not noticed that? But where there is the discipline of the church, where there is that fellowship of Christ, where there Is that being built together, integrated, esteeming each other better than ourselves, sometimes having, as it were, to let go of some cherished thought, an idea in order to go through in fellowship. Have you noticed that there. There's abundance. Now, let me be quite clear about this. Any meeting can have a touch of glory which can last precisely an hour or two. You can go to a conference and have a marvelous time for a weekend. But translate that into years after year after year. Now, the church is the thing which is the great steamroller. It levels everything out. You know, we're sort of up in the heavens and we come back full of it. Before we know where we are, we're back to the routine, back to the life. Now, the great thing about the church is that what is true is preserved, and what is merely a motion is expelled. Now, when you've got the church of God really built, you can have year in, year out, year in, year out. And there's abundance, there's fullness. It's not just a flashing of hand. It's not just now. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be times when we're transported into heaven. How wonderful it is when there are times when we're just absolutely touched by the power and glory of God. So that we, as the Apostle Paul says, whether in the body or out of the body, I know, not wonderful when such. We can have such times. But there is an abundance which is only found in the house of the Lord. Here it is. They drink their fill of the abundance of thy house. There is the fullness of his body. Now it says in Ephesians 1:23, the fullness of him, his body, the fullness of him which fills all in all. Now, it doesn't. He fills all in all. But his fullness is in the church. The body, if you want to check it, it's Ephesians 1:23. His body, which is the body, which is his fullness, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. So where do we find this full? If we want to be preserved and want to go on in an ever increasing experience of the fullness of God, we've got to be related to one another in Christ and rightly related to one another in Christ. Not just sitting as spectators, carried along by the momentum of the whole, but everyone with his own original experience of the Lord, his own original walk with the Lord. Well, our time is going, so we can't spend too long there but to drink. They drink their fill. I Think that's a rather. Rather sort of. Sounds a little Americanism, but it's very good. They drink their fill. They drink their fill of the abundance of thy house. They drink their fill. Have you drunk your fill? Your fill. Have you drunk your fill of the abundance of his house? Now, when we talk about. Don't think of just the people. Think of Christ. It's Christ. Christ in him. Christ in him. Christ in her. Christ in her. Have you drunk your fill? How often when we feel down, we can meet a saint? Sometimes it's the other way round. But how often when we're down, we can meet a saint and we touch something in them and we're lifted up, we've drunk something. Just like the Lord said, I will come into my garden and will drink and will eat of my fruit and will drink of my wine. When people touch me. When they touch you, do they touch something of Christ? The fullness. Well, that's another thought. Now, last part of verse 8. Thou dost give them to drink of the river of thy delights. So here also in the house of God, there is a river of delight. I do feel sorry for people who find the gathering together of God's people a dreadful duh. A dreadful sort of drudgery. It shouldn't be. There's something wrong with our mentality, you see, it's one of these lies we talked about and satanic devices. And we get our ideas so warped that psychologically we can't face sometimes a gathering of God's people. But you know, really, it should be like this. Thou dost give them to drink of the river of thy delights. Where is the Lord's delight? It is in Christ. My delight is in him. And the river of his delights. Oh, the river of his delights which we can touch. No doubt you know something of that in your experience. I do. In mine are those times when we've. We've found something of the river of his delights. Let's go on. We have not much time. Verse 9. For with thee is the fountain of life. Now, would you please note here, it's not a well. There's a difference both in the Hebrew and as far as I know, I'm not so hot on Greek at all. There's a difference in Greek too, between a well and a spring. But many people don't make in their minds, even folks here in this country, they think a well and a spring are pretty rather saving things. But this is a fountain of life. This is something that you don't have to put a bucket down, to pull up, and you don't have to pump it up. This is a fountain springing up unto eternal life. It's very interesting. I understand that in John chapter 4. In John chapter 4, the Lord Jesus used both words in his talk with the woman at the well of Samaria. He speaks not of a well to which you must come and draw up water, but he speaks of something springing up unto eternal life. Do you know that in the secret place of the Most High we can drink our fill of the abundance of his house, we can drink the river of his delights. We can find a fountain of life, something springing up now and again. The spring may go low, but it springs up. So it's not as if all the time it's the same sort of power, same force, as it were. There are times when the water may not be quite so in evidence, but thank God it springs up unto eternal life. So don't be afraid. If you're going through a winter spiritually, you're going to have a summer. Don't just think, oh, dear, dear, dear. Everything's. All these lovely people around me all praising the Lord. I feel the black sheep here. I couldn't praise the Lord. All right, you may have a winter. There is such a thing as a spiritual winter. In the winter, all kinds of harmful pests are killed. Really, all kinds of. Because we didn't have a bad. A sharp winter last year. The garden's full of black fly, green fly and every other kind of pest. We may not like hard winters, but they do something. So don't be. Praise God if you've got a winter in your life just at present and say, I shall yet praise the Lord, who is my hope and the help of my countenance. Be like the psalmist. You'll come through. There'll be a glorious spring and a marvelous summer and a fruitful autumn. Don't worry. It's like one of these trees out here, sort of saying to us, it's winter, it's winter. I'll never live again. I shall never have another apple. I mean, we could say to don't be so sin. Year after year this happens and you have apples. Oh, no, no, no. I feel terrible. Not a leaf upon my bough. Nothing at all. Everything's gray and dark and frosty. The ground is hard, the sky is a leaden, the air is cold. But you see, it's part of a cycle, part of an evolution, part of an onward march, part of a progress, progression. And so it Is spiritually a fountain of life. Don't be worried if the fountains gone a little low. It'll spring up. Fear not. It will spring up again. And this time it will spring up more powerfully than ever before. Find though where the spring is. Don't look for it in other people. Don't look for it in this movement or that movement. Find it in the secret place of the Most High. And lastly, in Thy light we see light. How many times I've been asked about this verse. In thy light we see light. How do you see light in light? I connect it up with another scripture. John chapter 8 and verse 12. Jesus said, I am the light of the world that's objective. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of light. That's subjective. I am the light of the world, like the sun pouring light on things. But then he that followeth me shall not only have that light, but shall have the light of life in him. In thy light we see light. I often put it. This is the way I understand it anyway. And I'm sure the Hebrew really means this. This is how I understand it. When I go into a room, it's dark, I can't see a thing. I put the light on and in the light of the lamp, I see a light. I mean, I suddenly see the carpet screen. I suddenly see flowers, white and yellow. I see a lectern, I see a table, I see a cloth. I see a lamp. I see walls. When it was all dark, I saw nothing. When the light shone in, I began to understand. Do you understand now? I don't know if I've got this over yet by the dumb look upon your faces. But what I really mean is this. You see, if I walk into the study, it's all in dark. I can't see a picture. I can't understand what it is. I don't know where things are. I mean, they ought not to be in that room before. When I put the light on, I suddenly see a picture. I can detect the signature on the bottom. I see a clock, I see flowers, I see a book. I see all kinds of things. Do you understand now what I'm getting at? In my light we see light. When the light of God shines upon us, we begin to understand the nature of things. We begin to understand ourselves. We begin to understand one another. We begin to understand all kinds of things. Because the light of God is shining in. We begin to say, that's not this. We distinguish the Things that differ, as the scripture says. We begin to rightly handle the word of truth. Dividing it, rightly dividing it, you understand? We don't just say, this is a room, full stop. The light is on. We begin to see the colors, the furniture, all the things. What would it be like if we lived in eternal night? You'd never see the color of a flower. You'd never see all kinds of things, really. You just have to get used to a dimness, a darkness. But when the light of the sun comes, when the light of day comes, you begin to see. See things, you begin to understand things. You begin to understand the difference between things. And so on. In Thy light we see light. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The secret place of the Most High. How precious is thy loving kindness, O God. The children of men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Shall we pray? Dear Lord, we pray that Thou wilt help every one of us to discover that birthright of ours, to be in the secret place of the Most High. We pray, Lord, that thou wilt give us understanding. May we in experience discover the Lord Jesus Christ as that secret place. May we know what it is to abide under the shadow of thy wings. May we know what it is, dear Lord, to experience all these other things. Drinking our fill of the abundance of thy house. Drinking of the river of thy delights. Knowing and experiencing the fountain of life. Seeing light in Thy light. O Lord, help us. We pray each one, and we ask it with much thanksgiving in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:35:28] Speaker A: May you know the joys of the fellowship of God's Son. May you know the Lord as your refuge in times of trouble. May you know the deep, deep love of Jesus.