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HAVE YOU EVER BEEN inside a cabin with a big roaring fire in the fireplace, enjoying this wonderful feeling of safety and security as you watched an enormous lightning storm going on outside? It was a warm, wonderful sensation, knowing you were being sheltered and protected from the storm. That is what Psalm 91 is all about—shelter!
Did you know there is a place in God—a secret place—for those who want to seek refuge? It is a literal place of physical safety and security that God is referring to. Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High is the Old Testament’s way of teaching faith. This gives us the most intense illustration of the very essence of personal relationship. Man has no innate built-in shelter. Alone, he stands shelterless against the elements and must run to THE SHELTER, which is God Himself. In verse one, God is offering us more than protection; it is as if He rolls out the hospitality mat and personally invites us in. Our Heavenly Father has a Secret Place in His arms that protects us from the storms raging in the world around us. The question is—“How do we dwell in the security and shelter of the Most High?” It is more than an intellectual experience. It is a dwelling place where we can be physically protected if we run to Him. You may utterly believe that God is your refuge, you may give mental assent to it in your prayer time, you may teach Sunday school lessons on this concept of refuge, and you may even get a warm feeling every time you think of it, but unless you do something about it—unless you actually get up and run to the shelter—you will never experience it. You also might call that place of refuge—a Love Walk! In fact, the secret place is, in reality, the intimacy and familiarity of the presence of God Himself. When our grandchildren, Cullen and Meritt, ages ten and seven, stay the night with us, the moment they finish breakfast, each runs to his own secret place to spend some time talking with God. Cullen finds a place behind the couch in the family room, and Meritt heads behind the lamp table in the corner of our bedroom. Those places have become very special to them. Where is your secret place? You, too, need the security and shelter of a secret place with the Most High. This place of refuge is actually a relationship with the Father you have cultivated and developed by investing enough time into it to make it very personal and intimate.
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