Psalms 91

1. HE that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. 3 For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the noisome pestilence. 4 He shall cover thee with his pinions, And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, Nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 For the pestilence that walketh in darkness, Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold, And see the reward of the wicked. 9 For thou, O LORD, art my refuge! Thou hast made the Most High thy habitation; 10 There shall no evil befall thee, Neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent. 11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: The young lion and the serpent shalt thou trample under feet. 14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. 15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble: I will deliver him, and honour him. 16 With long life will I satisfy him, And shew him my salvation.

THIS Psalm, which in the Hebrew has no inscription, celebrates, with considerable variety and beauty of expression, God’s loving and watchful care, and the perfect peace and security of those who make Him their refuge. “Can the providence of God,” asks Herder, “be taught in a more trustful or more tender spirit? The language is the language of a father, growing ever more fatherly as it proceeds, till at last the Great Father Himself takes it up, and declares His truth and faithfulness.” The variety of figures employed shows that the Psalmist is thinking of peril of every kind, coming from whatever source, and that he paints all dangers and fears vividly to the eye of his mind, in order to express the more joyfully his confidence that none of these things can move him, that over all he is more than conqueror. It is Paul’s fervid exclamation, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” expressed in rich and varied poetry. The structure of the Psalm is in some respects peculiar. The writer speaks at one time of or from, at another to, himself; he is both subject and object; now he utters his own experience, and now he seeks to encourage himself with Divine promises; and the transitions are so abrupt that various attempts have been made to soften or explain them. Delitzsch thinks that the Psalm is dramatic in character, and that it must be distributed between three voices, and may have been possibly so sung in Divine service. The first voice utters v. 1: “He that sitteth in the secret place, that abideth in the shadow of the Almighty,” and is taken up by the second voice, which sings v. 2. The first voice resumes at the beginning of v. 3, and continues to the end of v. 8. The second voice then utters the first clause of v. 9, “For Thou, O Jehovah, art my refuge.” And the first voice begins with, “Thou hast made the Most High Thy habitation,” and goes on to the end of v. 13. The third voice, which utters the words of God Himself, is heard in vs. 14–16. Probably this, on the whole, is the simplest explanation of the change of speakers in the Psalm; but v. 1 may have been sung by the choir rather than by a single voice. P.

Analysis. A declaration by the Psalmist, not personal but general (v. 1). A voice heard in soliloquy, expressing trust in Jehovah (v. 2). The Psalmist responds, assuring him of safety in all dangers (vs. 3–8). The voice is again heard addressing God with confident trust (v. 9a). Again the Psalmist responds with additional assurances (vs. 9b–13). God now speaks, confirming the hope of His servant (vs. 14–16). De Witt.

This Psalm would be full of interest found anywhere, standing in any relation; but has peculiar interest standing here in manifestly close relations to Psalm 90. The slightest attention tion to these two Psalms will show that they are paired together, the second a counterpart to the first. The prayer of Moses has in its foreground a sweeping mortality among the people of Israel. It speaks therefore of human frailty; of man returning back to dust, and of man’s sin as calling forth the high displeasure of his Maker and demanding such a demonstration of it as the cutting off of a whole generation in the freshness of their manhood. But this sombre view of human life should not stand alone. Something should be said touching the strain of this Psalm 90 by way of exception. It should be said that those who live near to God shall abide under His protection; shall be shielded against the pestilence, protected from the fierce lion and poisonous adder, put under the charge of God’s sleepless angels to be kept in all their ways, and crowned with the blessings of long life and God’s full salvation. Such is the tone of Psalm 91. C.

The general drift of its scenery and allusions concur in showing that, like the last, we are indebted for this beautiful ode to the muse of Moses; that it was composed by him during the journey through the wilderness, shortly after the plague of the fiery serpents; when the children of Israel, having returned to a better spirit, were again received into the favor of Jehovah. Besides political enemies, the children of Israel in the wilderness had other evils in great numbers to encounter, from the nature and diseases of the climate, which exposed them to sun smitings, during the heat of the day; and to pestilential vapors, moon smitings, during the damp of the night, so as to render the miraculous canopy of the cloud that hung over them in the former season, and the miraculous column of fire that cheered and purified them in the latter, equally needful and refreshing. In Egypt they had seen much of the plague, and they had been threatened with it as a punishment for disobedience. Now in the Psalm before us, and especially in vs. 6–13, we have so clear and graphic a description of the whole of these evils presented to us, as to bring its composition directly home to the circumstances and the period here pitched upon, and to render it at least needless to hunt out for any other occasion. J. M. Good.

1. A better construction makes the parallel clauses of the first verse descriptive of an ideal person, with whom the speaker is then tacitly identified. As if he had said, “Happy the man who dwells,” etc., and then added, “Such is my condition; I can say,” etc. For the figure of a secret place or covert, see Psalms 27:5;

31 : 20 ; 32 : 7 ; for that of a shadow, Psalms 17 : 8 ; 36 : 7 ; 57 : 1. The Divine titles, Highest and Almighty, suggest the reason of this perfect safety. The last verb is strictly a reflective, and as such means to take up one’s lodgings, to domesticate one’s self, implying a voluntary choice. A.—The word for “dwellet” might equally well be translated sitteth, i.e., under the covert, in the hiding-place, the sequestered shelter of the Most High. This man “shall abide,” lodge all night and by consequence perpetually under the shadow of the Almighty. The sense, He who lives in great nearness to God, making God his trust and refuge, may expect permanent protection. Stress is laid upon God’s infinite power to shield His trustful people by the choice of those names for God which make His power prominent. Who can be otherwise than safe with the Almighty God for his Protector? C.

1,2. In each clause of vs. 1, 2 God is spoken of by a different name. God is “Most High,” far above all the rage and malice of enemies; “Almighty,” so that none can stand before His power; “Jehovah,” the God of covenant and grace, who has revealed Himself to His people; and it is of such a God that the Psalmist says in holy confidence, He is “my God,” in whom I trust. P.

It is the character of a true believer that he dwells in the secret place of the Most High; he is at home in God, returns to God, and reposes in Him as his rest; he acquaints himself with inside religion, and makes heart-work of the service of God; worships within the veil, and loves to be alone with God, to converse with Him in solitude. It is the privilege and comfort of those that do so, that they abide under the shadow of the Almighty; He shelters them, and comes between them and everything that would annoy them, whether storm or sunshine. They shall not only have an admittance, but a residence under God’s protection; He will be their rest and refuge forever. H.—The place of God’s presence is the place of refuge, of peace, of safety, of rest, to the soul that knows how to find Him and has learned to trust in Him. And every one can find Him who seeks Him by faith in Christ, and cultivates communion with Him in the spirit of a little child. To such a one nothing can come in reality as an evil. The storms of adversity and persecution, the calamities that agitate others with fear, and sweep away their possessions and their hopes, only drive this trusting soul the closer into its refuge. J. P. T.

3. For to, He will free thee from the fowler’s snare, from the plague of mischiefs. The confiding soul is now addressed directly in the tone of promise. The fowler’s snare is a figure for insidious and complicated dangers. The parallelism requires plague or pestilence to be taken as a metaphor, no less than snare. Both probably denote dangers arising from the craft of wicked enemies, to which the word translated mischiefs is peculiarly appropriate. A.

4. Covered under wings and feathers is a favorite Hebrew figure, open to the most common observation in the habits of domestic fowls. Our Lord has it in beautiful form (Matt. 23 : 37). C.—God protects believers with the greatest tenderness and affection; intimated in that, He shall cover thee with His feathers, under His wings, which alludes to the hen gathering her chickens under her wings. By natural instinct she not only protects them, but calls them under that protection when she sees them in danger; not only keeps them safe, but cherishes them and keeps them warm. To this the great God is pleased to compare His care of His people, who are helpless and easily made a prey of, but are invited to trust under the wings of the Divine promise and providence. H.

God’s providence means not merely His foresight, but His loving care—His providing for us in all things, as our heavenly Father—His loving arrangements for the supply of all our wants. It is this kind and loving providence, under which the creatures of His power and mercy, as the children of His grace, are invited to come and repose. If we do this, then we are safe and happy. All things are ours, and we may go and come secure in the care and love of our heavenly Father, and fearing no evil, till from on high He call us home. But without this loving faith, we are not ready to step across the threshold of our own door; we are not ready to sit securely by our own fireside; we are not ready to lie down in peace upon our nightly slumbers. Cheever.

5,6. Here is great security promised to believers in the midst of this danger: “Thou shalt not be afraid, God by His grace will keep thee from disquieting, distrustful fear (that fear which hath torment) in the midst of the greatest dangers. Wisdom shall keep thee from being causelessly afraid, and faith shall keep thee from being inordinately afraid. Thou shalt not be afraid of the arrow, as knowing that though it may hit thee, it cannot hurt thee; if it take away the natural life, yet it shall be so far from doing any prejudice to the spiritual life, that it shall be its perfection.” A believer needs not fear, and therefore should not fear, any arrow, because the point is off, the poison is out. O death, where is thy sting? It is also under Divine direction, and will hit where God appoints, and not otherwise. Every bullet has its commission. Whatever is done, our heavenly Father’s will is done; and we have no reason to be afraid of that. H.

6. The pestilence that walketh in darkness; the destruction that wasteth at noonday.** The description is equally forcible and correct. The diseases of all hot climates, and especially where vegetation is highly luxuriant, and marshes and miry swamps are abundant, as in the wilderness here referred to, proceed from the accumulating vapors of the night, or from the violence of the sun’s rays at mid-day. The Beriberi of Ceylon, the spasmodic cholera and jungle-fever of India, and the greater part of the fevers of intertropical climates, especially that called the yellow fever, chiefly originate from the first of these—“the pestilence that stalketh in darkness;” while sunstrokes or coups de soleil, apoplexies, inflammations of the brain, and liver complaints of most kinds proceed from the second, “the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” And it is in allusion to this double source of mischief that the Psalmist exclaims most beautifully on another occasion (121 : 6): “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” And hence the Israelites were miraculously defended against both during their passage through the wilderness by the pillar of a cloud in the daytime, to ward off the solar rays; and by the pillar of fire by night, to dissipate the collecting vapors, and preserve the atmosphere clear, dry, and healthy. J. M. Good.

7. It shall not come nigh thee.** The singular refers to any and every one of the evils mentioned in vs. 5, 6. P.—Nigh him, but not so nigh as to hurt him; the power of God can bring us near to danger, and yet keep us far from harm. As good may be locally near us and yet virtually far from us, so may evil. The multitude thronged Christ in the Gospel, and yet but one touched Him so as to receive good; so Christ can keep us in a throng of dangers, that not one shall touch us to our hurt. Caryl.

Divine restraint enters into all things. The nature of things is but their limit assigned by God. The original relation of forces in the physical world is so settled by God that their interaction shall be bounded by definite results. To every effect wrought out in the development of the material universe it has been virtually said, “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” Scripture makes known the restraint which God puts on hearts and on moral beings. Lions dare not touch a Daniel. The history of the Church and of individual Christian life brings out instances of the restraining power which silently lays hold of man and renders his enmity innocuous. “It shall not come nigh thee” has often been verified. In all these instances we have but glimpses of that unseen Power by which in due time all principalities and powers, and whatever opposeth itself to God and His Church, shall be either turned unto Him or deprived of their power of injury. Chapman.

—Amid all seeming confusion, every separate event has its separate destination. If pestilence has only some one person devoted to it in a city or community, that person it will assuredly find out, and execute the judgment of heaven regarding him. If there be a thousand persons allotted to it in a district, it will not allow one of the thousand to escape. If among the numbers who are dying there be one regarding whom it has no commission to seize upon him, that individual must remain untouched. “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.” It has a commission, and it will execute it; but then it cannot go beyond its commission. And in regard to every person to whom the event comes, it has a special end to accomplish; and it bears a special message, if he will but read it and attend to it. M’Cash.

8. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.** First, indeed, because of thy own escape; secondly, on account of thy complete security; thirdly, for the sake of comparison; fourthly, because of the perfect pre-eminence of justice itself. For then it will not be the time of mercy, but of judgment; nor shall any mercy in any way be ever shown toward the wicked there, where no improvement can be hoped for. Bernard.

9. The change of persons is again perplexing. The Psalmist suddenly interrupts the address to himself which had been continued in one strain from v. 3 (and which is resumed again in the second clause of this verse, “Thou hast made,” etc.), to express his own trust in God. But whether we suppose the address in vs. 3-8, and again that which, beginning with the second member of v. 9, extends to the end of v. 13, to be the words of the Psalmist himself, or whether they are put into some other mouth with a view to musical effect—in either case the words are really a voice from heaven, the promise of God uttered to and appropriated by the soul. P.

For Thou, Jehovah, (art) my refuge. The Most High hast thou made thy home (or habitation). The construction adopted in the English Bible is a forced one, only assumed in order to avoid the sudden change of person, which, however, is characteristic of this Psalm. A.

It is our duty to be at home in God, to make our choice of Him, and then to live our life in Him as our habitation; to converse with Him, and delight in Him, and depend upon Him; and then it shall be our privilege to be at home in God; we shall be welcome to Him as a man to his own habitation; then, too, we shall be safe in Him, shall be kept in perfect peace (Isa. 26:3). H.—He who makes God his refuge shall find Him a refuge; he who dwells in God shall find his dwelling protected. We must make the Lord our habitation by choosing Him for our trust and rest, and then we shall receive immunity from harm; no evil shall touch us personally, and no stroke of judgment shall assail our household. S.—It is therefore the making of God our habitation, upon which our safety lies; and this is the way to make God an habitation, thus to cast ourselves by faith upon His power and providence. Jeremiah Dyke.

10. There shall no evil befall thee.** It is a security in the very midst of evils. Not like the security of angels—safety in a world of safety, quiet in a calm; but it is quiet in a storm, safety amid desolation and the elements of destruction, deliverance where everything else is going to wreck. C. Bradley.—God doth not say no afflictions shall befall us, but no evil. T. Watson.—Though trouble and affliction befall thee, yet there shall be no real evil in it, for it shall come from the love of God, and shall be sanctified; it shall come, not for thy hurt, but for thy good; and though for the present it be not joyous but grievous, yet in the end it shall yield so well that thou thyself shalt own no evil befall thee. It is not an evil only, but there is a mixture of good in it and a product of good by it. Nay, not thy person only, but thy dwelling shall be taken under the Divine protection; there shall no plague come nigh that; nothing to do thee or thine any damage. H.

11. For His angels He will charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.** The plural angels shows that there is no allusion to a guardian spirit attending the individual believer, but merely to the angels collectively, as ministering spirits, the instrumental agents of God’s providential care over His people. A.

They are the inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem, of which we are heirs; they have possession, and we have title, and shall in time possess it. We are called to much of the same employment with them; we must love the same God, and glorify Him by obedience, thanks, and praise, and so do they; therefore they are ministers for our good, and rejoice in the success of their labors, as ministers of Christ on earth do. There is not a sinner converted but it is the angels’ joy, which showeth how much they attend to that work. They are especially present and attendant on us in our holy assemblies and services of God; and therefore we are admonished (1 Cor. 11:10) to reverence their presence and do nothing before them that is sinful or unseemly. The presence of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels must continually awe us into exact obedience. With the Church, they pry into the mystery of the dispensation of the Spirit to the Church. And so “by the Church”—that is, by God’s dealings with the Church, is “made known the manifold wisdom of God” even to those “heavenly principalities and powers.” In conclusion, Christ telleth us that in our state of blessedness we shall be “equal to the angels,” and so shall live with them forever. Baxter.

In all thy ways. Your ways are God’s ways, your way is the way commanded by God. If you be out of God’s ways, you are out of your own way; if you be in your way, the angels shall keep you. W. Bridge.—While you keep your way, angels, yea, the God of angels, will keep you. Do not so much fear losing your estate or your liberty or your lives, as losing your way and leaving your way; nothing but sin exposeth you to soul-loss or misery. So long as you keep your way you shall keep other things; or if you lose any of them, you shall get what is better; though you may be sufferers for Christ, you shall not be losers by Him. S. Salter.

He shall give His angels charge over thee. When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, he alleged but one sentence of Scripture for himself, and this Psalm, out of which he borrowed it, made so plain against him, that he was fain to pick here a word and there a word, and leave out that which went before and came after, or else he had marred his cause. The Scripture is so pure and true that no word nor syllable thereof can make for the devil or for sinners. H. Smith.—Revelation discovers to faith, on the one hand, the hierarchies of the blessed angels, and, on the other, the corresponding gradations of evil spirits, principalities, and powers who have abused their freedom, and who are ceaselessly laboring to impair and to destroy the true moral order of the universe. These spiritual beings, good and evil, act upon humanity as certainly, as constantly, as man himself acts upon the lower creatures around him, and thus it is that we “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Liddon.

14-16. God’s answer to the soul which trusts in Him. “God Himself comes forward to establish the faith of His servant, writes deeper in the soul so great a consolation, and confirms the testimony to His servant. ‘He hath set his love upon Me; he knoweth My name; he calleth upon Me’—these are the marks of a true servant of God. God draws nigh to one who so draws nigh to Him.” P.

What God Himself is overheard to say at the close of the Psalm is the glorious corner-stone of this edifice of confidence. Mark the cause assigned by the Lord for the warm interest which He feels in His servant thus exposed: “He has set his love upon Me; he has known My name.” Mark how the Lord speaks, connecting His servant’s love to Him and knowledge of His name with His own purpose of deliverance and exaltation, as if His honor were concerned to make it plain that the love is not misplaced: “I will deliver him.” Mark what the Lord expects on the part of His servant: “He shall call upon Me.” Mark the assurance of the Lord’s gracious interposition, answering to His servant’s calling upon Him: “He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him,” etc. Nor is it to be all trouble with the man of God while he is fighting the good fight and finishing his course. Nay, there is so much enjoyment for him as to make him rather wish for its continuance, and welcome the concluding promise which he hears the Lord giving, “With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” R. S. Candlish.

14. He does not say, Because he is without sin, because he has perfectly kept all My precepts, because he has merit and is worthy to be delivered and guarded. But he produces those qualities which are even found in the weak, the imperfect, and those still exposed to sin in the flesh—namely, adhesion, knowledge of His name, and prayer. Musculus.—These promises belong to those that have set their love upon God, that know His name, and that call upon Him. H.

There is one thing in this verse which may encourage us very much. It is not because of perfect love that God will deliver. It is to the will to love and serve—it is to the setting the heart that the promise is made—to the “full purpose of heart” that is set to cleave unto the Lord. M. B. M. Duncan.—The love of the Christian is a delightful love (as Mr. Baxter called it), because there is in the Lord everything that is worthy of infinite and eternal admiration; and then there is the thought which produces a thrill of pleasure—whatever I admire I can, in some measure, possess. The illuminated eye of God’s favorite sees everything in the Lord to supply his necessities; everything to satisfy his desires, all his own; which makes the soul delight itself in the Lord, and he rests in His love. Therefore, the Lord says of the object of His lovingkindness, “He hath set his love upon Me”—he hath taken off the heart from all idolatrous attachment to the creature, and placed it fixedly and supremely upon God. W. Dawson

Do for His sake deeds of love, and He will give thee His love. Still thyself, thy own cares, thy own thoughts for Him, and He will give thee Himself. Ask for Himself, and He will take thee into Himself. Truly a secret, hidden thing is the love of God, known only to them who seek it, and to them also secret, for what man can have of it here is how slight a foretaste of that endless ocean of His love! Pusey.—Sound love to God floweth from and is joined with sound knowledge of God, as His Majesty is declared unto us in Scripture; the believer who hath set his love upon God “hath known My name,” saith He. Dickson.

15. He shall call upon Me. I will pour upon him the spirit of prayer, and then I will answer—answer by promises, answer by providences, bringing in seasonable relief, and answer by graces, strengthening them with strength in their souls; thus He answered Paul with grace sufficient. H.

I will be with him in trouble. God hath made promises of His special presence with His saints in suffering. God will hold our head and heart when we are fainting! What if we have more afflictions than others, if we have more of God’s company? God’s honor is dear to Him; it would not be for His honor to bring His children into sufferings and leave them there; He will be with them to animate and support them; yea, when new troubles arise (Job 5:19). “He shall deliver thee in six troubles.” T. Watson.

Communion with Christ is the best proof of Christ’s existence and Christ’s love. It is so even in human life. Misgivings gather darkly round our heart about our friend in his absence; but we seek his frank smile, we feel his affectionate grasp; our suspicions go to sleep again. It is just so in religion. No man is in the habit of praying to God in Christ, and then doubts whether Christ is He “that should come.” It is in the power of prayer to realize Christ, to bring Him near, to make you feel His life stirring like a pulse within you. Let but a man live with Christ, anxious to have his own life destroyed and Christ’s life established in its place, losing himself in Christ, that man will have all his misgivings silenced. He who works, and feels he works—he who prays, and knows he prays—has got the secret of transforming life-failure into life-victory. F. W. R.

16. Long life;** literally, “length of days.” The special promise of long life at the close, as a temporal blessing, is in accordance with the general character of the Old Testament. Still it is possible that men like the Psalmist, full of faith in God, attached a deeper and more spiritual meaning to promises and hopes like these, than was attached to them by the majority of their countrymen. P.

“I will satisfy him with long life,” give him all his heart craves; fill his largest desires. Thus there is an offset to the mournfulness of human frailty and swift mortality. It shall be well with those that fear God and walk softly before Him. Usually they have longer lives and more earthly blessings even in our age and in every age than the defiantly wicked. C.—They shall live long enough; they shall be continued in this world till they have done the work they were sent into this world for, and are ready for heaven; and that is long enough. Who would wish to live a day longer than God has some work to do, either by him or upon him? They shall think it long enough, for God by His grace shall wean them from the world and make them willing to leave it. H.

Bernard interprets this of heaven; because he thought nothing long that had an end. This, indeed, is the emphasis of heaven’s joy; those blessed souls never sin, never weep more; they shall not only be with the Lord, but ever with the Lord. This is the accent which is set on the eulogies given to heaven in Scripture. ‘Tis “an inheritance,” and that an “incorruptible one, that fadeth not away;” it is “a crown of glory,” and that a weighty one; yea, “an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory.” Gurnall.

What we all need to realize more than we do, is that we live in God. He is nearer to us than we are to our own bodies, and is only partly hidden from us by the garments of thing and circumstance wherewith He wraps Himself round. We stand as near to Him as did those Bible-men and women whom we are liable to think of as placed above all worldly cares, and as enjoying in all their life the consciousness of the presence and approval of God. They had their struggles and temptations, as we have; and some of them complained that they looked for God on the right hand and on the left, and did not see Him, as some of us have also done. It was as hard for them as for us to lay hold upon the garments of God in the toil and turmoil of this world’s strife, and as they succeeded, we also may succeed. If their cry, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!” awakes an answering echo in our hearts, so, too, may their song of triumph when they were lifted from the depths, and found themselves in the secret place of the Most High. Daily we touch the garments of God, whether we know it or not. What we need is a heart enlightened by the knowledge of God and an eye that is willing to look through the deeds of daily life to the God behind them, if we would pierce through that which seems to that which is. God is not far from any one of us. What we call the ordinary and the commonplace are the garments which reveal His presence; and we may reach through them to Him who is revealed in them, to cling forever to God Himself. Thus to recognize His presence and thus to cling is the sure privilege of every child of God. S. S. T.

Day and night ministers of grace, silent and unseen, are near to us, who have received a charge from God to keep us in all our ways. They will beat back and chase away the powers of darkness. God Himself is with you. Nothing can separate you from Him but your own unwillingness to have your home in the light and joy of His presence. When the noise of the world is loudest and the crowd thickest you can still be alone with Him, and dwell in perfect peace. Ah! how wonderful is the blessedness of those who have learned the true secret of a devout life! Partakers of the Divine nature, they partake the Divine bliss. They are in heaven already. They are one with God. He Himself finds delight in their childlike trust and their reverential love. To Him, their grateful thoughts of His goodness, which come and go all day long, and their ineffable joy when they remember that He is near, are sweeter

and nobler music than the pathetic chants which roll along the pillared aisles and vaulted roofs of ancient cathedrals, or the exulting hallelujahs of that mighty chorus which has sometimes made us think that we were listening to the songs and harps of heaven. And when in hours consecrated to devotion they are able to gaze more steadfastly on His face, and to enter into a more sustained and protracted communion with Him, His happiness and theirs are an anticipation, and more than an anticipation, of the blessedness of the immortal fellowship between Himself and the glorified spirits of the redeemed. At such times it is true of the joy of God Himself, as well as of the joy of the soul that worships Him, that a stranger cannot intermeddle with it. Yes, the soul that dwells

with Him is already in possession of a victorious strength, celestial peace, and Divine delight. The calamities of this world can only for a moment cloud its bliss. In the wilderness, fiery chariots wait to carry it to the upper skies. Choirs of angels descend and fill the night of its sorrow with music and rapture. In exile and loneliness it sees visions of the city of God. When storms and tempests rage, it sits in peace on lofty mountain-tops of faith and hope, and looks down upon the flashing lightning, and listens to the thunder rolling far beneath its feet. It dwells in the secret place of the Most High, and is satisfied with the pleasures which are at His right hand, and with the fulness of joy which is in His presence forevermore. R. W. Dale.