The Secret Place

There is a song by Ron Hamilton which has always been very special to me. The chorus lyrics especially are so beautiful…

“I find peace, I find grace

Far away from the world’s embrace.

He gives me rest, He keeps me safe,

I find His strength, I seek His face

In the Secret Place.”

These words have really touched my heart in the past, and that led me to a study on what “The Secret Place” might be. I mean, is there a literal, physical place that The Bible mentions, or is it more of a state of being? I was curious. What I found was very interesting to me; The Bible mentions these words in both a positive and a negative context. There are 4 mentions in a positive sense, (those are what I want to look into in this post), and 8 references in more of a negative sense. (As in hiding one’s light in a secret place under a bushel.) Those “good” verses have really beautiful words and contexts, hence the fact that people have based songs of praise to God off of them.

The first one I found was in Psalm 18:11—“He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.”

This is interesting…If The Lord has made darkness His secret place, this would indicate that in order to get there, I must go through some form of darkness. Am I willing to do that?

The second is Psalm 81:7—“Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder:…”

Wow. This reminds me of the accounts of Mt. Sinai in the book of Exodus. The people were afraid even to look at the mountain of God because of the darkness and thunder. And yet this is the place where Moses experienced such a close fellowship with his God that his face literally shone with the very majesty of it? Incredible! Obviously we can’t just draw parallels right and left…I mean again, there are only a few mentions of this phrase in the Bible. However, this scenario does make me think of the many times I have heard of people going through horrific and terrifying trials of some sort, and that’s the very time that they draw closest to God. In the midst of darkness, thunder, storms…they get to know God deeply and personally.

Moving on to the third mention, in Psalm 91:1—“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

Probably the most well known of the “secret place” verses, this is certainly a precious promise. I sometimes wonder, though; can I truly claim that promise for myself? What constitutes making God’s secret place my habitation? In the very next verse it speaks of making God our refuge. I am definitely seeing a common theme here. Darkness, storms, trials…they all would seem to go hand in hand with abiding in this Secret Place.

One more verse—Isaiah 45:3 “And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.”

I really love this one. And again, we see that theme coming out. It almost seems as if this Secret Place cannot be gained without trials. Which honestly makes sense…I mean why would you need a refuge, a fortress, a shield, if everything is going great in your life? Those are things you need in trouble, in battle, in dire situations. The question here is: Am I too busy fighting the trials that God allows in my life and wishing to escape them as fast as possible, that I can’t even find that oasis in the desert, that lull in the storm that only God can provide? Do I seek out His rest, and the treasures in the darkness, or do I stress so much that He can’t give them? Am I purposefully dwelling in that Secret Place of the Most High when a difficulty comes along in my life? God never sends trials for no reason. Maybe, just maybe, that reason is that we can discover the joy that comes with trusting God to hide us in His Secret Place!

If you are going through something that seems like an insurmountable problem, I hope these verses can help to encourage you in this. As believers, God is our refuge and strength! Keep your heart focused on Him and what He can show you through your storms! God bless,

Mykaela