Psalm 102 presents us in its conclusion with a thought that expresses all the wonder of the closeness of our fellowship with God, both now and in the perpetuation of that relationship eternally. A contrast is made between the permanence of God “Thy years are throughout all generations” ( v. 24), and, “Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end” (v. 27) and the ever-changing scene of world orders: “They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed” (v. 26).
The words are quoted, of course, in the Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. 1), where they seem to have reference to the Lord Jesus Christ in his superiority over the angels. In any event, the changelessness of God is now something that is equally true of the Lord Jesus Christ, since his elevation to the Divine nature. He is described as being the same yesterday, today and for ever. This abiding quality of both the Father and the Son is the basis of the word of comfort and encouragement to the psalmist: “The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before Thee” (v. 28).
The servants are almost certainly Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The children, therefore, are that spiritual seed who, like them, chose to be pilgrims and strangers in the earth. But the days of their wanderings are to cease, for they “shall continue”, that is, pitch their tent in a fixed place of abode. One translation, accurately reflecting the idea behind the words, renders the phrase: “(they) shall find a home” (Kay—The Psalms with notes). This is truly a most wonderful figure to describe their eternal relationship to God in His Kingdom. The Spirit has chosen as a figure that most intimate of all human associations, that closest of human family relationships, the home, where we feel most comfortable and relaxed, and where true happiness is experienced in the closeness and affinity of our family bonds.
It is a figure that runs through the pages of Scripture, and while “eternal home” is the hope of every longing, aching heart, God in His grace has, in our fellowship with Him now, given us a foretaste of the fulness of that experience that belongs to the future.
Psalms 90 and 91 are both psalms of Moses, and each uses the idea of the home to illustrate man’s privilege in entering into a covenant relationship with God. Moses writes: “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place (literally, our home) in all generations . . . even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” (90:1,2). Once more the permanence of God is emphasised, this time in contrast to the transient ephemeral nature of human existence (vv. 3-10). Yet there is great comfort in the knowledge that for all our rootlessness, in the midst of all life’s uncertainties, there is One that is changeless Who offers to us the permanence of an abiding relationship with Him, both now, in the midst of our mortality, and in the future in the eternal glories of His Kingdom.
There is something very appropriate in the thought that Moses should have penned these words, for here was a man who in human terms never enjoyed the pleasure of a settled home life. If we reflect for a moment we will remember that he spent the first forty years of his life brought up as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. In all those years he was never at home, for he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter” (Heb. 11:24). He had no affinity with that place and no desire for the things it had to offer, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Heb. 11:26).
Forced to flee from Egypt, he spent the next forty years of his life in exile in the land of Midian, only to return to Egypt for the deliverance of God’s people, then to bear the burden of that stubborn and rebellious generation for the last forty years of his life.
Yet Moses, the homeless, had a unique relationship with God, for He spake with him “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend” (Ex. 33:11). Psalm 91 develops this theme, for it opens with words that reflect beautifully the experience of Moses: “He that dwelleth in the secret places of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (v. 1). The word rendered “abide” means literally to make one’s home’. Referring to Mount Sinai, God said: “I answered thee in the secret place of thunder” (Ps. 81:7). Exodus 33 describes the experience of Moses in relation to these words. Moses besought God to show him His glory, and God in His condescension granted his request. “Behold”, said God, “there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cliff of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by” (vv. 21,22). Thus, in the secret place of the rock, Moses, who, as one has said, “warmed his hands by the fires of God”, was ‘at home’ with the Almighty, and dwelt under the shadow of His hand, while he was privileged to know that inestimable blessing of seeing the glory of God and hearing His name proclaimed (Ex. 34:5-7; see also in this connection Ps. 27:4,5; 31:19,20).
These things that Moses experienced have a counterpart in our spiritual life. To us God says, “There is a place by Me”, and we are exalted to sit in “heavenly places in Christ Jesus” ( Eph. 2:6). It is a status that far exceeds, in its privilege, all the pomp and power of human glory. It is not, of course, a physical experience as it was with Moses, but the Lord Jesus speaks to us of the “secret place” that defines our fellowship with God.
Our alms are to be in secret, that our Father, Who seeth in secret, might reward us openly (Mt. 6:4). When we pray we are to pray to the Father Which is in secret, that again we might receive our reward openly (Mt. 6:6). Likewise if we fast, it is not to be with ostentatious display; but our sacrifice and self denial must be in secret, that again the Father Which seeth in secret may reward us openly (Mt. 6:18).
Our fellowship with God is not a tangible thing in the sense that the natural man is able to discern and understand it. It is “in secret”, that like Moses we might make a home with God, have a family relationship with Him in that ‘place by Him’ that all his children are exalted to. Like Moses, those who enjoy this relationship see the glory of God; but for them it is seen in the face of Jesus, and having seen ‘the name’ revealed in him they know that name which is above every name.
So, to understand the will and purpose of God is a treasure far exceeding in its value anything this world has to offer. We know that God will reward us openly with the blessings of the Kingdom, but even now in our present experience there is a sense in which that righteousness for which we all long, growing out of our association with God and through the power of His Word, is seen to be developing in our lives in the sight of all men who, beholding our good works, see the evidence of that fellowship that we have with God in “secret”.
The figure of ‘the home’ is not confined to the Old Testament, but is used also in the New. For instance, the Lord assures us that in the Father’s house are many abiding places (Jno. 14:2), and if we love him and keep his word we have his assurance that both he and the Father will come and make their abode ( literally, their home) with us (Jno. 14:23).
This is not some strange mystical experience describing the indwelling of the Divine Spirit in the human heart, but it is a simple and wonderful illustration of the intimacy of that relationship that we can have with God and the Lord Jesus Christ. For they will dwell, not in us, but with us. We shall feel their presence, dwelling under their shadow, and thereby we will know that we have a home with God
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay