How One Man Thought of God
Tus psalm opens with a splendid unveiling of the psalmist’s conception of God. It is like some magnificent orchestral prelude to a great oratorio. The psalmist is in troubled circumstances. The floods are out. Familiar roads are broken up. Perils abound on every side. He is about to reassure his soul in the midst of the wild convulsion, and he does it in the only way that is worth doing. He fills his consciousness with God. He crowds his mind with the thought of God until there is no room left for treachery or fear, and he enshrines his thoughts in definite images. He does not permit them to come and go as vague abstractions. He makes familiar material things the ministers of spiritual things. One metaphor follows another like a fleet of stately argosies, all of them laden with precious merchandise, and every one of them carrying balms and spices of inspiration which have been grown on the fields of the soul. How does he think of God?
‘* The Rock that is Higher than I.’’ — He finds something bigger than himself. In all the welter he sees Someone bigger than himself. When King Lear is driven and beaten on the storm-swept heath, what would be the use of a rock that is smaller than himself? God must be better than our best, He must be higher than our highest, or our case is hopeless. If God’s love is smaller than a mother’s love, what defence have we amid the fearful gusts of human necessity? But the Rock is higher! ‘Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee.”
“A Refuge for me.’’ — God was a home for the fugitive; for sometimes we must take to flight if we would be saved. ‘Flee youthful lusts!” ‘* Flee from idolatry!” There are some antagonisms which are overcome, not in fight, but in flight. Our triumph is found in masterly retreat. We are not to stand up to them, we are just to leave them. We are to run away from them. And our refuge is quite near. A turning of the eyes and we are at the door! ‘‘ God is our refuge... a very present help in time of trouble.”
‘* A Strong Tower from the Enemy.’’ — The enemy’s fiery darts are helpless when we are sheltered in God’s strong tower. I know a noble and venerable castle, and if you ask the folk who live within its walls where they get their water, they will take you into the central keep and show you a spring. The vital fountain is at the very heart of the hoary pile. And so it is with the tower of God’s wonderful grace. The soul finds the waters of life in the secret place of the Most High.
‘** My Tabernacle.’ — It is perhaps the image of the Bedouin’s tent on the desert waste. The wilderness stretches on every side, but there is a hospitable tent, a home in the wilderness. And when the circumstances of my life are wild and inhospitable, and when the mean sand is all round the horizon, ‘‘ He shall spread His tabernacle over me.” Nay, He is my Home, and on the dry wastes I can be at home with the Lord.
“The Covert of His Wings.’’ — God a mother-bird! What intimacy there is in the revelation! What triumph! What comfort! What tenderness and love! God throws His grace around me like a wing.
He draws me to His heart. ‘‘ Cover my defenceless head with the shadow of Thy wing.”
And’this great God is thine and mine.