Bible Commentaries

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant"— Psalm 25:14

All religions have their arcana, or secrets known only to those who are within. The religion of the Bible does not disdain to acknowledge its own secrets, and to drive away from its archives those who come with irreverent curiosity to pry into the contents of revelation. By "secret" we are here to understand familiar intercourse. The word here rendered "secret" is traced to a word which means couch; the idea is that of two friends seated upon the same couch holding confidential intercourse. The talk is as between companions, and is conducted in eager whispers. God is represented thus as bringing to a loving heart his own peculiar messages and communications, which he will not publish to the general world. God has so made his universe that its various parts talk to one another. Men hold friendly and confiding intercourse. The sun is full of lessons, so are the flowers, so are all the winds that blow, so are the forests, and so are the oceans. All these may be said to be open secrets; that is to say, men may discover their meaning for themselves, by comparison, by the study of analogy, by the watching of the coming and going phenomena of nature. But beyond this open revelation there is a secret covenant. God calls his children into inner places, and there, in hushed and holy silence, he communicates his thought as his children are able to receive it. "He will shew them his covenant:" he will read to them his own decrees; he will be his own interpreter, and make plain to the heart things that are mysterious to the intellect. We are to remember that in holding these secrets we do not hold them originally or as if by right; we hold them simply as stewards or trustees, and we are not to make them common property. The heart should always know something that the tongue has never told. Deep in our souls there should be a peace created by communion with God which no outward riches can disturb. "The secret of the Lord" may not mean any curious knowledge of mere details, or of future events, or the action and interaction of history; but it may mean, and does mean, a complete and immutable confidence that God reigns over his whole creation, and is doing everything upon a basis and under a principle which must eventuate in final and imperturbable peace. The universe is not governed in any haphazard way. This word "covenant" has been no doubt abused, perverted, or misapplied; but its use indicates that the divine plan is sovereign, settled, unchangeable. The universe is the Word of God, and it cannot fail of its purpose. Revelation is the heart of the Most High, and every jot and tittle of it will be fulfilled. The truly religious life is not a matter of mere intellectual intelligence or information or power of argument: it is a profound persuasion of the heart, a real, simple, solid trust in the righteousness and goodness of God. How such a trust lifts us above the fret and the anxiety of ever-changing details! This passage is in perfect harmony with many assurances given by Jesus Christ himself. He promised the Holy Spirit to abide with the Church, to show the Church things to come, and to take of the things of Christ, and show them unto the Church. The secret of the Lord is thus an ever-enlarging mystery,—an ever-enlarging benefaction.