Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 25:14

The secret of the LORD [is] with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.

14. Mysterious spiritual blessings await him too. To those who fear Him Jehovah reveals His secret counsel. Cp. Pro 3:32; Psa 111:10; Pro 1:7; Mat 11:25. For secret R.V. marg. gives alternatives counsel or friendship, ideas included in the word, which denotes the confidential intercourse of intimate fellowship. For examples see Gen 18:17; Amo 3:7.

and he will shew them ] Lit. make them to know (as in Psa 25:4), to experience, in ever fuller and deeper measure, the meaning and blessedness of His covenant. We may also render, and his covenant is to give them knowledge.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The secret of the Lord – On the word here rendered secret, see the notes at Job 15:8. It properly means a couch or cushion; and then, a divan or circle of friends sitting together; then, deliberation or consultation; then, familiar contact, intimacy; and then, a secret, – as if it were the result of a private consultation among friends, or something which pertained to them, and which they did not wish to have known. It is rendered secret in Gen 49:6; Job 15:8; Job 29:4; Psa 25:14; Pro 3:32; Pro 11:13; Pro 20:19; Pro 25:9; Amo 3:7; counsel in Psa 55:14; Psa 64:2; Psa 83:3; Jer 23:18, Jer 23:22; and assembly in Psa 89:7; Psa 111:1; Jer 6:11; Jer 15:17; Eze 13:9. The word friendship would perhaps express the meaning here. The sense is, that those who fear the Lord are admitted to the intimacy of friendship with Him; are permitted to come into His presence, and to partake of His counsels; are allowed free access to Him; or, as it is more commonly expressed, have fellowship with Him. Compare 1Jo 1:3. The language is such as would be applied to the intimacy of friends, or to those who take counsel together. The language belongs to a large class of expressions denoting the close connection between God and His people.

With them that fear him – With those who truly and properly reverence Him, or who are His true worshippers: Psa 5:7; Job 1:1.

And he will show them his covenant – Margin, And his covenant to make them know it. The meaning is, that God will impart to them the true knowledge of His covenant; or, in other words, He will enable them to understand what there is in that covenant, or in its gracious provisions, that is adapted to promote their happiness and salvation. The word covenant here is the same term which is commonly used to describe the arrangements which God has made for the salvation of people: see Psa 25:10. Whatever there is in that arrangement to promote the happiness and salvation of His people, He will cause them to understand.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Psa 25:14

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.

—

The secret of the Lord

Then the Lord has a secret. Why does He not tell it to every man? Why do we not tell our secrets to every man? Every man does not understand us. We always best understand those who are like-minded with us. God gives His secret to them that fear Him. We individually give our secret–knowledge of our inner self–to those who see eye to eye with us, and by so much would not, cannot, offend us. That which must necessarily be a secret to some, even knowledge of ourselves, is, all else being equal, most obtainable by them that fear us; by them who put confidence in us. It is even so with society; its secret is with them that fear it. Outrage the moral sense of society, or even its sense of propriety, and refuse to be reconciled, and society will cast you adrift. He who acquiesces in the ways of society is received by society, and gets from it such secret as it has to reveal. He knows society through reconciliation, through a species of fear, in which there is an admixture of love.. The secret of business is with him who bends his will to it. The secret of all science, and all art, is with them that love it. No love, no secret, in personal intercourse, in industrial pursuits, in society. The more love, the more knowledge or secret. Admiration, devotion, love, each according to its nature and degree opens all locks and doors and souls. Have the spirit of any given man, and his secret is yours. Have his spirit entirely, and you have him. Harmony with God, sympathy, animation by His Spirit is necessary to knowing Him. (J. S. Swan.)

The secret of the Lord

I. The class of persons spoken of. Those that fear the Lord.

1. Fear sometimes signifies fear of Gods punishments. This fear is better than none at all, as it exercises a restraining power over men who would otherwise commit sin.

2. But there is a fear which merits the severest reprobation: when it fears God because it considers Him to be an angry, vindictive being.

3. There is a fear which deserves the highest commendation; it is filial fear, the fear which an affectionate child has of grieving its father, or causing him pain.

II. The privilege which such persons enjoy. The secret of the Lord is with them. God holds communion and fellowship with men whose hearts are rightly disposed towards them. Suppose a group of persons discussing the conduct and policy of some public man. All kinds of opinions might be expressed, favourable or otherwise. But of what worth would they be compared with the word of one who knows this public man personally, intimately, who is in his secret, and can speak with confidence regarding his public conduct? Or the secret may be illustrated ill another way–by the relation in which two friends stand to each other, who are in perfect sympathy with one another. How they would understand each other! A glance of the eye, a mere hint, suffices to reveal the mind of the one to the other. So the favour and fellowship of God are enjoyed by the man who fears Him. What do we know about this secret? The infidel Hume taunted his servant with believing in nonsense. He replied that in his History of England Hume told of Queen Mary, who said that when she died, Calais would be found written on her heart. So, the servant said, Christ was written on his heart. This is the secret of the Lord. (W. Logan, M. A.)

The teachings of God within and without

God reveals Himself in two ways to man. God wrote His word on the pages of the elements. But even on the heathen He wrote a more inward law, which answered to the outward and interpreted its voice–the law of conscience. Each of these voices is made more distinct as man is brought nearer to God. And when we forget both, He has given us the writings of the law, the voices of the prophets, the melody of the Psalms, the instruction of Proverbs, the experiences of histories, the words of Jesus and the Apostles. He speaks, too, by His Spirit. God ever speaks to the heart, as He speaks through the Word; for He cannot contradict Himself. What then? Because God must prepare the heart and open the ear and Himself speak to it, does nothing depend on us? It is with us to hearken or no. The secret of the Lord is a hushed voice, a gentle intercourse of heart to heart, a still small voice whispering to the inner ear. How should we hear it if we fill our ears and our hearts with the din of this world? There are two conditions, as there are degrees of inward hearing. You must fear God. You must be hushed yourselves. They who do not fear God cannot hear the secret. In grace, God forecomes man, and man follows grace given. In sin, on the contrary, man begins; he casts out grace, deadens his own car, until Gods voice sounds fainter and fainter. The question on which all hangs is this–is the flesh subdued to the Spirit, or the Spirit stifled by the flesh? This is the first condition of knowing the will of God, that we will to know it wholly. In vain is heaven opened to eyes fixed on earth. Love sees God The Psalmist speaks not of the secret of the Lord only, but of a secret converse with the soul, as of a friend with his friend. To have the love of the Great Friend, we must desire no love out of Him. St. Bernard says, A secret counsel calleth for a secret hearing. He will assuredly make thee hear of joy and gladness if thou receivest Him with a sober car. They who would behold God, says St. Gregory, dwell in a loneliness of soul, and free from the tumults of worldly cares, thirst for God. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

The knowledge of God revealed to them that fear Him

The secret of the Lord means, that which cannot be known unless the Lord reveal it. And the phrase here implies an intimate knowledge of the Divine perfections, of the dealings and dispensations of God; a holy and vital communion with Him; an entire trust in His providential care and government, together with that peace which always dwells in the bosom of a true, penitent, pious believer. All this, including, as it does, a full acquaintance with the doctrines and duties, the privileges and comforts of the life of faith, is called the secret of the Lord, for man naturally knows nothing of them (Pro 2:6; Pro 2:9; 1Co 2:9). Men think all this enthusiasm, and have no notion that there is anything in religion which they, by their own skill, are not competent to discover. But, for instance, how can any man who neglects the worship of God pretend to decide upon its importance or utility? It is a matter of experience, and he is unqualified to judge. Because the sinner, when overtaken by sickness or affliction, declares that he derives no comfort from religion, are we therefore to conclude that religion has no comforts to bestow? The promises of the Gospel belong to them that fear the Lord. These persons, when they read the Scriptures, are blessed through them; theirs, too, is the secret of peace in the midst of trouble and in the hour of death. (T. Slade, M. A.)

The reward of fear

Think what Gods secret told to a man must be.

I. It must be one of knowledge. You all know what the Bible is to the natural heart. It gives information, much and valuable, about most important things. But there it ends. It does not touch us, does not move us, does not make us feel. But see the true Christian over his Bible. How he drinks in his words, and how they refresh and comfort him. How he trusts them, and lives by them. He has got the secret of his Bible.

II. It must be a secret of safety. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. That is just what we cannot do; we have no such tower. Lifes troubles find us out of doors, and beat upon us. How insecure, defenceless, comfortless we are. A tale was once written of a man who had committed a murder, a base, treacherous, but well-concealed murder, after which he lived for many years in respect and honour, in the gratification of all tastes and wishes, in affluence, and comfort, and domestic love, till a day of late discovery and late retribution. People spoke of this as an immoral story, because it gave the man half a life of enjoyment. But that was a short-sighted judgment. How little could such observers know of the torture that man endured from the one fact of his consciousness of insecurity; that at any moment ruin might come. Without security, which is a sense of safety, no happiness is worth the name. The secret of the Lord is a secret of safety.

III. A secret of strength. How strong a weak person may become who has it. And we have known strong men become weak for the lack of it.

IV. A secret of peace. The wicked are like the troubled sea. There is such a thing as a false peace; but a man must have gone very far astray before he can know that, the peace of spiritual death. Between these two extremes, the peace of God and the peace of death, there lies a very wide and dreary morass, a state of disquiet and unrest.

V. Consider the communication of this secret. It is given to them who fear Him. There are two kinds of fear: that fear which is cast out by love, and that fear which is part of love. It is a very serious thing when the foundations of religion are not laid deep in the fear of God. Remember that the fear of God, like everything else, must come instrumentally by practice. Abstain from something tonight, each one of you, some thought, some word, some act, by a great effort if necessary, on this single ground, that it will displease God. Do so again tomorrow; in a little while it will become easier to you, at last it will become habitual. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)

A palace of Divine secrets

I ask you to come with me through a spiritual palace, and I will describe the several apartments.

I. We turn aside into a wide and spacious hall. Before us is a throne, high and lifted up,–it is the throne of grace. Watch the comers as they enter; their penitential aspect, humility, solicitude; listen to their confessions and their requests. They have come with woe, care, perplexity, sin. But they all fear Him, and so are admitted to the secret of prayer.

II. Another chamber–the armoury of light. Nations boast their arsenals, but there is none like this. Watch those who are coining in and being armed.

III. The treasure room which contains the book of life. Old books are counted as treasures. Here is one of the oldest, and it is indestructible. Let Mosaic chronology be mistaken, it only makes this book a little more venerable; for it was made ere the foundations of the earth. Whose names are in it? This is one of the Lords secrets. But all those who have been born again of the Spirit of God are written there.

IV. The chamber of consolation. Numerous visitors come crowding in. Heavily laden, worn-out, exhausted, fainting ones. They have all come to the right place. Here are staffs, cordials, medicines, anchors, lights, garments of praise.

V. The room named Cross of love. This is the highest of all. Here is revealed the secret of secrets. A soft and heavenly light fills the whole chamber. St. Paul was often in this room; it had a special charm for him.

VI. The tower of the palace. It is the Tower of Vision. Winding up its alabaster stairs, well-worn but ever-renewed, we at last reach the lofty summit. Below us is the world, half hidden by the mist, its hum scarcely audible. Our eyes climb up to the regions of serene and perpetual light, to the holy splendours of the city of our God. (W. A. Essery.)

Hidden manna, or The mystery of saving grace

The saving grace that the children of God have is a secret that none in the world know besides. It is called a secret in three ways. Secret to the eye of nature; but this is not meant. Secret to the eye of taught nature; but this is not meant. Secret to the eye of enlightened nature; this is meant. It is a secret to all unsanctified professors. It is called a mystery. Grace is spiritual, and can only be received by the spiritually minded. A man must have another secret before he can know this secret. He must be a new creature.

1. Use for instruction. Is Gods secret with them that fear Him? Then the godly are the friends of God. Then the godly are all one with God.

2. For refutation. Away with all who say that God gives no secret thing to any one man more than another.

3. For consolation. They are so honoured with the Lord that God hides no good thing from them that is necessary to their salvation.

4. For terror to the wicked. Here is horror to all the ungodly; they are strangers from God, they are not admitted into Gods secrets. (W. Fermer.)

The Lords secret

1. The fear of the Lord–its origin is of God. Its effect is cleansing, purifying from the power and love of sin (Psa 19:9). The fear of the Lord is clean, or cleansing; its evidence is in assembling with the Lords people (Mal 3:16). Then they that feared the Lord, etc., but this fear is not the cause of the blessings spoken of, but the proof.

2. In every heart thus filled with the fear of God there is a communication of a secret. The Lord opens His mind and His heart to them, and, to begin with the lowest, there is the secret working of His grace, in conviction of sin, of righteousness, of pardon and peace–in the creation of a spirit of prayer and praise; all these being the work of grace in the soul. Then there is the secret witness of the Spirit, testifying to their adoption into His family, and the secret whispers of His love, whereby He continues to assure the soul by these tokens, that He has loved that soul with an everlasting love, and prepared it for a crown of glory.

3. The promise. Something more in prospect–He will show them His covenant. The everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure; this was Davids support in trouble and in the hour of death. He will show them, will teach them, more and more therein, the nature of it, the duration of it, its comprehensiveness, its security, its terms and conditions, its blessings and promises, all in Christ, and Christ in all. (A. Hewlett, M. A.)

Gods greatest secret

The secret of the Lord is His sending His Son into the world for the redemption of lost mankind.

I. The Gospel of Christ is a mystery. It is not attainable without supernatural revelation. It was undiscoverable by the most exalted powers of human understanding until God, out of infinite mercy, was pleased Himself to reveal it. But even after the clearest revelation that our present state is capable of there must be owned to be, in the Christian religion, mysteries far surpassing the highest pitch of human understanding. To know in part is too poor and mean a degree of knowledge for our modem Christian philosophers. To them there must be nothing in Christianity mysterious. Examine their pretensions, and we shall find that they neither speak of faith as becomes Christians, nor of reason as becomes men. How far are we glad to allow the use of reason in Divine matters?

1. Reason is of great use in asserting the principles of natural religion, such as the Being of a God; the obligation to worship Him; the immortality of the soul; and the eternal and essential difference between good and evil, partly discoverable by natural light.

2. Reason is useful, since it is from rational inducements that we first admit even revelation itself. It is by reason we distinguish what is truly Divine from enthusiasm and imposture.

3. Reason is of excellent use in expounding and interpreting the mind and meaning of Holy Writ, as long as it is sober and modest and keeps strictly to the analogy of faith.

4. Reason is usefully employed in stopping the mouths of gainsayers, in enlightening their blindness or subduing their contumacy, in confuting heretics by turning their own weapons upon them, and vindicating Divine truth from all those calumnies which are unjustly brought against it. But in the sublime mysteries of our religion reason has no more to do, when it is once satisfied and convinced of the revelation, but to receive from it those truths which by its own natural powers it never had been able to have found out.

II. The qualifications requisite in those that are to receive this great mystery. Them that fear Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of that wisdom which alone makes wise unto salvation; and that–

1. By a natural efficiency. Whoever loves the precepts of God, and delights to do what He commands, will meet with little difficulty in believing what He reveals. There is a natural and easy passage from loving to believing. True saving faith requires a devout and humble submission of the mind and heart, a complacency and delight and joy in the truths that it receives.

2. Besides this natural tendency, there are through the whole Scripture many signal examples, as well as positive promises, of faith and heavenly knowledge to a due and sincere practice of what we already know. Inferences–

(1) Since pride and self-concept and a too confident relying upon our own reason have been shown to be so dangerous and destructive of our holy faith, let us strive to attain a deep and true humility of spirit, and a just sense of our own natural blindness and infirmity. Let us avoid all curious and nice inquiries into things that are too high for us.

(2) Let us heartily and industriously and zealously set upon this work, the fulfilling the whole will of our Lord. Then there would soon be no remains of infidelity left in us; we should soon, then, to our unspeakable joy and satisfaction, feel, by a sincere and strict observance of the Christian duties, that we should no longer have any doubts or scruples of the Christian faith. (R. Duke.)

Gods secrets

All religions have their areana, 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 hero 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 meanings 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 show 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 clothe 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. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

Revelations to those who obey

There are commentators who refer this verse, not to the external orderings of Gods providence, but to the mental assurance which God gives those that fear Him, of the truth of His Word, and the adequacy of the religion it reveals, to satisfy the wants of the soul. This mental assurance, wrought into the soul by God Himself, is thought by some to be the secret of the Lord here intended. The Saviour is believed to refer to this secret assurance in the words, If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God (Joh 7:17). The Jews had denied the Divine reality of His miracles, and also that the Messianic prophecies had been verified in Him. Very well, answers our Lord, I propose to you another means of testing My claim to be your Messiah and Saviour. Practise the precepts of the religion I teach you, and you shall soon have revealed to you the secret whether it be of God. Do His will, and you shall know of the doctrine. In obeying the precept, all else shall become plain. I knew a man who acted upon this saying of the Saviour. He admired, as perfect, the preceptive portions of the Bible, but stumbled at some of its peculiar doctrines. He determined, therefore, to ascertain what effect obeying the precepts would have toward dissipating his difficulties in regard to the doctrines of our religion. He therefore at once endeavoured to live in every respect as he would have lived had he been a Christian: reading, praying, attending public worship, and making the moral code of the Bible his only rule of action. So obeying the precept, in less than a twelvemonths time the secret of the Lord was revealed to him, the truth of all the doctrines of Gods covenant of redeeming mercy in Christ was made plain to his understanding and grateful to his heart. Here is a cure for scepticism within the reach of every man. (David Caldwell, M. A.)

Knowledge the reward of obedience

1. There are some parts of the Bible which none but a learned man can understand or explain. There are seeming difficulties and discrepancies in the Bible which may escape the notice of the casual reader, but of which all well-instructed theologians are aware, since they are standing objections in the mouth of the sceptic or the scorner.

2. There are some parts of the Bible which all can understand. No one who reads the New Testament, or who hears it read, can doubt what be ought to do, and what he ought not to do. The Bible is clear about many of its doctrines.

3. There is a middle class of truths that are easy of comprehension to some, and hard to others,–truths which human learning cannot impart, nor the want of learning, as such, exclude from the mind. These are the most solemn and most important teachings of Scripture, which tell us of the intimate relations which exist between man and his God: such as, the doctrines of the corruption of our nature; of the degrading and shameful conduct of sin; of our need of salvation and purification; of our own inability to purify and save ourselves; of the priceless blessings involved in the atonement of Jesus, and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Of all these doctrines it may justly be said, they are easy or hard to be understood by different persons, and sometimes even by the same persons at different times. The practical knowledge of these great truths is an effort beyond the power of the intellect, apart from the convictions and aspirations of the soul. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are spiritually discerned, and mere learning cannot spiritually discern. If any man will do Gods will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. An obedience springing from true faith is the key by which we are to unlock the hidden and more precious mysteries of the heavenly kingdom. (G. W. Brameld.)

The knowledge of covenant securities

The Rev. F.B. Meyer, when speaking of Gods faithfulness to His covenant promises, used the striking illustration of the deed to a house. The deed may be very old. It may be hard to decipher. The parchment may be stained and cracked. The inmates of the home in their busy life may forget all about it. But the very existence of the home depends upon it, and if it were lost and could not be replaced, sorrow and poverty and wretchedness would be the portion of that household. So our peace of soul, our very spiritual life, depends on the covenant which God the Father made long ago on our behalf with Christ the Son, that for His sake our sins should be forgiven and we should have a right to the many mansions.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 14. The secret of the Lord is with them] sod, the secret assembly of the Lord is with them that fear him; many of them have a Church in their own house.

He will show them his covenant.] He will let them see how great blessings he has provided for them that love him. Some refer this to the covenant of redemption by Christ Jesus.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The secret of the Lord; either,

1. His word and counsel, to direct and guide them in the right way, which he oft mentions here as a singular blessing, Psa 25:8,9,12, to show them their duty in all conditions, and the way to their eternal salvation. And so this may seem to be explained by the following words,

he will show them his covenant. And this, though it was revealed, yet might be called a secret, because of the many and deep mysteries in it, and because it is said to be hid from many of them to whom it was revealed, Mat 11:25; 2Co 3:13-15; 4:3; and it is not to be understood to any purpose without the illumination of their minds by Gods Spirit, as is manifest from Psa 119:18,19, and many other places of Scripture. Or rather,

2. His love and favour, which is called his secret, Job 29:4; Pro 3:32, and that very fitly, because it is known to none but him that enjoyeth it, Pro 14:10; Rev 2:17. Or his gracious and fatherly providence, which is here said to be with them; or, as it is in the Hebrew, towards them, taking care of them, and working for them; even then when God seems to frown upon them.

He will show them his covenant, or, and he will make them to know (for the infinitive is here thought to be put for the future tense of the indicative, as it is Ecc 3:14,15,18; Ho 9:13; 12:3)

his covenant, i.e. he will make them clearly to understand it, both its duties or conditions, and its blessings or privileges; neither of which ungodly men rightly understand. Or, he will make them to know it by experience, or by Gods making it good to them; as, on the contrary, God threatens to make ungodly men to know his breach of promise, Num 14:34. Or, as it is in the margin of our Bibles, and his covenant (is, i.e. he hath engaged himself by his promise or covenant) to make them know it, to wit, his secret, i.e. that he will manifest either his word or his favour to them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

14. The reason of the blessingexplainedthe pious enjoy communion with God (compare Pro 3:21;Pro 3:22), and, of course, learnHis gracious terms of pardon.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

The secret of the Lord [is] with them that fear him,…. The secret of his purposes with them; as his purpose according to election; his resolution to redeem his chosen ones by his Son; his design to call them by his grace; his predestination of them to the adoption of children, and eternal life; which are the deep things of God the Spirit of God reveals; and all which are made manifest to them in effectual calling; and the secret of his providences is with them; some are made known to them that fear the Lord before they come to pass; as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham, with many other instances in the Old Testament; see Am 3:7; and what is the book of the Revelation but a revelation of the secrets of Providence, from the time of Christ and his apostles, to the end of the world? some they observe and take notice of while they are performing, and see the gracious designs of God in them, for their good and his glory; and though some of his ways of Providence are past finding out, and his footsteps are not known as yet; hereafter his judgments will be made manifest, and the whole scene will be opened to the saints, and be clear to their view: the secret of his love, free grace, and favour, is with them, which was in his heart from everlasting, and lay hid in his thoughts, which are as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth; and which is made manifest in regeneration, and then shed abroad in the hearts of his people: secret communion with God is enjoyed by those that fear him, which is what the world knows nothing of, and the joy that results from it is what a stranger intermeddles not with; the Lord has his chambers and secret places, into which he brings them, and where they dwell. The secret of his Gospel is with them; and the mysteries of it, which were kept secret since the world began; as the mystery of a trinity of Persons in the Godhead; the union of the two natures in Christ; the regeneration of the Spirit; the union of the saints to Christ, and their communion with him; the calling of the Gentiles; the resurrection of the dead; and the change of living saints;

and he will show them his covenant: the covenant of grace, which was made with Christ for them from eternity, is made known to them in time, when they are called by the grace of God, and made partakers of the grace of the covenant, then the Lord reveals himself as their covenant God and Father; shows them that his Son is their surety, Mediator, Redeemer, and Saviour; puts his Spirit into them to implant covenant grace in them, to seal up the blessings of it to them, and bear witness to their interest in them, as pardon, justification, and adoption; and to apply the exceeding great and precious promises of it to them.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The lxx renders , , as though it were equivalent to . The reciprocal , Psa 2:2 (which see), leads one to the right primary signification. Starting from the primary meaning of the root , “to be or to make tight, firm, compressed,” signifies a being closely pressed together for the purpose of secret communication and converse, confidential communion or being together, Psa 89:8; Psa 111:1 (Symm. ), then the confidential communication itself, Psa 55:15, a secret (Aquila , Theod. ). So here: He opens his mind without any reserve, speaks confidentially with those who fear Him; cf. the derivative passage Pro 3:32, and an example of the thing itself in Gen 18:17. In Psa 25:14 the infinitive with , according to Ges. 132, rem. 1, as in Isa 38:20, is an expression for the fut. periphrast.: faedus suum notum facturus est iis ; the position of the words is like Dan 2:16, Dan 2:18; Dan 4:15. is used of the imparting of not merely intellectual, but experimental knowledge. Hitzig renders it differently, viz., to enlighten them. But the Hiph. is not intended to be used thus absolutely even in 2Sa 7:21. is the object; it is intended of the rich and deep and glorious character of the covenant revelation. The poet has now on all sides confirmed the truth, that every good gift comes down from above, from the God of salvation; and he returns to the thought from which he started.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

14. The counsel of Jehovah. The Psalmist here confirms what he had just said in a preceding verse, namely, that God will faithfully discharge the office of a teacher and master to all the godly; and, after his usual manner, he repeats the same sentiment twice in the same verse for the covenant of God is nothing else than his secret or counsel. By the use of the term secret, he means to magnify and extol the excellency of the doctrine which is revealed to us in the law of God. However much worldly men, through the pride and haughtiness of their hearts, despise Moses and the prophets, the faithful nevertheless acknowledge, that in the doctrine which they contain, the secrets of heaven, which far surpass the comprehension of man, are revealed and unfolded. Whoever, therefore, desires to derive instruction from the law, let him regard with reverence and esteem the doctrine which it contains. We are, farther, by this place admonished to cultivate the graces of meekness and humility, lest, in reliance upon our own wisdom, or trusting to our own understanding, we should attempt, by our own efforts, to comprehend those mysteries and secrets, the knowledge of which David here declares to be the prerogative of God alone. Again, since the fear of the Lord is said to be the beginning, and as it were the way that leads to a right understanding of his will, (Psa 111:10,) according as any one desires to increase in faith, so also let him endeavor to advance in the fear of the Lord. Moreover, when piety reigns in the heart, we need have no fear of losing our labor in seeking God. It is indeed true, that the covenant of God is a secret which far exceeds human comprehension; but as we know that he does not in vain enjoin us to seek him, we may rest assured that all those who endeavor to serve him with an upright desire will be brought, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the knowledge of that heavenly wisdom which is appointed for their salvation. But, in the meantime, David indirectly rebukes those who falsely and groundlessly boast that they are interested in the covenant of God, while they rest merely in the letter of the law, and have no saving impressions of the fear of God. God, it is true, addresses his word indiscriminately to the righteous and the wicked; but men do not comprehend it, unless they have sincere piety; just as Isa 29:11, says, that as regards the ungodly, the law is like “a book that is sealed.” And, therefore, it is no wonder that there is here made a distinction between those who truly serve God, and to whom he makes known his secret, and the wicked or hypocrites. But when we see David in this confidence coming boldly to the school of God, and leading others along with him, let us know, as he clearly shows, that it is a wicked and hateful invention to attempt to deprive the common people of the Holy Scriptures, under the pretense of their being a hidden mystery; as if all who fear him from the heart, whatever their state or condition in other respects may be, were not expressly called to the knowledge of God’s covenant.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(14) Secret.Rather, familiar intercourse (so Symmachus). The Hebrew word primarily means couch, and then the confidential talk of those sitting on it. In Jer. 6:11; Jer. 15:17, the word is rendered assembly. The English word board offers a direct analogy. The word divan seems to have had a history exactly the reverse. (Comp. Psa. 55:14, sweet counsel.)

And he will shew them his covenant.Literally, and his covenant to make them know. This is closely parallel with the preceding clause. The communion enjoyed by the pious is the highest covenant privilege.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

14. Secret of the Lord The secret counsel of the Lord. See Gen 18:17-19; and compare Joh 15:15.

Show them his covenant Cause them to understand the wisdom, grace, and excellence of his plan of redemption; the substance of his covenant with men.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

DISCOURSE: 535
THE SECRETS OF THE LORD

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

OF the condescension of God, mankind in general form very inadequate conceptions. His greatness is supposed to be such as not to admit of an attention to the trifling concerns of men: and because we stand at an infinite distance from him, the idea of familiar approximation to him is contemplated only as a fanatical and wild conceit. But God represents himself to us as a Father: and our blessed Lord says, Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends [Note: Joh 15:15.]. Now the Lord Jesus Christ was from eternity in the bosom of the Father [Note: Joh 1:18.], and knoweth the Father as intimately and completely as the Father knoweth him [Note: Joh 10:15. Mat 11:27.]: and all the Fathers secrets he has made known to us [Note: Joh 15:15. before cited.]: so that we are treated by him, not with the reserve that is shewn to strangers, but with the confidence that is due to persons who are bound to him in the ties of the most endeared friendship. Under the Mosaic dispensation this holy familiarity indeed was but little known. The whole economy was of a servile nature; none except the high priest having any immediate access to God; nor he, except on one day in the year; and then not without the blood of sacrifices. Yet, even under that dispensation, some were more highly favoured with divine communications; insomuch that Solomon could say, The secret of the Lord is with the righteous [Note: Pro 3:32.]. Under the government of the Lord Jesus Christ, the legal distinctions are removed; and all true Christians possess the same privileges as the most favoured of Gods servants: so that now it may be said, in reference to them all, without exception, The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will shew them his covenant.

In confirmation of this truth, I will endeavour to point out,

I.

Some of those secrets which God reveals to his faithful people

The whole of the divine life is a secret, from the beginning to the end; and the joys arising from it are such as the stranger intermeddleth not with. But, to descend to particulars,

1.

God gives them an insight into the great mystery of redemption

[This was a mystery hid from ages and generations, yea, hid in God from the foundation of the world [Note: Rom 16:25. Eph 3:5.]: but at last it was made known to the Church by Christ and his holy Apostles, that all Gods saints might become acquainted with it [Note: Eph 3:9. Col 1:26-27.]. St. Paul, speaking of the great truths of the Gospel, says, It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit [Note: 1Co 2:9-10.]. We must not, however, imagine, that because this mystery is revealed to the Church in the written word, we need no further revelation of it to our souls: for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Notwithstanding, therefore, the Gospel revelation is so clear in itself, we still must receive, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God [Note: 1Co 2:12; 1Co 2:14.]. A speculative knowledge of the Gospel may, indeed, be acquired by human instruction: but a spiritual and experimental acquaintance with it, as the wisdom of God and the power of God, can be attained only through the teaching of Gods Spirit: flesh and blood cannot reveal it unto us: it can be made known only by inspiration from the Father [Note: Mat 16:17.]. And that inspiration, blessed be his name! is given to many. Through his tender mercy, it may be said of many, Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things [Note: 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27.]. Whilst to some, who hear the Gospel, it is spoken, as it were, only in parables; so that, in relation to the plainest truths of the Gospel, they are ready to exclaim, as Ezekiels hearers did in reference to him, Ah, Lord God! doth he not speak parables [Note: Eze 20:49.]? to others it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven [Note: Mar 4:11.]; and by the opening of their eyes they are brought out of darkness into marvellous light.]

2.

He makes them to know their own personal interest in it

[We are struck with the confidence with which the inspired writers speak, in reference to their own state and the state of their brethren in the faith: Now are we the sons of God: we know that we have passed from death unto life: we know that God abideth in us, by the Spirit which he has given us: we know that we are of God; and the whole world lieth in wickedness [Note: 1Jn 3:2; 1Jn 3:14; 1Jn 3:24; 1Jn 5:19.]. Now this assurance is no other than what our blessed Lord promised to his believing people: In that day ye shall know that the Father is in me, and I in you, and you in me [Note: Joh 14:20.]. That the believer may, by fair and rational deduction, ascertain much of his state before God, there can be no doubt: but that internal manifestations are, in many cases, vouchsafed to the soul, is also certain: for our Lord has promised, that he will manifest himself unto us, as he does not unto the world: and this promise he has explained, by saying, that he and his Father will love us, and come unto us, and make their abode with us [Note: Joh 14:21-23.]. Accordingly we find, that to many is given the Holy Spirit, as a witness, to bear witness with their spirit that they are the children of God, and, as a Spirit of adoption, enabling them, with holy confidence, to cry, Abba, Father [Note: Rom 8:15-16.]. They have prayed to him, like the Psalmist, Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation [Note: Psa 35:3.]: and God has answered them in the desire of their hearts, and enabled them to say, in reference to him, O God, thou art my God [Note: Psa 63:1.]; and, in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, My Beloved is mine, and I am his [Note: Son 2:16.].]

3.

He shews them that every occurrence, of whatever kind, is in some way or other working for the ultimate salvation of their souls

[They may not always see this at first: but, when more fully instructed, they learn to trust in God, assured, that though clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and judgment are the basis of his throne. See a remarkable instance of this in the Apostle Paul. He was shut up for two full years in prison, and was thus deprived of exercising his apostolic office in his accustomed way. Such an event as this would be contemplated, by the Church at large, as a subject of unmixed sorrow: but St. Paul himself had far different views of it: he said, I know that this shall turn to ray salvation: nor was he less confident that good would accrue from it, also, to the Church of God: yea, he saw, even whilst in bonds, the beneficial results of his imprisonment; and declared, that, instead of obstructing the progress of the Gospel, it had tended rather to the furtherance of the Gospel, since many had been emboldened by it to preach the word with greater courage and fidelity [Note: Php 1:12-14; Php 1:19.]. Thus does God compose the minds of all his faithful people. They may indeed, for a season, be ready to complain with Jacob, All these things are against me; but he whispers in their ears, that All things are working together for their good [Note: Rom 8:28.]; and that, eventually, they shall have as much reason to bless him for the darkest dispensations as for those which were more gratifying to flesh and blood.]

Passing by many other secrets, I will proceed to set before you,

II.

That more particular view of his covenant which is the crown and summit of them all

From all eternity did God enter into covenant with his Son; as it is said, The counsel of peace was between them both [Note: Zec 6:13.]. And to this covenant God leads the minds of his people,

1.

As the source of all their blessings

[Certain it is, that, whatever grace has been bestowed upon us, it has been conferred, not on account of any works of righteousness which we have done, but according to Gods purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began [Note: 2Ti 1:9.]. But this is a great secret; a secret utterly unknown to the world at large: and one which not all, even of righteous persons, are able to receive. There is, in the minds of many, a prejudice against it, as though such an idea would necessarily puff up the mind with pride and conceit: whereas, there is nothing in the world that so much tends to humble and abase the soul as this: for it takes from man all ground of self-preference, and leads him to give all the honour of his salvation to God alone. Believer, how wonderful is the thought, that God, from all eternity, set his heart on thee; ordained thee to be born in a country where the light of Revelation shone, and where the means and opportunities of conversion should be afforded thee! How wonderful, too, that this grace, which so many receive in vain, should be made effectual for thee; and that, by the operation of Gods mighty power on thy soul, thou shouldst be turned from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God! Art thou not amazed, that thou shouldst be taken, when so many are left; and that the Saviour, who to so many millions is only a stumbling-block and rock of offence, should be to thee a sanctuary, where thou hast found rest to thy soul? Truly, it is a great matter if God has taught thee, that thou hast not chosen him, but he thee [Note: Joh 15:16.]; that thou hast not loved him, or apprehended him, but hast been loved and apprehended by him [Note: 1Jn 4:10. Gal 4:9. Php 3:12.]; that He hath loved thee with an everlasting love; and therefore with loving-kindness hath he drawn thee [Note: Jer 31:3.]! Does not the thought of this overwhelm thy soul with gratitude? and art thou not altogether lost in wonder, love, and praise?]

2.

As the security for the everlasting continuance of them

[This is another part of the same stupendous mystery: and blessed, indeed, are the ears that have heard this secret from the Lord, and the eyes that can discern the truth of it! Believer, when God entered into covenant with his Son, he left it not uncertain whether any benefit should accrue from his mediation, but engaged, that when he should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see a seed who should prolong their days, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand. Then he gave thee to his Son, that in thee he might see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. Thou wast then ordained to be a jewel in his crown: and the Father engaged, when he put thee into the hands of his Son, that none should ever pluck thee from them [Note: Joh 10:28-29.]. Times without number does the Lord Jesus speak of his people in this light, as given him from eternity by the Father [Note: Joh 17:2; Joh 17:6; Joh 17:9; Joh 17:11-12; Joh 17:24.]: and of those who were so given him, he will lose none [Note: Joh 17:12.]. What a consolation is this to thee, under all thy difficulties and all thy conflicts, to know that God hath made with thee an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure [Note: 2Sa 23:5.]! God himself tells us, that he confirmed his covenant with an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us [Note: Heb 6:17-18.]. Rejoice, then, in this thought. Bless God for making it known to thee. See how safe thou art in the hands of an unchanging God. See to what it is owing that thou hast not been consumed already [Note: Mal 3:6.]; and what is thy security, against all the wiles of Satan, and all the infirmities of flesh and blood. Know, then, in whom thou hast believed; and that, as he is able to keep that which thou hast committed to him [Note: 2Ti 1:12.], so he will preserve thee unto his heavenly kingdom [Note: 2Ti 4:18.].]

To improve this subject, I would further say,
1.

Cultivate increasing friendship with God

[It is not to all, but to his friends only, that God imparts these heart-reviving secrets, even to them who truly fear him. Nor is it amidst the noise and bustle of the world that he will communicate them, but in seasons of retirement, and in the stillness of the night. It is by a still small voice that he imparts them to the sold. O let your fellowship with him be sweet and frequent! Go to him on all occasions: consult him in every emergency: listen to his voice, whether he speak by the written word, or by his Holy Spirit. Say to him at all times, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. So will he draw nigh to you, when you draw nigh to him: and when you spread before him your inmost wants, he will guide you by his counsel: he will lead you into all truth; he will make known to you the deep things of God [Note: 1Co 2:10.]; and by communications of every kind will perfect that which concerneth you [Note: Psa 138:8.]; enabling you to comprehend, in a measure, what none can fully comprehend, the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of Christ, and thereby filling you with all the fulness of God [Note: Eph 3:18-19.].]

2.

Make a due improvement of the secrets he has already imparted to you

[Treasure them up in your minds, for your support and comfort under all the trials of life. They will prove a healing balm to every wound; and, like an anchor of the soul, they will keep you steadfast amidst all the storms that you may encounter in this tempestuous world [Note: Heb 6:19.].

But, keep them not altogether in your own bosoms. God may make use of you for the imparting of them to others, and for the sustaining and strengthening of your weaker brethren. Yet, care is necessary, that you do not, by an indiscreet disclosure of them to those whose minds are not prepared to receive them, lay a stumbling-block before the very persons whom you wish to edify. Our Lord cautions us not to cast our pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend us [Note: Mat 7:6.]. We must administer milk to babes, and strong meat to those only who are able to digest it [Note: 1Co 3:1-2. Heb 5:12-14.]. But to those who have ears to hear, it is well to speak of these things, as our Lord and his Apostles conversed of them in the way to Emmaus. Then will your hearts often burn within you; and your own souls, as well as those of your Brethren, be edified in faith and love.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

“Handfuls of Purpose”

For All Gleaners

“The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant” Psa 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.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

Psa 25:14 The secret of the LORD [is] with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

Ver. 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ] It is neither learning nor labour that can give insight into God’s secrets, those Arcana imperii, Mat 13:12 , the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, “the mind of Christ,” 1Co 2:16 ; these things come by revelation rather than discourse of reason, and must therefore be obtained by prayer. Those that diligently seek him shall be of his cabinet council, shall know his soul secrets, and be admitted into a gracious familiarity and friendship: Joh 15:15 , “Hence forth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth: but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.”

And he will show them his covenant ] As having no greater secret to impart to them, than by showing them the covenant of grace, his good pleasure and purpose of their eternal salvation; to make them “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that they may be filled with all the fulness of God,” Eph 3:19 . The Jews bragged much of God’s covenant, but here they are given to understand, that only such as fear God are covenanters. Act 13:16 , “Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.”

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

secret = secret counsel.

shew them = cause them to know.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

The Secret of the Lord

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;

And he will shew them his covenant.Psa 25:14.

When the Hebrew poet spoke of the secret of the Lord he meant the knowledge of the God of Israel, the unseen and eternal Jehovah. When he thought of them that fear Him, he remembered the stalwart saints who shall ever be the heroic leaders of the faith. He recalled Abraham coming out of Ur of the Chaldees with a wisdom and a knowledge that no Babylonian star-gazer ever divined. He thought of Jacob rising from his midnight dream at Bethel, saying in penitence and awe, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. He saw Moses at the burning bush, putting off the shoes from his feet, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. He remembered Samuel coming out of the temple in the morning light, having heard the voice of God, with a message he dared not tell to Eli. Each of these had entered into a solemn experience. Each of them had come forth with a secret. A new and deeper understanding of Gods ways, and thoughts, and purposes had been given them. He marks the law of their experience. It was the law of fear. They had that fear of God which is an awe and a reverence, a passion of desire to know, and a willingness to submit and to obey. Therefore God made known the secret to them.

Thompson dwells on St. Pauls unspoken message, which, designated by the name of wisdom, he withheld from many of the Corinthians because they were not fit to hear it. He communicated it to the spiritual not to the animal man. Origen says that that which St. Paul would have called wisdom is found in the Canticle of Canticles. Thompson dwells further on the hidden meanings of the Pentateuch, believing that there was an inexhaustible treasure of divine wisdom concealed under the letter of Holy Writ. Thompson saw wise men whispering, and guessed that there were secrets; their presence discovered, they were open secrets for such as he. You have but to direct my sight, and the intentness of my gaze will discover the rest.1 [Note: E. Meynell, The Life of Francis Thompson (1913), 223.]

There were three courts in the Temple at Jerusalem. There was the outer court, where even the Gentiles who cared nothing for the God of Israel or the faith of the Hebrew people might freely come. There was the holy place with its sacred things, where only the Hebrew worshipper might walk. There was the most holy place, over which the veil of the Temple hung, and into whose unseen and unknown seclusion the high priest entered once every year, alone. There are these three courts in the life of a Christian man. There is the outer court, where a man who is living his life in the world must keep company with all who enter its circle. He must rub shoulders with the crowd, although he never forgets that they cannot enter into his secret. There is the holy place, where fellow-believers may pass, and speech and thought of the things of God have a gracious liberty. But there is the most holy place, and what passes there between God and the soul is to be kept with a guarded reticence until there is need for its being told.2 [Note: W. M. Clow, The Secret of the Lord, 247.]

When the ancient Jew approached his sanctuary, he found an outer court of the Temple full of activity with the coming and going of those who touched the whole natural life and the daily sacrifice on the altar. But behind lay the still silent room where the golden lamp burned and the bread of life was resting on the golden table. And behind again the silence of the Holy of Holies where man and God merge in union. Even so it is not the great activity, touching national issuesit is not even the sacrificial life of Dr. Paton that has most attracted me and, I believe, others. But here was a priest of the Most High God, in the sanctuary of whose heart the light burned and the bread of life was broken. And with reverent awe we knew that behind lay communion with the Inspirer and Hearer of Prayer. So that out of him from the Divine source flow rivers of living water. Thus heaven touched earth through our intercourse, and the passion for service of his soul entered ours.3 [Note: J. Marchant, J. B. Paton, 311.]

The secret of the Lord, as the Psalmist conceives it, may be held to include (1) Knowledge; (2) Character; (3) Happiness. Knowledge is the secret of the Teacher, Character is the secret of the Friend, Happiness is the secret of the Lover.

I

Knowledge

1. Every teacher has his secret. He scans his scholars, eager to find a receptive mind to whom he can reveal it. When the responsive glance, the significant word, or the searching question reveals the students promise, the teacher has an exquisite joy in revealing his secret.

The great painters of the Middle Ages took pupils into their studios. To every aspirant they gave honest attention. When one came who was swift to understand his masters conceptions, eager to imitate his strength of line and purity of colour, humbly and patiently reverent in his zeal, the secret was disclosed. In our own day Edward Burne Jones became a disciple of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He spent still and strenuous hours in copying his masters works, studying their distinction, and aspiring after their spirit. With a trembling heart young Burne Jones took his drawings to Rossetti to receive his judgment upon them. The honest painter looked at them in silence, and with a word of emotion he said, You have nothing more to learn from me. He had entered into the masters secret. But mark the law. It is not to the carping critic, the scorning and cynical scholar, the contemptuous idler, that the secret is revealed. The secret is with them that fear.1 [Note: W. M. Clow, The Secret of the Lord, 4.]

God keeps His holy mysteries

Just on the outside of mans dream.

Yet, touching so, they draw above

Our common thoughts to Heavens unknown;

Our daily joy and pain advance

To a divine significance.2 [Note: E. B. Browning.]

2. There is a mystery in every Christian life. When the words are said in our hearing, The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, they seem to give a momentary glimpse of the truth. There is a secret in such lives, and that secret is Gods. He has to do with them. There is a communication between their souls and Him. He has told them a secret, and they keep it. Others may see that they have a secret; but intermeddle with it they cannot. There is only one way to attain itby going through the same process as these have gone through. We may not at present think it worth our while to do so, or we may have an undefined dread of the supposed difficulty and irksomeness of that process: but at least let us lay it up well in our hearts that there is such a process, and such an end; that the Christians life is a reality, whether we ever attain that life or not; a mystery, whether we be ever initiated into that mystery or not; let us accept and reverence the inspired declaration that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.

The more of a man a man is, the more secret is the secret of his life, and the more plain and frank are its external workings. A small and shallow man tries to throw a mystery about the mere methods of his life, he tries to make his ways of living seem obscure. Where he goes, how he makes his fortune, whom he talks with, what his words mean, who his friends arehe is very mysterious about all these, and all because the secret of his life is really weak, because he is conscious that there is no really strong purpose of living which he himself understands. It is a shallow pool which muddies its surface to make itself look deep. But a greater man will be perfectly frank and unmysterious about these little things. Anybody may know what he does and where he goes. His acts will be transparent, his words will be intelligible. Yet all the while every one who looks at him will see that there is something behind all, which escapes the closest observation. The very clearness of the surface will show how deep the water is, how far away the bottom lies. There is hardly a better way to tell a great man from a little one.1 [Note: Phillips Brooks, New Starts in Life, 272.]

He always lived with his blinds up, and you saw all the workings of his mind. Had he not been steeped in the spirit of love he could never have survived the self-exposure which was a habit with him. But his very caprices were always unselfish, and he could afford to let his friends look him through and through.2 [Note: Love and Life: The Story of J. Denholm Brash (1913), 163.]

As in some cavern dark and deep,

My soul within me here lies low,

Where, veiled, she dreams in wondrous sleep

Of things I may not know.

And if perchance she wake awhile,

I probe her radiant eyes in vain:

She turns from me with misty smile

And, sighing, sleeps again.1 [Note: Laurence Alma Tadema.]

3. God may be expected to keep some things hidden. In the most intimate and sacred of our friendships it is not for us to say what secrets shall be made known to us, and what secrets shall be guarded from our cognizance. A government reserves to itself the right of saying what information may be imparted to its friends, and what, for sufficient reasons, shall be kept back. A general on the battle-field, whilst putting safe and suitable selections of news at the service of authorized war correspondents, cannot allow them unlimited access to his plans. It is necessary to respect official reserve. And is not the temper which accepts such conditions binding on a true servant of God? Let God Himself choose the things He sees fit to make known to us. If we live in reverent and believing fellowship He will treat us as confidants, and our knowledge of His methods and purposes will surpass that of the world; but at the same time we need to be told once and again that He cannot admit us to equality with Himself by making known the veiled things we petulantly demand. It ought to satisfy us if His heart trusts us, and He comes to us in forms of revelation withheld from the world. He who is thus initiated into His deep counsels and led to know His will makes few mistakes in his prayers, and the faith he cherishes does not suffer the bitterness of disappointment or betrayal.

I have heard Sir Clifford Allbutt and Signor agree that the necessity or, perhaps better, the love of the mysterious, was an essential and valuable part of the human mind; far from being all disadvantageous or an impediment to progress, it had been in the main a stimulus towards something transcending mans best efforts. Signor said: It is in fact the poetic element; and what in the superstitious mind is mere dread, in Browning and Tennyson is aspiration. You cannot take away the mysterious from man, he cannot do without it.2 [Note: M. S. Watts, George Frederic Watts, ii. 177.]

One of the most beautiful of the Bishops sonnets was composed at Trondhjem on August 12, 1888. It runs thus:

And was it therethe splendour I behold?

This great fjord with its silver grace outspread

And thousand-creeked and thousand-islanded?

Those far-off hills, grape-purple, fold on fold?

For yesterday, when all day long there rolled

The blinding drift, methinks, had some one said

The scene is fair, I scarce had credited;

Yet fairer tis than any tongue hath told.

And it was there! Ah, yes! And on my way

More bravely I will go, though storm-clouds lour

And all my sky be only cold and grey;

For I have learnt the teaching of this hour:

And when Gods breath blows all these mists afar,

I know that I shall see the things that are.1 [Note: F. D. How, Bishop Walsham How, 399.]

4. Knowledge comes by obedience. It would be hopeless to try to tell the secret, even for the sake of inducing others to treasure it for themselves. The fact is that the secret might be told, and told in the best of words, without its ceasing to be a secret to those who heard. Words are necessary in religious as in other matters; but there is no fear of their telling anything which ought not to be told: first, because the secret is designed for all, and revealed to all who will listen to it; and next, because it lies deeper far than the understanding, and never becomes the possession of any man till he takes it into his heart. For the obedience by which comes knowledge is the obedience of the heart. Obedience to law, and acts of worship arising out of fear of penalty, are merely hiding from God among the trees of the garden. Even obedience from duty can never be a satisfactory or final state; it is merely educational, to make manifest defect of life. I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. When the glory of the Lord has filled all the courts of His temple, mans outward nature becomes reconstituted, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless or indissoluble life. The tree of knowledge becomes one with the tree of life which is in the midst of the city, and on both sides of the river of life, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

I have known more than one Highland saint who never had any intellectual training. They had had little schooling, they never were at college, and their libraries were of the scantiest kind. Yet in every true sense of the word they were men of culture; their language was choice and their thoughts large and just; and they had singular power in complicated questions of seizing on the things that really mattered. What was the secret of that mental clarity?If any man willeth to do his will. To God they had prayedin Christs name they had wrestledthey had clung to the right and beaten down the wrong; until at last that life of deep obediencethat faithfulness to God in what was leastall unexpectedly had reached their intellect, and made it a sphere of mastery and joy.1 [Note: G. H. Morrison, The Wings of the Morning, 19.]

Just to ask Him what to do

All the day,

And to make you quick and true

To obey.

Just to know the needed grace

He bestoweth,

Every bar of time and place

Overfloweth.

Just to take thy orders straight

From the Masters own command.

Blessed day! when thus we wait

Always at our Sovereigns hand.2 [Note: F. R. Havergal.]

5. Obedience is rendered easy by sympathy and an open mind. The man who is full of himself, bent on his own will, seeking his own ends, is not in a frame of mind to have the secret of the Lord revealed to him: probably he does not want it, or wish to have it revealed to him. It is a check upon him. He does not want the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, because he has no wish whatever to enter into it. To enter into the Kingdom of God is to do the, will of God, and to try to love it, and the will of God is human dutywhat is due from us to God as poor, weak, ignorant creatures at the best; coming we know not whence, going we know not whither; seeing but a little way into things; living by faith, by trust in the power over us, trust in the good about us, trust in the good in other people; and what is due from us to others, for we are related to each other as brethren, because we are all related to God as the Father over all.

See how that noble fellow Collingwood leads the fleet into action! exclaimed Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar, as he looked on the ship of his second bearing down upon the French line under a press of sail. Ah! what would Nelson give to be here! exclaimed Admiral Collingwood at the same moment. It seemed as if the two heroic men were animated by one spirit; as if by completeness of sympathy they knew each others thoughts. And have we not all seen something like this in our own experience? Have we not known persons so congenial in thought and feeling that scenes in nature lighted up their faces with the same delight, or cast over them the shadows of thoughtfulness and awe; sights of distress and tales of sorrow drew forth from them kindred tears of compassion; a noble poem or an eloquent oration awakened in their bosoms the same pure and generous emotions? And such, too, is the power of sympathy between man and God. Just as a man tells his secret only to his friends, knowing that it would often be unsafe, and at other times impossible, to tell it to others; and just as they, knowing his great aim and motive, can make more of a nod or look or word than others can of a lengthened statement; so God reveals, as He did to Abraham His friend in the matter of Sodoms destruction, the depth of His mind and will to them who fear Him, and who by fearing Him have been made like Him; and they, loving in general as God loves, and hating in general as God hates, enter as others cannot into the meaning and spirit of Gods declarations.1 [Note: J. B. Johnston, The Ministry of Reconciliation, 335.]

II

Character

1. God unveils His character by entering into friendly relations with man. It is always a sign of deepening friendship when people begin to open their inner rooms to us. To be made the depositary of a rare secret is to be sealed as a friend. When any one tells us a secret joy, it is a mark of intimacy; when any one unveils to us a secret grief, it is a proof of the closest fellowship. When we are taken from the suburbs of a mans being to the centre, it is a proof of an enriching communion. No longer do I call you servants; but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known unto you. Is there not something tenderly suggestive in the word which tells us that when they were alone, he expounded unto them? When He had His familiar friends to Himself, He told them His secrets and showed them His covenant.

Are these the tracks of some unearthly Friend,

His foot-prints, and his vesture-skirts of light,

Who, as I talk with men, conforms aright

Their sympathetic words, or deeds that blend

With my hid thought;or stoops him to attend

My doubtful-pleading grief;or blunts the might

Of ill I see not;or in dreams of night

Figures the scope, in which what is will end?

Were I Christs own, then fitly might I call

That vision real; for to the thoughtful mind

That walks with Him, He half unveils His face;

But when on earth-staind souls such tokens fall,

These dare not claim as theirs what there they find,

Yet, not all hopeless, eye His boundless grace.1 [Note: J. H. Newman.]

2. Fellowship with God is the secret of the highest character in man. If a man admires, reveres and attaches himself to any one, he is naturally led to imitate him; and the tendency of all worship is to make a man like his God. The deities of heathendom are the product of the vain imaginations, unholy passions and guilty fears of their votaries, and the contemplation of them continues to quicken the foul source whence they have issued. The sins as well as the sorrows of those who follow after other gods are multiplied. And the worshippers of the true God are, in accordance with this principle of our nature, brought to godliness, induced and taught to love and hate, to approve and condemn, according to the perfect model. In every one that fears God, there is a real and growing assimilation.

Some words of Kingsleys written in 1872, in which he defines a noble fear as one of the elements of that lofty and spiritual love which ruled his own daily life, may explain why he speaks of entering the married state with solemn awe and self-humiliation, and why he looked upon such married Love as the noblest education a mans character can have: Can there be true love without wholesome fear? And does not the old Elizabethan My dear dread express the noblest voluntary relation in which two human souls can stand to each other? Perfect love casteth out fear. Yes; but where is love perfect among imperfect beings, save a mothers for her child? For all the rest, it is through fear that love is made perfect; fear which bridles and guides the lover with aweeven though misplacedof the beloved ones perfections; with dreadnever misplacedof the beloved ones contempt. And therefore it is that souls who have the germ of nobleness within, are drawn to souls more noble than themselves, just because, needing guidance, they cling to one before whom they dare not say, or do, or even think an ignoble thing. And if these higher souls areas they usually arenot merely formidable, but tender likewise, and true, then the influence which they may gain is unboundedboth to themselves, and to those that worship them.1 [Note: Charles Kingsley, i. 154.]

3. To enjoy this fellowship we must fear the Lord. In order to read any ones secret we must respect him. You cannot show the real secret of your life, the spring and power of your living, to any man who does not respect you. Not merely you will not, but you cannot. Is it not so? A man comes with impertinent curiosity and looks in at your door, and you shut it in his face indignantly. A friend comes strolling by and gazes in with easy carelessness, not making much of what you may be doing, not thinking it of much importance, and before him you cover up instinctively the work which was serious to you, and make believe that you were only playing games. So it is when men try to get hold of the secret of your life. No friendship, no kindliness, can make you show it to them unless they evidently really feel as you feel, that it is a serious and sacred thing. There must be something like reverence or awe about the way that they approach you. It is the way in which children shut themselves up before their elders because they know their elders have no such sense as they have of the importance of their childish thoughts and feelings.

You must believe that there is something deep in nature or you will find nothing there. You must have an awe of the mystery and sacredness in your fellow-man, or his mystery and sacredness will escape you. And this sense of mystery and sacredness is what we gather into that word fear. It is the feeling with which you step across the threshold of a great deserted temple or into some vast dark mysterious cavern. It is not terror. That would make one turn and run away. Terror is a blinding and deafening emotion. Terror shuts up the apprehension. You do not get at the secret of anything which frightens you, but fear, as we use the word now, is quite a different emotion. It is a large, deep sense of the majesty and importance of anything, a reverence and respect for it. Without that no man can understand another. And so the secret of a man is with them that fear him.1 [Note: Phillips Brooks, New Starts in Life, 275.]

We have listened to some sweet melody, and we cannot escape from its gracious thraldom. It pervades the entire day. It interweaves itself with all our changing affairs. We hear it in our work and in our leisure; when we retire to rest and when we awake. It haunts us. The analogy may help us to some apprehension of what is meant by the fear of God. The man who fears God is haunted by Gods presence. God is an abiding consciousness. God is continually before him. Everything is seen in relationship to God. The Divine presence pervades the mind and shapes and colours the judgment. Here are two descriptions from the Word of God, in the contrast of which the meaning will be made quite clear. God is not in all his thoughts. The Eternal does not haunt his mind. Everything is secularized, and nothing is referred to the arbitrament of the Divine Will. He is not God-possessed. Pray without ceasing. Here is the contrasted mind, from which the sense of God is never absent. Like an air of penetrating music the Divine presence pervades the exercise of all his powers. He is God-haunted, and in the consciousness of that presence he lives and moves and has his being. He fears God.2 [Note: J. H. Jowett, Brooks by the Travellers Way, 173.]

III

Happiness

1. The secret of happiness is love. The people of God love Him, and He loves them; their habitual feeling is that their affection and gratitude bear no proportion to the greatness of His claims. Like the penitent disciple who had had much forgiven, they can solemnly appeal to His omniscience and say, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. And He loves them with a love which has a height and depth, and length and breadth passing knowledgea love which has thrown open to them the book of Nature that their eyes might be filled with its beauty and their souls with its trutha love which sings sweet songs in the carol of the bird, in the murmur of the brook, in the whispering of the breeze, and in the joyous music of the domestic heartha love which covers the earth with golden grain, and casts abundance into the lap of lifea love which has toiled, and bled, and died that the soul of man might be taken from the spoiler who has held it under his cruel and polluting sway, and be brought under the dominion of its rightful Lord and made fully happy, and that for ever, in His fellowship.

He looked out on the world through the eyes of Love, and that is why it was to him ever beautiful in its infinite variety, and in its amazing friendliness. He lived to be seventy-one as the world counts years, but even then he was Youth and Joyin the best sense of the word he refused to grow up.1 [Note: Love and Life: The Story of J. Denholm Brash (1913), 8.]

Though Mr. Paynter was a deeply spiritual man, there was nothing in his life or speech to suggest gloom; certainly there was not in his looks. Many a laugh have we had together, over some amusing incident or story, in the lighter interludes of life; and though he himself rarely told a story, yet sometimes he would make a dry remark, which showed that the sense of humour was not absent. He was a happy manhappy in all the domesticities of his home and family lifehappy among his flowershappy in his workhappy always in doing good to others, and all because he was happy in God, and had learned what St. Paul meant when he said, All things are yours.2 [Note: S. M. Nugent, Life Radiant: Memorials of the Rev. F. Paynter, 228.]

Just to recollect His love,

Always true;

Always shining from above,

Always new.

Just to recognize its light

All-enfolding;

Just to claim its present might,

All-upholding.

Just to know it as thine own,

That no power can take away.

Is not this enough alone

For the gladness of the day?3 [Note: F. R. Havergal.]

2. We learn the secret of happiness as we try to express our love in noble character and unselfish conduct. Men are so constituted that obedience is its own reward. There is no delight so deep and true as the delight of doing the will of Him whom we love. There is no blessedness like that of the increasing communion with God and of the clearer perception of His will and mind which follow obedience as surely as the shadow follows the sunshine. There is no blessedness like the glow of approving conscience, the reflection of the smile on Christs face.

To have the heart in close communion with the very Fountain of all good, and the will in harmony with the will of the best Beloved; to hear the Voice that is dearest of all ever saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; to feel a spirit in my feet impelling me upon that road; to know that all my petty deeds are made great, and my stained offerings hallowed by the altar on which they are honoured to lie; and to be conscious of fellowship with the Friend of my soul increased by obediencethis is to taste the keenest joy and good of life, and he who is thus blessed in his deed need never fear that that blessedness will be taken away, or sorrow though other joys be few and griefs be many.

To Florence Nightingale, communion with the Unseen meant something deeper, richer, fuller, more positive than the fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning, but not the end, of wisdom, for perfect love casteth out fear. It was for the love of God as an active principle in her mind, constraining all her deeds, that she strove.1 [Note: Sir Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, i. 50.]

The income from his books and other sources, which might have been spent in a life of luxury and selfishness, he distributed lavishly where he saw it was needed, and in order to do this he always lived in the most simple way. To make others happy was the Golden Rule of his life. On August 31 he wrote, in a letter to a friend, Miss Mary Brown: And now what am I to tell you about myself? To say I am quite well goes without saying with me. In fact, my life is so strangely free from all trial and trouble that I cannot doubt my own happiness is one of the talents entrusted to me to occupy with, till the Master shall return, by doing something to make other lives happy.2 [Note: S. D. Collingwood, The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, 325.]

3. And thus we are brought round again to knowledge. For the final verdict upon the realities of religion rests not with the highest intellect, but with the purest heart. Humboldt tells that the Arab guide employed in one of his desert journeys had such a keen and highly trained power of vision that he could see the moons of Jupiter without a telescope, and that he gave the date when one of those moons was eclipsed, a date afterwards verified by the traveller on his return to Europe. The watchmaker, the line-engraver, the microscopist, who for years have been poring over minute objects a few inches from the face, could not emulate the feat of the Arab whose eye had been trained for a lifetime by use in the desert, and might possibly doubt the fact. In that respect the man of science himself, with his wide knowledge, exact observation, many accomplishments, was inferior to his unlettered guide. A devout soul seeks wistfully after God, accustoms its faculties to discern and interpret His signs, and acquires a vision penetrative beyond that of his neighbour.

In one of his saddest poemsin the series entitled Men and WomenBrowning tells the story of Andrea del Sarto, who was called the faultless painter of Florence. In his youth he had loved and married a woman of rare and radiant beauty. He rendered to her an almost worshipping homage. He longed to lift her to the high plane of thought and desire and holy ambition on which he moved. But she was a shallow, thin-natured, mean-souled woman. She was the woman who smeared with a careless fling of her skirt the picture he had painted in hours of spiritual ecstasy. She was the woman who craved him for his hard-earned money that she might spend it at the gaming-table with her dissolute companions. Browning sets down the tragedy of their years with his usual unerring insight. It was not that she disappointed him, robbed his hand of its power, dulled his mind, shadowed his heart, and, as he foresaw, would sully his fame. It was this more piteous thing, that he could not disclose himself to her. She was not able to see and to understand him at his highest and noblest. She never discerned the moral majesty of his mind or the spiritual hunger of his heart. The poet sets the sorrow of it all in a sigh, which is the climax of his story.

But had youoh, with the same perfect brow,

And perfect eyes, and more than perfect mouth,

And the low voice my soul hears, as a bird

The fowlers pipe, and follows to the snare

Had you, with these the same, but brought a mind!

Lover he was, with the lovers secret, but she brought no mind, and the lovers secret she never knew. For the lovers secret is only with them that fear.1 [Note: W. M. Clow, The Secret of the Lord, 10.]

4. The nearer we live to Christ, the further shall we see into the Unseen and discern the secret of God. The vision of the godly man, like that of the prophet at Bethel, pierces into the unseen, and he is sensible of things to which others are blind. If he cannot envisage horses and chariots of fire, the vindicating ministries of the covenant, he can read the terms of the covenant in letters clear as the stars, and these revelations are enough, and assure as perfectly as glimpses of the hosts God leads. Doubts and misgivings are dispelled by spiritual insight. In the things which, to a worldly mind, suggest the anger of Heaven, he is made to see occasions which discipline the character into higher fitness for receiving the awaiting blessings of an immutable covenant.

For many years a lady made her livelihood by taking Greenwich time round to the jewellers shops in the small towns to the west of London. She was the daughter of a watchmaker, and possessed an excellent chronometer which had been bequeathed by her father. When necessary, the authorities of the Observatory kindly regulated it. Every Friday she went to Greenwich, got the standard time, and carried it to her clients, who paid a small fee for the service rendered. She belonged to the old dispensation, and may stand for one of its types. Many provincial towns, and even private firms of watchmakers, are now in direct electric connexion with Greenwich, and get the standard time every day. In the United States of America, every post office is linked with the Observatory at Washington. Under the earlier Covenant, men who wished to learn of the things of God had to avail themselves of the ministries of the prophets, or sit at the feet of scholars, whose office it was to interpret the books of the law. But under the New Covenant the regenerate soul is brought into direct contact with God, and acquires Divine wisdom, not by listening to a neighbour, but by heeding swift inward impressions wrought by the wonderful Spirit of God.2 [Note: T. G. Selby, The Divine Craftsman, 175.]

Love touchd my eyesthese eyes which once were blind,

And, lo! a glorious world reveald to view,

A world I neer had dreamd so fair to find.

I sang for gladnessall things were made new.

Twas Love unstoppd my ears, and every sound

Borne through the silence seemd a psalm of praise:

Bird-song, child-laughteryet oer all I found

Thy voice the music of my happy days.

Love changd lifes draught and made the water wine,

And through my languid senses seemd to flow

Some powr enkindled by the fire divine,

Some inspiration I can neer forego.

Love raisd the dead to lifeand never more

Can many waters quench th eternal flame.

Love opend wide the everlasting door,

And bade us enter, called by His name.1 [Note: Una, In Lifes Garden, 6.]

Literature

Banks (L. A.), The Kings Stewards, 142.

Brooks (P.), New Starts in Life, 271.

Clow (W. M.), The Secret of the Lord, 1.

Cowl (F. B.), Digging Ditches, 79.

Holland (C.), Gleanings from a Ministry of Fifty Years, 150.

Johnston (J. B.), The Ministry of Reconciliation, 323.

Jowett (J. H.), Brooks by the Travellers Way, 172.

Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year: Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, 343.

Morrison (G. H.), The Afterglow of God, 366.

Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 78.

Selby (T. G.), The Divine Craftsman, 142.

Simeon (C.), Works, v. 168.

Vaughan (C. J.), Memorials of Harrow, 270.

Literary Churchman, xxxviii. (1892) 45 (C. W. Whistler).

Sunday at Home, 1910, p. 629 (G. H. Morrison).

Treasury (New York), xvii. 404 (G. B. F. Hallock).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

secret: Gen 18:17-19, Jer 13:18, Pro 3:32, Mat 13:11, Mat 13:12, Joh 7:17, Joh 14:17, Joh 14:21-23, Joh 15:15, Joh 17:6, 1Co 2:14, Eph 1:9, Eph 1:18, Col 3:3, Rev 2:17

he will: etc. or, his covenant to make them know it, Gen 17:13, Deu 4:13, Jer 31:31-34, Rom 11:26, Rom 11:27

Reciprocal: Gen 20:7 – a prophet Gen 22:12 – now Gen 37:5 – dreamed Gen 40:8 – Do not Gen 41:8 – but there Gen 41:15 – I have heard Gen 49:1 – Gather Lev 15:1 – Aaron Num 9:8 – I will Deu 29:29 – secret Jdg 13:23 – he have showed 1Sa 9:15 – the Lord 2Ki 22:13 – inquire Job 11:6 – show thee Job 15:8 – the secret Job 29:4 – the secret Psa 50:16 – thou shouldest Psa 50:23 – to him Pro 14:10 – and Pro 28:5 – General Isa 8:16 – among Isa 50:10 – is among Jer 23:18 – counsel Jer 33:3 – mighty Eze 28:3 – no secret Dan 2:19 – was Dan 2:22 – revealeth Dan 2:23 – and hast Amo 3:7 – but Luk 2:26 – it Luk 8:10 – Unto Luk 10:21 – revealed Joh 4:32 – that Joh 9:37 – Thou Act 27:10 – I perceive 1Co 2:15 – judgeth Col 1:26 – now 1Jo 5:10 – hath the Rev 1:1 – to show Rev 14:3 – no

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE OPEN SECRET

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him.

Psa 25:14

I too would know the secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him.

I. It is a birth-secret.Ah, has He quickened me into a new life, me who through the past was unprofitable and sad? Of water and of the Holy Ghost has He regenerated my soul? Has He taught me what conversion means, in the intense and incandescent sense, to quote the words of a recent biography? This is a secret, between my soul and Him; and no one else can know it just as I do.

II. It is a life-secret.Day by day, if I am His child, He guides me, teaches me, humbles me, cleanses me, hallows me. And this, too, is a secret between myself and Him, for one Christians experience never reiterates anothers.

III. It is a death-secret.In front of me the cold deep river rolls its flood, and I must cross it before I can enter the City of God. But, when I come to it, if all my hope is in Him, He will have His own communication of needed grace, His own whisper of satisfying peace, for me. This is why there is a light in dying eyes, a smile on dying lips. And, again, it is a joy with which no stranger, no brother even, nor wife, nor child, can intermeddle.

Illustration

The main burden of the psalm, therefore, is the cry for direction, and the certainty that it will be vouchsafed. Even though we be sinners, God will instruct us in the way for His goodness sake. If we were more holy and wise, we might not have so strong a claim on Him as we have now. It is just because we are so unworthy and helpless that we can plead with Him to make a plain path before our feet.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Psa 25:14. The secret of the Lord Hebrew, , sod, his fixed counsel, or design, is with them that fear him To direct and guide them in the right way; to show them their duty in all conditions, and the way to eternal salvation. The greatest happiness of man in this world, says Dr. Horne, is to know the fixed and determinate counsels of God concerning the human race, and to understand the covenant of redemption. This, though it was revealed, yet might be called a secret, because of the many and deep mysteries in it, and because it is said to be hid from many of them to whom it was revealed, Mat 11:25; 2Co 3:13-15; 2Co 4:3; and it cannot be understood to any purpose without the illumination of Gods Holy Spirit. Or, the secret of the Lord means his love and favour, which is called his secret, Job 29:4; Pro 3:32; and because it is known to none but him that enjoyeth it. And he will show Hebrew, he will make them to know his covenant That is, he will make them clearly to understand both its duties and its blessings, neither of which ungodly men rightly understand; he will make them to know it by experience, or he will fulfil and make it good to them and in them; as, on the contrary, God threatens to make ungodly men to know his breach of promise, Num 14:34.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

25:14 The {m} secret of the LORD [is] with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.

(m) His counsel contained in his word, by which he declares that he is the protector of the faithful.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes