Thou art my hiding place and my shield:
I hope in thy word (Psalm 119:114).
Unbelievers have much to fear, and the absence of fear in them is a telltale symptom of spiritual insanity. Paranoia is a groundless fear based on delusion, but there is also a tranquility based on delusion which is even more dangerous than paranoia. Jesus spoke of people living in the days of Noah who were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, as if all were well, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Something similar will happen to sinners when Christ comes again (Luke 17.26-27). The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, for while people are saying, there is peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape (1 Thess 5.2-3).
Only true Christian believers are really and profoundly safe. Blessed are those who know and feel this deep within. Such was David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, who gives expression in our text to his divinely-wrought confidence in his Savior and God. Oh, that all people in genuine danger might realize their peril and suffer acutely the terror which is totally justified, that they might flee from the wrath to come! Oh, that those who are actually safe by grace would experience the joy of overflowing comfort from a certain and permanent salvation!
GOD IS MY PROTECTION
David uses two closely related metaphors to describe what God was to him as a believer. Don’t miss this; the language in both is very personal. “My hiding place,” and “my shield.” This is covenantal language, the “I am his and he is mine” relationship that rests squarely upon God’s gracious promise in Jesus Christ. The gospel announces God’s purpose that he shall procure a chosen people for himself. “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Gen 17.7-8; Jer 31.33; Rev 21.3, 7). Grace will finally effect a holy marriage between God and his elect. Not all people can truly claim that God is these things to them, but only true and sincere believers, those who are actually saved. To the rest “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12.28), and it is a fearful thing to fall into his hands (Heb 10.31).
The first metaphor “a hiding place.” Literally, this word means a shelter or covering, a place of protection from danger. It has a connotation of secrecy, perhaps suggesting that when enemies are out to get you, your security is considerably enhanced if they do not know where you are and cannot find you. It is used in Psalm 32.7, “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” It also appears in a description of righteous kings and princes, who are “a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,” as they defend the poor and helpless from powerful enemies. This blessing is ultimately realized in Jesus the Messiah-King (Isa 32.2).
The second metaphor highlights not protection from danger but in danger. God is “my shield.” This “refers to an object which provides covering and protection to the body during warfare.”1 One kind of shield in use was rectangular and covered the whole front of the body, but this one was the smaller and more common type of round shield carried by light infantry and officers.2 As a veteran soldier, David had no doubt carried shields often and experienced their protection in battle. Here his use of the term is the obviously figurative. As a shield deflects incoming arrows and sword blows, so God keeps his servants from ultimate harm even in the battle.
The first occurrence of this Hebrew word in Scripture comes when God promises protection to Abraham. “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen 15.1). Later in life, Abraham faced many dangerous threats, yet he survived them all and died in a good old age. The same Lord who had protected his body also was the Savior of his soul and brought him home a glorious spiritual conqueror, the father of believers in every age (Rom 4.16).
GOD PROMISES MY SALVATION
“I hope in thy word.” God’s own word, particularly the promises of Scripture, are the foundation for the psalmist’s taking refuge in him. The promises of Scripture are essentially the gospel, the good news of God’s grace toward sinners, and as they are offers of salvation to us, they come conditionally. The Bible says the same thing for everyone who reads it, but only those who by faith take up God’s gracious offer receive the blessing promised in it. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16.31). Even when faith is not explicitly mentioned, only believers have a right to expect that they will enjoy what is promised. For example, the Bible assures all readers that “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6.23), but only believers will inherit eternal life. When we hear the glorious gospel promises preached, they must be mixed with faith in us or we will not be saved (Heb 4.1-2).
Still, once we do believe God and trust his word, then those promises become personal with us. Every promise God ever made to save his people is mine as a believer; he promises to save ME in the gospel. Saints can see their own names, as it were, in the substance of God’s promise. “For God so loved me, that he gave his only begotten Son, that I, believing in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3.16)!
GOD ASSURES MY HEART
“I hope in thy word.” The original verb is aptly translated hope, for in this context it means to expect, look forward to, and eagerly await a future (blessed) event.3 Its forward-looking perspective is clearer in Ezekiel 13.6, where naïve souls are “hoping” for a confirmation of false prophecies. Religious hope is only good and sound if it rests upon an authentic divine revelation, i.e., truth. Here the implication is that not all aspects of the longed-for safety are currently enjoyed, but David is trusting his Lord that eventually they will be in his good time, when he has finished his benevolent purposes in the current suffering.
God’s promise of salvation to believers will definitely come to pass, but whether those believers feel the pleasure of anticipation is another matter. Someone has said, “little faith will take your soul to heaven; great faith will bring heaven to your soul.” Christ is the believer’s Rock of salvation, and “though I may tremble on the Rock, the Rock never trembles under me.” Saving faith and assurance of salvation are not identical, for true believers may suffer for a time without full and robust assurance.
Calvin asserted strikingly that without certainty about God’s constant control and care of all things, making them promote the ultimate salvation of his chosen people, life would be unbearable. At least this is the case for the realistic and thoughtful, since it seems most unbelievers continue in a fantasy world of their own concoction that has, without any warrant, a happy ending. Calvin taught that our assurance about Providence is the basis for the immeasurable happiness of a godly mind, for
Innumerable are the evils that beset human life; innumerable, too, the deaths that threaten it. We need not go beyond ourselves: since our body is the receptacle of a thousand diseases—in fact holds within itself and fosters the causes of diseases—a man cannot go about unburdened by many forms of his own destruction, and without drawing out a life enveloped, as it were, with death. For what else would you call it, when he neither freezes nor sweats without danger? Now, wherever you turn, all things around you not only are hardly to be trusted but almost openly menace, and seem to threaten immediate death. Embark upon a ship, you are one step away from death. Mount a horse, if one foot slips, your life is imperiled. Go through the city streets, you are subject to as many dangers as there are tiles on the roofs. If there is a weapon in your hand or a friend’s, harm awaits. All the fierce animals you see are armed for your destruction. But if you try to shut yourself up in a walled garden, seemingly delightful, there a serpent sometimes lies hidden. Your house, continually in danger of fire, threatens in the daytime to impoverish you, at night even to collapse upon you. Your field, since it is exposed to hail, frost, drought, and other calamities, threatens you with barrenness, and hence, famine. I pass over poisonings, ambushes, robberies, open violence, which in part besiege us at home, in part dog us abroad. Amid these tribulations must not man be most miserable, since, but half alive in life, he weakly draws his anxious and languid breath, as if he had a sword perpetually hanging over his neck?4
It is Christian hope that is a great part of the believer’s comfort and joy. This is memorably celebrated in the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism.
What is thy only comfort in life and death?
That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.
This comfort will be yours in great measure as you exercise gospel faith toward God and Christ. You cannot get assurance of salvation from any mere man, not even from your pastor. It is God’s grace gift, along with eternal life, to all who believe his Word and receive his Son. Amen.
Notes:
1. TWOT #367c.
2. Ibid.
3. DBLSD #3498.
4. Institutes I.XVII.10.