The Secret of Refuge

There is a place of refuge from the storms of life. Storms will unavoidably assault us on this earthly plane, but there is a place to hide. I’m referring, of course, to the secret place.

For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock (Psalm 27:5).

You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues (Psalm 31:20).

There is a place where God hides His beloved—in the sanc- tuary of His presence. Webster’s dictionary defines sanctuary as, “A place of refuge; asylum; hence, immunity.” God’s abode is a sanctuary for the war-weary soldier, a place of immunity from the poachings of the enemy.

David wrote, “So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory” (Psalm 63:1). The title of Psalm 63 reads, “A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Ju- dah.” So my question was, how could David write of looking for

The Secret of Refuge

God in the sanctuary when he was running for his life from King Saul? He was totally isolated, a political fugitive hiding in the wilderness—and he was there for several years! He had no access to the sanctuary where the ark resided, so he was obviously not speaking of that sanctuary. Any attempt to get near that sanctu- ary would have cost him his life. So what sanctuary had David found? I believe David was referring to his secret life with God. Even though he couldn’t worship before the ark, he discovered the secret place to be a shelter from the swirl of emotions and troubles that constantly bombarded his soul. Here he could vent his anxious thoughts; here he could be renewed in God’s love as he gazed on His beauty; here he could be quieted by the assur- ances of His heavenly Father’s protection; here he was healed from the wounds of man’s rejection; here he regained strength for the journey; here he was safe.

The secret place is like the eye of a storm. While all is storming about us, we find an inner sanctuary of rest and peace. There’s something of a paradox here because we are experiencing both storm and peace simultaneously. When we retreat to the secret place, the storm doesn’t stop. In fact, sometimes it seems that when we run into the Lord for help the storm escalates in in- tensity!

Many Christians have been offended by the fact that when they began to devote themselves to the secret place, the warfare around their lives actually accelerated. Instead of finding refuge, they found turbulence. This can be mystifying and so deserves some comment.

While the place of prayer is a place of immunity, it is also one of Satan’s favorite places to attack the devout. When seeking to destroy Daniel, the only chink his enemies could find in his armor was his prayer life. So they attacked him in the place of prayer. The only way Judas knew to hand Jesus over to the chief priests was by betraying Him in the place of prayer. So the secret place is both a place of sanctuary and also of the enemy’s strategic attacks. The assurance to the believer, however, is that when he is attacked in the place of prayer the Father is exercising sovereign jurisdiction over the entire affair. Nothing can happen to you in the secret

Secrets of the Secret Place

place that He doesn’t specifically allow for His higher purposes.

You are totally immune from anything outside His will.

Psalm 91 deals with this tension of safety versus turbulence. The psalm launches with this powerful assurance, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” And we think, “Great! Nothing can touch me there!” But the remainder of the psalm seems to contradict that thought. Verse 3 speaks of being snared by the fowler and being caught by perilous pestilence. (The fact that God delivers us from those things does not negate the reality of the pain we experi- ence when we are initially caught in their grip.) The psalm also describes terrors of the night, arrows that fly by day, pestilence that walks in darkness, and destruction that lays waste at noonday. Verse 15 points to great personal trouble—the comfort being that the Lord will be present in the time of trouble and will bring deliverance. But waiting on God until the deliverance comes can be agonizing at times.

As already stated, some Christians become offended by the increased warfare they encounter when they devote themselves to the secret place. It is this offence that I think may be referred to in Psalm 91:7, “A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you.” Those at your side are your fellow warriors. They get offended that God would allow such calamity to hit their lives after they’ve been so faithful. Even if a thousand of your comrades fall to calamity and never uncover God’s resurrection power—but take God’s promises to the grave—it shall not be so with you. Even if ten thousand of your fellow believers are not delivered, He shall be your deliverer. Psalm 91 must be seen as directed, not at all believers, but at a very specific kind of believer: the one who abides in the secret place of the Almighty. Thousands of believers may fall to this or that, but it will not come near you because you have learned to abide.

The closer we draw to the Lord in intimacy, the more real the warfare will be we encounter. Francis Frangipane described it with the phrase, “New levels, new devils.” As the attacks increase, our cry only intensifies, “Hide me!” While the body and soul may

The Secret of Refuge

be afflicted with increasing harassment and abuse, the spirit is finding a place of greater protection, rest, and intimacy under the shadow of the Almighty (see 2 Corinthians 4:8-11). The Spirit thus draws us into a place of greater spiritual peace and comfort which only inflames the soul with a greater passion for Jesus—which in turn only feeds the ire of our tormentors.

May you have grace to make the decision now, my friend: Lose your life, and pursue the secret place of the Most High. It is the way of the cross. The cross is where we sustain great assaults, but yet there’s no safer place in the universe to be.

Oh how I long to direct your heart into this place of refuge! Are winds swirling about your head? Run into the Lord! A refuge is something you flee into. A refuge doesn’t automatically erect itself around you; you have to seek it out and run into its shelter for safe harbor. As the Scriptures say, “That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:18). If God is to be your refuge, you must flee to Him. The cry is, “Oh Lord, I am about to be consumed—I run into You! Hide me!”

“Be my strong refuge, to which I may resort continually” (Psalm 71:3).

Thank You, Lord, for the gift of the secret place!

Secrets of the Secret Place

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