Psalm 91 : He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty ( verse one).
A secret place is likened to a Master bedroom in a house. Visitors are not allowed in and out at will; their business is in the living room. Only members of the nuclear family have access to the Master bedroom; this access is even limited. Imagine the favourite child of the Master of the house; I smell unlimited access. You can’t even relate with that child anyhow especially in the presence of the father, else the end result is the father’s wrath.
Back to the verse of the Scripture, to dwell in the secret place doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a conscious, consistent approach and act. It starts with a coming and going; then it graduates to a coming and sleeping over.
Imagine a friend of one of the children in a certain family who becomes part of the family. From the onset, his visit begins with a ‘come and go’. His consistency overtime earns him a ‘come and sleep over’. At this stage, he can be likened to a family friend.
With that same consistency, the ‘Sir’ and ‘Ma’ title of his friend’s parents to him becomes a ‘dad’ and ‘mum’ title. He was able to get to this point because he was consistent. He wasn’t a ‘once-in-a-year’ visitor. He became family because he knows a child of the family.
A stranger can’t gain access to the house if he or she knows no one in the house. After some time, the parents of his friend will refer to him as their son.
To gain access to the secret place of the Father, you have to know the Son. Knowing the Son means having a relationship with the Son; hence the reason for John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
The ‘b’ part of the Scriptural verse says, “…shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”
Wikipedia defines a shadow as a dark (real image) area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. Shadow can be likened to a canopy or an umbrella.
My illustration would be a man facing the sun. When you are in front of him, you see him first before you see his shadow. Oftentimes, when I pick up my nephew from school and I forget to go with an umbrella, I use my shadow to shield him from the sun; by doing this, his head to his knee cap doesn’t get hit by the sun.
The phrase ‘abiding under the shadow of the Almighty’ means that the Almighty shields you from every attack. The Almighty fights the battle and all you get to do in this case is to enjoy the victory. The friend of the child of the family in our first illustration overtime can be defended by Master of the house.
Having said this, verse on of this Scripture is a prerequisite to enjoy the benefits of verse two to verse sixteen.
Thanks for your time. I hope you learnt something.
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