Thou art my hiding-place and my shield: I hope in Thy Word.
The Guardian and Support of souls
I. The guardianship of god enjoyed. “Hiding-place” is a place of protection, a place where the enemy cannot discover you. “Shield” is an instrument of protection, that which prevents the arrow or the sword from touching the life. The two expressions mean safe guardianship. What a Guardian is God!
1. His guardianship does not circumscribe liberty. Not like the “hiding-place,” it allows ample room for the development of all the powers, and satisfaction for all the desires.
2. His guardianship is sufficient for all purposes. It protects from all evils, material and spiritual, all enemies, human and satanic. With the enjoyment of this guardianship there is “hope in Thy Word.”
II. Deliverance from the wicked desired. “Depart from Me, ye evil-doers.”
1. The expulsion of evil companions is at once the duty and the interest of all men. “The companion of fools shall be destroyed.” “Come out from among them.”
2. The expulsion of evil companions is necessary in order to obey God. “For I will keep the commandments of my God.”
III. The support of Heaven implored. “Uphold me,” etc. The words imply--
1. Consciousness of the ruin of a fall. “That I may live,” implying, If I fall I die. A moral fall is soul death.
2. Consciousness of liability of a fall. “Hold Thou me up.” I cannot stand without Thee. I totter on the verge of ruin, I am unable to support myself. “Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” (Homilist.)
God our hiding-place and shield
I. The relation which God sustains to the Christian.
1. “My hiding-place.” God is thus described as a refuge, as a place of security and retreat from the trials and agitations of the world without; just as a vessel may find a hiding-place in the calm and shelter of the haven, guarded and hidden by the rocks. There may be a pirate-ship upon the sea beyond, and a storm may be hurling its fury upon the waves, but within the shelter of the high rooks all is secure and undisturbed.
2. Again: under the figure of a “shield,” the Almighty is represented as the Defender of His people. Both the figures convey a like meaning of protection; still their application will admit of, perhaps, a variety of difference. We may take the former case as implying refuge in the hour of sorrow and sadness; One to whom we can look in trust and hope at all times, and find in Him a source of peacefulness amid the din and anxieties of the world in which we live. In the latter case we seem to be brought from obscurity and retirement into the open battlefield of life, where the shafts of temptation are flying around us, where the sounds of struggle meet our ears, where latent feelings are awakened and passions roused. Into the “hiding-place” of God the soul retires as into her quiet home away from the noise and stir of life; behind the “shield” of God the soul takes her stand as behind her rampart when the hosts of the enemy are encamped round about her.
II. The basis of Christian hope--“I hope in Thy Word.” There is a twofold and mutual recognition conveyed in this passage. God recognizes man in his helplessness and dependency, and man recognizes God in the mercy, and compassion, and goodness of His character and relationship to His creatures. And thus the basis of Christian hope is to be found in the Divine testimony, conveyed in the writings of Moses and the prophets, of Christ and His apostles. This testimony has also its response in the human heart and life, and so produces its evidence in the actual experience of our common nature. What rule of faith so high--what standard of morals so perfect--what criterion by which we may judge of right and wrong so infallible as the Scriptures? We hesitate not to bring them to the bar of public opinion unbiased by prejudice, for the very freedom of that opinion shall witness in favour of their claims, and give evidence to their truthfulness and authority. They can bear the most powerful tests of human wisdom and judgment, and the more they are examined, the brighter, and broader, and deeper becomes their excellency. (W. D. Horwood.)