Psalm 119

Psalms 119:114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word.
 
We have seen the unremitting vigilance of the enemy pursuing the man of God in his secret retirement with painful distraction. See how he runs to his hiding-place. Here is our main principle of safety—not our strivings or our watchfulness, but our faith. Flee instantly to Jesus. He is the sinner’s hiding-place, “the man,”—that wondrous man, “in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Yes, Jesus exposed Himself to the fury of “the tempest,” that He might become a hiding-place, for us. The broken law pursued with its relentless curse—’The sinner ought to die’—But You are my hiding-place, who has “redeemed me from the curse of the law, being made a curse for me.” “The fiery darts” pour in on every side: but the recollection of past security awakens my song of acknowledgment, “You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of ‘the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.” Our hiding-place covers us from the power of the world. “In Me”—says our Savior, “you shall have peace. Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world.” Helpless to resist the great enemy, our Lord brings us to His wounded side, and hides us there. We “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb.” To all accusations from every quarter, our challenge is ready, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” From the fear of death, our hiding-place still covers us. “Jesus through death has destroyed him that had the power of death.” Against the sting of this last enemy, a song of thanksgiving is put into our mouth, “O death! where is your sting? O grave! where is your victory? Thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus is “the smoking flax,” which the malice of Satan strives to extinguish, not “quenched;” nor is “the bruised reed,” which seems beyond the hope of restoration, “broken.”
 
But the completeness of our security is graphically portrayed—You are my hiding-place, to cover from danger—my shield, also to protect me in it. Either I shall be kept from trouble, that it shall not come; or in trouble, that it shall not hurt me. The hiding-place alone would be imperfect security, as being limited to one place. But my shield is moveable, wherever be the point of danger or assault. I can “quench the dart” that is aimed at my soul.
 
But a hiding-place implies also secrecy. And truly the believer’s is “a hidden life,” beyond the comprehension of the world. He mixes with them in the common communion of life. But while seen of man, he is dwelling “in the secret of the Lord’s tabernacle,” safe in the midst of surrounding danger, guarded by invincible strength. Often, indeed, must the world be surprised at his constancy, amid all their varied efforts to shake his steadfastness. They know not “the secret of the Lord, which is with them that fear Him.” And never could he have had a just conception of the all-sufficiency of his God, until he finds it above him, around him, underneath him, in all the fullness of everlasting love—his hiding-place, and his shield. Thus in the heart of the enemy’s country “he dwells on high, and his place of defense is the munitions of rocks.”
 
But are we acquainted with this hiding-place? How have we discovered it? Are we found in it, and careful to abide in it? Within its walls “that wicked one touches us not.” Yet never shall we venture outside the walls unprotected, but his assault will give us some painful remembrance of our unwatchfulness. And then do we prize our shield, and run behind it for constant security. Remember, every other hiding-place “the waters will overflow.” Every other shield is a powerless defense. Surely then the word which has discovered this security to us, is a firm warrant for our hope. And, therefore, every sinner, enclosed in the covert of love, will be ready to declare—I hope in Your word.

—Charles Bridges, “Exposition of Psalm 119″

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The proud have forged a lie against me; but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart. [Psalm 119:69]

If, however, the reproach of the world be “the reproach of Christ,” “let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised.” Insincerity of heart can never support us to a consistent and persevering endurance of the cross. A heart divided between God and the world will ever be found faulty and backsliding. Wholeness of heart in the precepts of God adorns the Christian profession, awes the ungodly world, realizes the full extent of the Divine promises, and pours into the soul such a spring-tide of enjoyment, as more than counterbalances all the reproach, contempt, and falsehood, which the forge of the great enemy is employing against us with unceasing activity, and relentless hatred. Yet do not forget, believer, that these proofs of the malicious enmity of the proud must often be received as the gentle stroke of your Father’s chastisement. Let the fruits of it, then, be daily visible in the work of mortification—in the exercise of the suffering graces of the gospel—in your growing conformity to His image—and in a progressive fitness for the world of eternal uninterrupted love.
Charles Bridges “An Exposition on Psalm 119″
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“All these things are against me,” (Gen xlii., 36) At a brighter period of his day, when clouds were beginning to disperse, we hear that “the Spirit of Jacob revived: and Jacob said: It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive, I will go and see him before I die. (Gen xlv. 27-8) And when his evening sun was going down almost without a cloud, in the believing act of “blessing the sons of,” his beloved “Joseph” (Heb xi. 21), how clearly does he retract the language of his former sinful impatience!—”God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac, did walk–the God which fed me all my life long unto this day– the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads!” (Gen xlviii. 13-16). This surely was in the true spirit of the acknowledgement–Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy Word.
–Charles Bridges, “An Exposition of Psalm 119″
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