Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2367
“Your hidden ones.” Psalm 83:3.
IT was the desire of Asaph to obtain for his nation help from God. Israel was exposed to great danger—ten confederate nations had conspired, with desperate hate, to assail the chosen people. They were determined to root out the very name of Israel from among the nations! They joined together in a wicked league for this purpose and they came from all quarters—north, south, east and west—in order to utterly devour the little insignificant people whom God had called His own. It was the Psalmist’s desire to bring God into this quarrel, to stir Him up to take the part of Israel and he, therefore cried, “Keep not Your silence, O God: hold not Your peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, Your enemies make a tumult: and they that hate You have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted against Your hidden ones.”
Nothing stirs a man more than when his children are assailed. The most quiet and inoffensive individual grows angry if his little one is touched. The blood flies to his cheeks and all his manhood is awakened to defend his child. So the Psalmist pleads with God that this nation was His own and that, therefore, He must protect it. And he describes the people by this singular but instructive title, “Your hidden ones.” I am going to enquire what may be meant by this term, “Your hidden ones,” in the desire that some of God’s hidden ones may be discovered, and that the Lord’s blessing may rest upon them. First, I shall ask, Why are they called God’s hidden ones? Secondly, What is their special honor? They are God’s hidden ones, they belong to Him and, thirdly, What then?
I. First, then, Why are they called God’s hidden ones?
I think, in the connection in which these words occur, the phrase means that they were hidden by God with a view to safety. The 10 heathen nations conspired against Israel, but they could not really harm the chosen people, for God, Himself had hidden them as a hen hides her chickens under her wings when a hawk hovers overhead, or as one who has found a treasure hides it away from the hands of the thief. As the most precious things are put into cases and kept concealed for safety, so does God hide away His people and preserve them. God puts His saints where the enemy cannot find them, or, if he finds them so as to see where they are, God places them where the enemy cannot reach them. Sometimes He puts them in the secret places of His pavilion—yes, in the secret places of His tabernacle does He hide them. As well might the devil think to destroy an angel as to destroy a child of God! That same power that protects the perfect ones before the Throne of God protects believing ones who are on the way there. “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations,” and such a dwelling place that we have been hidden away in You so that no evil has been able to reach us!
You remember when Athaliah sought to kill all the seed royal that Jehoiada, the High Priest, took Joash, who was then a child, and hid him for six years in the house of the Lord, and there He was safe? Thus does God take each one of His children and make a Joash of him, and preserves him from the assault of the enemy so that he cannot be destroyed. God said to Noah, “Come, you and all your house, into the ark,” and he and his household went into the ark and the Lord shut them in. They were hidden in that ark of safety from the floods which rose from beneath and the rain which fell from above—and thus they outlived the Deluge. So, if you believe in Jesus, God will hide you away from all the rage of earth and Hell. He will preserve you, you shall be one of His hidden ones, of whom Christ said, “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me; is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” They are God’s hidden ones. As the king takes care of his royal diadem and
crown jewels, so does God watch over those who have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice. “They shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels.” What a privilege is yours and mine, dear Hearers, if, indeed, we have so believed in Christ that we are hidden away in Him! “You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Rightly do we sing—
“How blest are they who still abide Close sheltered in Your bleeding side! Who life and strength from there derive, And by You move, and in You live.”
1 think this is the first reason why the Israelites were called God’s hidden ones, because He had put them out of the reach of their adversaries and concealed them in a place of safety.
But, next, I think there is another meaning which some of us have, at times, realized. They are God’s hidden ones because He gives them quiet and peace, even in the midst of turmoil and sorrow. The Psalmist seems to say, “Your enemies make a tumult, but Your hidden ones are quiet.” Do you not know what this experience means? Have you ever felt it? That trouble you dreaded so much, of which you said, “I am sure it will crush me,” would have crushed you if you had been left to yourself! But when it came, you were strangely upheld and kept so calm and placid that you did not know yourself! When you saw your husband die and those little children were all around you, and you knew that you were a widow, how was it that then you were still so trustful? Or, dear Husband, when you saw your wife, at last, expire, and the light of your home was quenched, how was it that you still said and meant it, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”? Why, it was because the Lord had made you one of His hidden ones! He said, “Come home, dear child, come and rest with Me”—and He shut you away from all the trial and enabled you to find peace in Him.