Psalm 32:7 Hiding Place

Did you ever look at a verse, then come back to it a day or so later and it says something different? That happened with Psalm 32:7;
    You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance. Selah.

When we examined it last time, the concept of "Safety" was paramount. Look again at the verse. "You" (God) "are my hiding place." That can mean a place of concealment and covering. But that is not the most in-depth understanding, it seems.

Cory ten Boom was aware of the hiding place, both as a place of concealment for her Jewish friends, and later for herself, as a place of refuge in the storm of Nazi concentration camp life. "Hiding place" can denote protection, and rightly so.

However, those who come to understand it as a place of commitment and concentration on ideas understand it more fully. I seem to recall a comic back when I was a kid that featured a place of retreat for one of the characters, maybe Charlie Brown or someone like that. He called it his "sanctum sanctorum.' He would crawl back into the cave or whatever it was to get away from the burdens of his life. Maybe it was Calvin and Hobbs.

Another use of the word is in the Latin translation of the Bible. The "sanctum sanctorum" is how the Holy of Holies was translated. That is obviously not a place that we can enter today, because the Temple has been destroyed. We will peruse that idea in a later post.

The focus is that a "hiding place" is not negative nor demeaning at all, but a very positive attitude toward life and service. Think back to Moses in Exodus 33:22. The "hiding place" was the cleft in the rock where Moses stood while God's glory passed by. God covered him with His hand. "He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock..." came from that incident.

Moses was in intimate communion with the Lord at that time. That is the "hiding" that we need to covet. For Moses, even seeing "the back parts" of the Lord was a life changing experience. Moses returned to the people in the next chapter and his face shown so much that the people asked him to wear a veil. There is a lot of theology involved there, but the first thing to note is that Moses' countenance was a reflection of his interaction with the Lord in the "hiding place."

We can vary the lyrics of another hymn to say,"Hide me, oh Thou Great Jehovah," That is the plea of our hearts. And it is certainly as valid as praying for Him to "Guide" us. (Sorry to mess up the song. It seems appropriate.)  Think about that. "Selah.