WORD STUDY – SHELTER IN GOD’S HEART סתר
Psalms 91:1 “He who dwells in the secret place of the most High, shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”
I recently watched an excellent documentary on World War II and the Home Front. I love to read how a nation of farmers, factory workers, salesmen, and average working class men suddenly enlisted in the military and within a few weeks went off to fight professionally trained soldiers who had been training since childhood to fight in combat. I mean we were not ready for war or battle seasoned like the enemy we went up against. I remember reading an excellent example how militarily unprepared we were. Once war was declared the war department because painfully aware of the need for professional trained people who had certain specific skills. So they began calling them into service giving them the rank of military officers without any military training or background. The Navy was in desperate need of attorneys skilled in a specific area of law and the Admiral of the Navy call an attorney in New York saying he was being commissioned a Lt. Commander and was to go to Brook Brother’s in New York City, pick up his uniform and take the first train into Washington D.C.
The poor attorney had no military experience other than being a boy scout as a teenager. Following orders, the attorney promptly left his desk, picked up his Lt. Commander’s uniform and went to the train station. At the train station a naval ensign in uniform passed the rookie Lt. Commander and seeing his rank immediately snapped to attention and saluted his ranking officer. The poor attorney was completely taken by surprise but he had enough sense to know that he must return the salute, which he did. The ensign gave a surprise and questioning look at the Lt. Commander and then moved on. While sitting on the train the newly commissioned Lt Commander tried to figure out why the ensign gave him such a strange look. It was then that he realized he saluted the ensign with the three finger boy scout salute.
You see, even though this attorney was a fully commission naval commander due all the respect and protocol of an officer he had not yet entered into the secret place of a most high naval officer. Many Christians who are newly saved, run out and pick up there uniform and try to play soldier without giving any serious study to Scripture and entering into the secret place of the most high. They usually end up making fools of themselves worse than giving a three finger salute. Just because this attorney had a uniform and papers making him a Lt Commander, it did not qualify him to row a row boat let alone command a ship. He did not yet know the heart of military procedure and protocol. Ah, but I bet he sure was an impressive sight walking around the establishment in his military uniform signifying a high position. New Christians make an impressive sight with their enthusiasm but they still need to enter that secret place.
The word used for secret place in Psalms 91:1 is satar. Many modern translations will render this as shelter. I recall years ago as a graduate student under a professor who was working on the NIV and his explanation as to why the word satar was rendered as shelter. It seems they took a very scientific approach in their translation process. I don’t condemn doing this but sometimes such an approach can just take the heart and soul out of a word like satar. This is, after all, poetry and needs to be viewed through the eyes of a poet and a secret place sounds so much more poetic. Besides what kind of shelter are we talking about, what happens in this shelter and more important how do we get into this shelter?
I understand from a purely contextual stand point why you would render this as shelter as the writer is obviously referring to place of safety. But is sure takes the heart and soul out of the word satar. To call it a shelter is like seeing this Lt. Commander from a distance and knowing that his battlefield would be in a courtroom and not on a ship.
So let’s just examine this word not from a scientific standpoint, but more from a linguistical and Semitic standpoint. Now it is true that the word satar means shelter or secret place. It could also be rendered secret things. Again the questions that come to mind are: What or where is this shelter or secret place of God? What are the secret things of God? and How do we acquire the secret things of God. The word satar simply gives us the uniform, but does not tell us what that uniform means, does it mean service in a battle field or a courtroom. If you look closely at that uniform you would see little indications, like a lapel pin that indicates his field is in the legal realm. So too, we need to look closely at this Hebrew word satar to give us some clues. The word is spelled Samek, Taw and Resh.
The Samek will tell us what this secret place is. If you look at the Samek, it is like a little rounded vessel with a flat roof or cover. The ancient sages picture this as a shelter. The little rounded vessel would represent the heart of God and when you crawl into His heart he places a cover over it and you are protected. When the writer speaks of those who dwell in the satar of God he is referring, in a poetic sense, to those who find shelter in the heart of God.
Now what you find when you seek shelter in the heart of God is the next letter in satar which is the Taw. The Taw represents the truth or knowledge of God. The Taw also represents tikkum which means to repair or restoration. When we enter this shelter or secret place we enter into a knowledge of God which will repair or restore us. The Taw also represents guidance. This knowledge of God will guide us through our difficulty. So not only does satar (secret place) shelter us but it restores us and guides us as well. It is in satar (secret place) that we learn the heart of God, we learn how to give the proper salute, so to speak.
The final question is: “How do we enter into this secret place? The last letter in satar will provide the answer to that question. It is the Resh. The Resh represents the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth and knowledge of God and ultimately to our restoration.
Another question is just how much truth or knowledge of God is revealed when we dwell in the shelter of his heart. Looking a little deeper into the word satar or secret place I think we find the answer. The Samek in the word satar also means to support. Jewish tradition teaches that we support even as we are supported. In other words each thread of the knowledge of God is in some way connected offering support to each other. You see the last phrase of the verse tells us that if we dwell in the secret place we will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. What does that mean? Some of you may not like it if I will borrow a concept from the Buddhist but it does offer a perfect example. Let me just put a Christian spin on their Net of Indra, rather than their spin. It might serve to help illustrate something about the shadow of the Almighty. In the Net of Indra each knot on the net is a unique jewel. Each jewel perfectly reflects all the other jewels in the net. This is really the way it is with the knowledge of God when you dwell in that secret place or satar. Each truth of God is a jewel which perfectly reflects all the other jewels in that net of God’s knowledge. When we enter that secret place of God we begin to see each jewel of truth and it’s reflections to all the other truths of God.
Each truth of God is a shadow of all His other truths and to dwell in the shadow of God is to experience all the jewels of the knowledge of God. We may not comprehend all the knowledge of God as our Lt. Commander may not have known all the rights and privileges due his rank but they were his. In other words, even if we cannot intellectually comprehend all the knowledge of God we can allow it to enter our hearts so that even in its shadow we will not end up giving a three finger salute. When the time comes and we need that knowledge, it will be there. Still, it will take time to come up to speed on all the rights and privileges due our rank as a child of God.
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