The Secret of the LORD is with them who fear Him

"But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the matter." -I Samuel 20:39 [KJV]

Had any one asked this lad, what Jonathan was doing in the field? he would doubtless have replied, only shooting arrows for his amusement, and I ran and brought them to him. But, O! there was a much greater matter here: no less than the precious life of David was at stake. Love directed these arrows: the voice of love proclaimed by them, David’s danger, or his safety. The fatal word, Is not the arrow beyond thee? reminds David of his danger, and warns him to flee for his life. 

Observe, (1st.) Never did more generous, faithful love dwell in a mere human breast, than in Jonathan’s to David. But it diminishes, like the light of the stars when the sun appears, compared to that infinitely greater, and more intense love, which dwells in the heart of our spiritual Jonathan, i.e., the gift of the Lord: this Jesus is to all His Davids, i.e., beloved ones. 

(2d.) There was a secret between Jonathan and David, on which his life depended. So there is between Jesus and us, on which the life of our immortal souls depend. “The secret of the Lord is with them who fear Him, and He will shew them His covenant” (Psalm 25:14.) His covenant love and grace, and the perpetuity of them. That He has loved us with an everlasting love, and that His grace shall never forsake us, but shall bring us safe to glory. Therefore, our souls are safe; our salvation is sure. The Lord forbids our fears: “Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flieth by day” (Psalm 91:5.) Neither sin, death, or hell, shall ever prevail over thee. 

(3d.) The arrows were either behind, beside, or beyond the lad. Just so are these declarations of God’s everlasting love to lads in religion: they do not receive them in faith. 

(4th.) As the lad picked up the arrows, but knew not the matter: so do they pick up words, but understand not the secret of the Lord in them. Their words betray it. For they say, “If there is such a covenant; if God loves me with an everlasting love; if Christ has finished salvation for me; if all is of grace, without any condition of works—then no matter how I live; I will take my full swing in sin and wickedness.” Such lads are not in the secret; they are strangers to the power of covenant love and faithfulness; their hearts are in bondage to the law; they know not the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free. It lies between the gift of the Lord, and His Davids, or beloved ones, only. Now, if you are a man of understanding in the love of the Lord, You will glory in it: study the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. See Ephesians 3:18, 19.

 

-preacher Wm. Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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