One of the most wonderful verses in the Bible is this: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." (Psalm 25:14)
Men have been known to give what to the majority of people would be a fortune, merely to gain possession of some State secret; but the secret of the King of kings, who inhabits eternity, sitting in the high and holy place, may freely become the property of the poorest person on earth.
May we know what this secret is? Certainly, yet not so that one person can reveal it to another. Surely every one with whom the secret is will know it; yet no matter how many know it, it still remains a secret. Only God himself can impart it to any soul. It cannot be bought or sold, and nobody can make private gain of it; yet it is of inestimable value both for time and for eternity.
Well, what is this wonderful secret? It is that which distinguishes the Lord from all false gods. The prophet Jeremiah enables us to find it out. After describing the helpless idols, which "must needs be borne, because they cannot go," (Jeremiah 10:5) and which "cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good," (Jeremiah 10:5) he adds: "But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King: ... He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His direction." (Jeremiah 10:10,12)
The secret of the Lord is life. "He is your life, and the length of your days." (Deuteronomy 30:20) "He gives to all life, and breath, and all things." (Acts 17:25)
That life is the secret of the Lord, is evident from the words of the text: "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." (Psalm 25:14)
What is His covenant? Speaking of Levi, that is, the one joined to Him, the Lord says, "My covenant was with him of life and peace." (Malachi 2:5)
The one who is joined to the Lord gets life; for nothing can be in His presence without partaking of His overflowing life. Coming to the Living Stone, we also become living stones. (1 Peter 2:4-5) "He asked life of You, and You gave it him, even length of days for ever and ever." (Psalm 21:4)
The Lord's blessing, which He has commanded, is "life for evermore," (Psalm 133:3) for: "His commandment is life everlasting." (John 12:50)
Secrets are revealed only to intimate friends; to know another's secrets means very close acquaintance, and very confidential relations. So it is that the word rendered "secret" in Psalm 25:14, has also the meaning of "familiar acquaintance," "confidential intercourse," and is so translated in some versions. This also shows that life is the secret of the Lord; for to know the only true God is life eternal. (John 17:3) Life, eternal life, "life for evermore," (Psalm 133:3) is the secret of the Lord, and it is "with them that fear Him." (Psalm 25:14)
Mark well this last statement. The text does not say that we shall know the secret, but that we shall have it with us. God shows it to us; "For the life was manifested, and we have seen it." (1 John 1:2)
Those who fear the Lord have the secret of life, the secret of living; they know how to live, because the Lord shows them how He lives, and comes and lives His own life in them, as they "Fight the good fight of faith, [and] lay hold on eternal life." (1 Timothy 6:12)
It is impossible for anybody basely to betray the Lord's secret, for nobody can be in possession of it except in the immediate presence of the Lord. If one would go away from the Lord, to trade with His secret on his own account, he would lose it the instant he separated from God. The one who would remain in possession of the secret must dwell in "the secret place of the Most High [and] abide under the shadow of the Almighty." (Psalm 91:1) "God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:16)
The secret, therefore, is love, for love is life, and God's love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of life. The secret, or mystery, of God, is: "Christ in you the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)
And the acceptance of the Gospel makes us sharers of "the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God." (Ephesians 3:9)
When God dwells in us, then of course the mystery must be hid in us. The Lord expects us to confide in Him, telling Him the secrets of our own lives. "Whoso covers his sins shall not prosper." (Proverbs 28:13)
We must part with them to the Lord. "He abides faithful," (2 Timothy 2:13) and will not betray us. Our only safety is in telling them to Him, for in the day when "every work [shall be brought] into judgment, with every secret thing," (Ecclesiastes 12:14) all will be spread out to the gaze of the universe. Our secret sins will be safe from observation, because God will have buried them in the depths of the sea, so that though they be sought for they cannot be found. (Micah 7:19; Jeremiah 50:20) And God himself will have forgotten them, so that He cannot make them known if He would.
It is as blessed to be able to tell the Lord our secrets as it is to know His secret. He who has the secret of the Lord,--life,--has all that he needs for this world and the one to come. Therefore get acquainted with God, study His works, and learn His ways.--Present Truth, December 27, 1900--Psalm 25:14.