In His Presence

“Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;” (Psalms 91:9)

Moses who is attributed as the author of Psalms 91, continues the thought in the next verse. “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” (Psalms 91:10) Written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Moses declares protection from evil and any plague. This is conditional on the previous verse, when the Lord, the Most High is thy habitation, meaning retreat or dwelling place.

David wrote something similar in his song to the Lord. “Thou art my hiding place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.” (Psalms 32:7) This hiding place as David called it and our habitation, retreat or dwelling place is none other than the presence of the Lord. In the Presence of the Lord there is protection from libel and any word that would come against us to ruin our reputation and godly influence. “Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” (Psalms 31:20)

“Jehovah is near all those who call on Him, all those who call on Him in truth.” (Psalms 145:18) Those who call on Him are those who have made Him Lord and Savior. He is even more present than the children of Israel when they left Egypt. “And He said, My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) He is always with us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the days of Moses, He guided them by fire and a cloud. The Spirit of the Lord would rest upon certain ones for His purposes. But today He indwells in those who belong to the Lord. He is always with us. We belong to Jesus. We belong to the Father through our faith in Jesus. We have repented of our sins and our sins have been forgiven. We live in the refreshing of the Lord, His peace, love and joy in His presence. Peter preached heartily after the Holy Spirit came upon him and the other disciples. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”

(Acts 3:19).

We have become the children of God and can come before His presence. We can enter the Throne Room and go to the presence of the Father Almighty to find help in time of need. “Therefore, let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) We can delight ourselves in His presence. Like the priests in Solomon’s day, we can be bowed by the weight of His presence. When the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant to its place in the Holy of Holies in the new temple, the presence of the Lord came in the form of a cloud. His presence was such that they could not stand in His presence. “ And the Levitical singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brothers, being clothed in white linen, having cymbals and with harps and lyres, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets, and they were as one to the trumpeters and to the singers, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah; and as they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised Jehovah, saying, For He is good, for His mercy endures forever, the house was filled with a cloud, the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God!” (2Chronicles 5:12-14)

David wrote, “You will make Me know the way of life; in Your presence is fullness of joys. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalms 16:11) The pleasures of the Lord are not like the ones on earth. They are sweet and pleasant pleasures of being in His presence. It is love indescribable and unknow here on earth. It is joy that can only be found in His presence and is unknown here on earth. David called it fullness of joys. It is so satisfying and sweet that the world fades away in His presence.

David penned what the presence of the Lord is like in Psalms 23. What he describes is divine and heavenly, unknown on earth. If we read it with God's presence in mind, we can get some understanding of what being in His presence is like. I encourage you to read it with that understanding.

In short, it’s in the presence of the Lord where we find provision, protection, exaltation, joys and delights unknown here on earth. Take time to be with the Lord and taste a minute bit of what heaven is like.