HEBREW WORD STUDY – SHELTER IN GOD’S HEART –  SATAR  סתר  

Psalms 91:1 “He who dwells in the secret place of the most High, shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.”  

During World War II the navy department called into service an attorney and gave him a commission of Lt. Commander even though the guy never served in the military. He went to Brooks Brothers, picked up his uniform and headed to the train station to go to Washington DC. In the train station, a young ensign seeing the uniform of a Lt. Commander snapped to attention and saluted.  The attorney knew enough to return the salute which received a questioning look from the ensign.  On the train, the attorney thought about this and realized he returned the salute with the three finger boy scout salute. You see, even though this attorney was a full 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 their 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 rowboat 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.  But that is taking the heart and soul out of satar.   

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 question that comes to mind as to just what is this secret place. The word satar simply gives us the uniform, but does not tell us what that uniform means, does it mean service in a battlefield or a courtroom.  If you look closely at that uniform you would see little indications of the context of that uniform, like a lapel pin that indicates his field is in the legal realm.  So too, we need to look closely at the context of this verse. 

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? Let me borrow a concept from the Buddhist but put a Christian spin on it.  The Buddhist have what they call the Net of Indra.  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 to 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 to our rank as a child of God. That is why satar is more than just a shelter it is a place where God reveals his secrets to us.