The three clauses of the text express substantially the same idea, but with a striking variety of metaphors.
There is a very slight change of rendering of the first clause, which greatly increases its force, and preserves the figure that is obscured by the usual translation. We should read shall dwell safely on,' rather than by, Him.' And the effect of that small change in the preposition is to bring out the thought that God is regarded as the foundation on which His beloved build their house of life, and dwell in security and calm. If we are sons through the Son, we shall build our houses or pitch our tents on that firm ground, and, being founded on the Rock of ages, they will not fall when all created foundations reel to the overthrow of whatever is built on them. It is not companionship only, blessed as that is, that is promised here. We have a larger privilege than dwelling by Him, for if we love His Son, we build on God, and God dwelleth in us and we in Him.'
What spiritual reality underlies the metaphor of dwelling or building on God? The fact of habitual communion.
Note the blessed results of such grounding of our lives on God through such habitual communion. We shall dwell safely.' We may think of that as being objective safety--that is, freedom from peril, or as being subjective that is, freedom from care or fear, or as meaning trustfully,' confidently, as the expression is rendered in Psalm 16:9 (margin), which is for us the ground of Doth these. He who dwells in God trustfully dwells both safely and securely, and none else is free either from danger or from dread.
God is for His beloved not only the foundation on which they dwell in safety, but their perpetual covering. They dwell safely because He is so. There are many tender shapes in which this great promise is presented to our faith. Sometimes God is thought of as covering the weak fugitive, as the arching sides of His cave sheltered David from Saul. Sometimes He is represented as covering His beloved, who cower under His wings,' as the hen gathereth her chickens' when hawks are in the sky. Sometimes He appears as covering them from tempest,' when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall,' and' the shadow of a great rock' shields from its fury. Sometimes He is pictured as stretching out protection over His beloved's heads, as the Pillar of cloud lay, long-drawn-out, over the Tabernacle when at rest, and on all the Glory was a defense.' But under whatever emblem the general idea of a covering shelter was conceived, there was always a correlative duty on our side. For the root-meaning of one of the Old Testament words for faith' is fleeing to a refuge,' and we shall not be safe in God unless by faith we flee for refuge to Him in Christ.
The image is the same as in Deut. 1. already referred to. It recurs also in (Isaiah 46:3-4),'Even to hoar hairs will I carry you, and I have made and I will bear, yea, I will carry, and will deliver'; and in (Hosea 11:3), I taught Ephraim to go; I took them on My arms.'
The image beautifully suggests the thought of the favorite child riding high and happy on the strong shoulder, which lifts it above rough places and miry ways. The prose reality is: My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'
The Cross carries those who carry it. They who carry God in their hearts are carried by God through all the long pilgrimage of life. Because they are thus upheld by a strength not their own, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint,' and though marches be long and limbs strained, they shall go from strength to strength till every one of them appears before God in Zion.'
