Psalms 81:7 “Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.”
The Almighty God secretly cloaked Himself from the view of men in a “cloud” (Exodus 13:21); for, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18). From His “cloud” He gave Commandments and “answered” Israel’s plea for mercy and deliverance. He “answered” by launching thunderous attacks which defeated Israel’s enemies; thus, He “delivered” them from every peril. From this thunderous “cloud” He protected Israel from the Egyptian army (Exodus 14:20). He gave the Commandments to Moses out of this thunderous “cloud” (Exodus 24:15). He revealed His Almighty Presence with Israel when His “cloud” “filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34). From His “cloud” He sent His Spirit, which empowered “the seventy elders” and when “the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied” (Numbers 11:25). His “cloud” stood over Israel, and He went “before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night” (Numbers 14:14) as He led them through the wilderness for forty years. Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord appeared in His thunderous “cloud” to reveal His presence; from which He also “delivered” Israel from all their enemies and perils. God the Father spoke of His Son from the “cloud”: “there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him” (Mark 9:7). Forty Days after His resurrection, while His Disciples beheld Him, Our Lord Jesus Christ “was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). But now, because of our Lord’s Justifying Sacrifice on our behalf, there is no “cloud”, but we can “therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16); and like Job, we look forward to and yearn for the day that the “secret” will be made plain to see, a day in which “in my flesh shall I see God: 27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me” (Job 19:26-27). And one blessed and holy day, we shall see “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:1) and He will Command “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34), and upon His Command we “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (I Thessalonians 4:17-18).