David was able to write his great songs of praise and thanksgiving out of his experience of being hunted down like an animal in the wilderness for so many years. Saul had sworn to kill David out of jealousy, and sent out his armies to track down the young David. Fortunately, Saul's son, Jonathon, was David's best friend, and warned him of Saul's plans for destruction. David fled to the desert and hid in caves for the duration, often so thirsty that he cried for water. However, the end result of David's flight was his experience of God's Divine Protection and care, and the psalms resound with praise and thanksgiving.
Psalm 18 has always moved me profoundly; it could have been written only by one who knew the protection -- the safety-- of God's providence:
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold.
I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
The rest of the psalm is a magnificent hymn of praise to the God who saves us "out of deep waters" and rescues us "from my powerful enemy...who was too strong for me." "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand upon the heights."
Anyone who peruses the psalms even at random will find multiple expressions of gratitude for the safety and security God provides to those who know Him. Psychologically, this attitude is not common to mankind. Our 'natural' state is one of, if not fear, then uncertainty and anxiety. Most men are afraid of failure; many fear human respect -- or what other people think of them. And some are naturally afraid of natural disasters, economic failure, etc. The sense of peace and safety is not natural to mankind. But those who find God find rest. Jesus said at the Last Supper: My peace I give to you; I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (Jn. 14:27). The nearer we draw to Him, the greater our experience of the transforming power of His Peace.
The second universal characteristic of the spiritual experience is the feeling of relationship: the intimate and reciprocal communion of a person with a Person. Although all agree that the Divine Person far surpasses all that we associate with "person," still those who are born again have an overwhelming certainty of a personal contact, a love that has gone before them and that now answers their reach for love. Man's surrender to God is felt by him to evoke a response:
I believe in God as I believe in my friends, because I feel the breath of His affection, feel His invisible and intangible hand, drawing me, leading me, grasping me...Once and again in my life I have seen myself suspended in a trance over the abyss; once and again I have found myself at the cross-roads, confronted by a choice of ways and aware that in choosing one I should be renouncing all the others --- for there is no turning back upon these roads of life; and once and again in such unique moments as these I have felt the impulse of a mighty power, conscious, sovereign, and loving. And then, before the feet of the wayfarer, opens out the way of the Lord (Miguel de Unamuno: The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Peoples, p. 194).
Miguel de Unamuno was a Catholic, if unorthodox, writer. The next quote is from a Unitarian source:
If this Absolute Presence, which meets us face-to-face in the most momentous of our life's experiences, which pours into our fainting the elixir of new life-mud strength, and into our wounded hearts the balm of a quite infinite sympathy, cannot fitly be called a personal presence, it is only because this word personal is too poor and carries with it associations too human and too limited adequately to express this profound God-consciousness (T.Upton: The bases of Religious Belief, p. 363).
William Blake, the great English mystic and poet, heard the Divine Voice crying, "I am not a God afar off; I am a brother and friend; Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in Me."
The sense of personal relationship with the Divine cuts across all cultures, creeds, and forms of religious experience. Christianity, with its concept of Divine Fatherhood -- the relation of Christ's sonship to His Father, given to us in Him -- has given this sense of personal communion its fullest and most beautiful expression. Those who pray regularly have a sense of direct communion and passionate friendship with the Invisible God.
Again, this sense of being heard, of being received, and in turn of hearing God's voice is not 'natural' to mankind. Man's natural response to God is one of fear, or placation, of trying to win favor. But Jesus says, "Fear not, little flock; it has pleased the Father to give you the kingdom." He assures us that the Father Himself loves us and will come to dwell with us. But that assurance is fully ministered to us only by the action of the Holy Spirit overshadowing us, placing in our hearts the love and friendship of God. I think it is in the Book of Proverbs that we read, "Wisdom enters into holy souls, and makes them friends and lovers of God."
We are designed not only to enter into the friendship of the Holy Trinity, but to have that intimate dwelling of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling in us. And what would be the use of the indwelling Presence if we were not aware of it? So the second universal characteristic of the spiritual life is the sense of Friendship with God.
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