An interesting phrase caught my eye the other day as I was reading Psalm 81. Verse 7 reads, “You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah.”
“The secret place of thunder”. I’d never noticed this phrase before. What is the “secret place of thunder?” While I can’t claim fully to understand it yet, here is what I found in studying.
“Secret place” is translated from the word cether, which means “a cover”. It’s from the root word cathar, which means “to hide (by covering)”.
Cetheris the same word used in Psalm 27:5: “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me upon a rock.” It’s also used in Psalm 32:7: “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shall compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.” And it’s found in Psalm 91:1: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
The word “thunder” is translated from ra’am, which, straightforwardly, means a peal of thunder. It’s used in a couple verses to speak of God’s power or His voice (see Job 26:14, Psalm 77:88, Psalm 104:7).
It’s from a primitive root word of the same transliteration which means “to tumble, i.e. to be violently agitated; specifically, to crash (of thunder); figuratively, to irritate (with anger).” In Scripture, this word is most often used of God thundering from Heaven.
Ra’am isn’t the only word translated thunder in Scripture.
Other appearances of thunder or thundered are scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments, including in John 12:27-29, where Jesus, before going to the cross, prayed, “Now is my soul troubled: and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered; others said, An angel spake to him.”
We also see thunder as a display of God’s power and presence in Exodus 19:11, 16: “And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai…And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightenings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.”
There are times in Scripture when God showed His power and/or His presence openly, and that revelation included thunder. There are also times when God displayed His voice as thunder.
It seems, though, that there is also a secret place of His thunder—His power, presence, and voice—to which He calls us to dwell and in which we find our safety, protection, and deliverance in Him.
Very thought-provoking and insightful! Thank you, Gina!