“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust” (Psalms 91:1, 2). From beginning to end, the Bible is filled with accounts of deliverance from every conceivable crisis: from storms and floods, to famine and plagues. It tells of our heavenly home, where we are safe and secure. It speaks of God as a refuge against life’s tempests, and of our oneness with Him as a haven against anything that would cause harm or loss.
Where is this unassailable haven? It is a state of spiritual consciousness. Christ Jesus described it as “the kingdom of God … within you” (Luke 17:21), or God’s presence within each one of us—within reach of our consciousness right here and now.
Jesus sometimes used the word house in his teaching as a metaphor for human consciousness (see, for example, Matthew 24:43). The woman who discovered the spiritual import of Jesus’ teachings, Mary Baker Eddy, used the same convention when illuminating the spiritual sense of the twenty-third Psalm: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [love] for ever” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 578).
