I was reading Psalm 27 the other day, and was caught by the first line in which David declares .. "The Lord is my light"
We take light for granted, don't we? If the sun goes down we simply flick a switch and carry on.
I think for most of us 'fear of the dark' is one of our first experienced fears.
I remember as a child, one of my chores was to carry the day's left-over food scraps to the barn for the cats or pigs to enjoy. The barn was far enough away from the house that the yard-light attached to the house did not reach all the way to the barn, leaving a stretch of inky darkness. I was fine in the light but my heart always pounded in fear when I stopped to gather my courage to dash through that black corridor of 'no light'.
Why are we so afraid of the dark? This week Tuesday was Halloween, when 'black' is the colour of choice. -- witches, black magic, dungeons, evil.
Why is the colour black chosen to symbolize evil? Because in I John 1:5 it says, "God is light and in Him is NO DARKNESS AT ALL!"
Black shuts out all light and therefore aptly symbolizes everything outside of God - everything outside of His goodness. (and I love the word 'good' - it is God (Goooood) stretched out and is that not what God does ... stretch out His hand to bestow goodness upon His people?)
So when David says "The Lord is my Light!" what is he saying?
The first thing he says is he is not afraid. Just as I was not afraid where the yard light shone, so also David was not afraid when he was in God's LIGHT.
He mentions the enemy stumbling. By inference we can deduce that his enemies were NOT walking in God's light and therefore stumbled. It is so easy to stumble in the dark, is it not?
David makes another comment in verse 4 when he speaks of "beholding the beauty of the Lord". Do you know that 'colour' is ONLY in LIGHT itself and not in any object we see? The beauty of colour is in the light rays and when they touch an object some rays are absorbed and others are reflected. We see only the colour of the reflected rays.
You know how after a notable dimming of lights .. all colour disappears. The ocean bottom, as we have all observed watching underwater films, is incredibly beautiful, but without the light of the camera, it lies in darkness devoid of any perceivable colour. The creatures who dwell there never see any colour, unless they happen to be in the range of a diver's light.
I love the symbolism of this fact. Without God, there is no beauty to behold. Only by Him and through Him , when He shines on our life are we able to see and appreciate His beauty all around us.
We say ... "I have to see it to believe it !!" It is hard to see in the dark, and very hard to know what to believe. How often as children did you tell scary stories -- and remember how much more effective they were to inspire racing hearts if the stories were told in the dark! If you are in the dark, you are easily led to believe anything you are told is lurking in the corners.
But If God is our 'light', we are 'enlightened', we can 'see' clearly the things of God. We can see His face, and we believe because we see and understand!
David's 27th Psalm is a beautiful declaration of faith, but he adds one clearly identifiable characteristic of faith in the last verse - 14. The quiet confidence of 'waiting' on God!
Waiting - Have you ever grown tired of waiting on God? Waiting for an answer? Waiting for His direction? Waiting for Him to smooth the wrinkles in your life? Of course... we all have. BUT .. as we continue to live and walk in the 'light' of who God is, we will notice how much easier it becomes 'to wait' because our confidence is sure -- God does hear, God does have an answer, and God will deliver in His good time! While I am waiting I am hidden in His secret place, in His tabernacle - high on a solid rock!
