Thoughts for the Day

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid? .....

‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up....

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Psalm 27 is a magnificent some of confidence in God, but it's the opening words about light that strike me as important. David says “The Lord is my light”. The dictionary defines light as 'the brightness that comes from the sun, or a fire or an electrical device that allows things to be seen.' As we know light has many uses: it can help us see our way on a winter's night; it can show up the darkness in a large building making it seem blacker; and it can help us find things in dark places. But we also incorporate 'light' in another word by adding a suffix and a prefix. We speak of being 'enlightened'. We don't mean we are full of light, rather that we have just made a mental discovery about something, and so we speak about having “seen the light”.

At a Christians conference years ago on the subject of 'Stages of faith', the leader placed a large candle on a small table in front of us and lit it. Then he asked us to write down any words that came to us as we gazed at the candle. Those present wrote down words like 'bright' and 'flickering' and all of us put down, “Jesus, the light of the world”. After the last person spoke there was silence, then the leader challenged us, pointing out "It's just a candle with a flame!" It made all of us realise how much Christian imagery we had absorbed over the years. He then informed us that he was going to look at “Faith” as described by men like Fowler and Westerhoff, not just at Christian faith, but at the theory of faith in general. By the third day we all felt truly enlightened, indeed it changed my whole way of thinking about faith and was to continue affecting my ministry thereafter.

When we say "we have seen the light" we understand more about ourselves and the world around us; and as Christians more about ourselves and God. David knew that God was His guiding light, no matter how dark the way ahead. As Christians, the moments we stop and compare our thoughts and actions to those that Jesus would have made, are the times we allow Him to enlighten us, pushing the darkness back and seeing the way ahead.

Lord Jesus Christ,
Light of the world,
may Your brightness shine this day on us;
may we look at ourselves in its searching ray,
to see the dark places in our soul;
may we open our eyes to see fresh truths;
and may we help to bring enlightenment to others.
Amen.