“The Lord is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though a mighty army surrounds me, my heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident.”
Psalm 27:1-3 NLT
A confident statement from David starts this Psalm. An unequivocal declaration about what the Lord means to him. At this point in his life David had no doubts, that the Lord was his “light and salvation”. Psalm 27 was another Psalm written by David and the contents and the sentiments expressed repeat once again a stage in his life where he was in danger. There were two occasions at least where David’s life was under threat – when he was being chased around the highways and byways of Palestine by King Saul, and when he had to flee from his son Absolom’s rebellion. At both times there was little else that took up his thoughts and prayers. He wrote about his “enemies and foes”, “mighty armies”, “evil people”, and being attacked, but his confidence in God was unshaken.
David started with “The Lord is my light”. What did he mean by that? In those days, “light” was a spiritual word meaning knowledge, truth and goodness. This sort of meaning is still around today. We talk about “seeing the light” or having a “light bulb moment“, meaning that all of a sudden we understand something that previously eluded us. Perhaps we were having a conversation with someone who was being rather vague with his language or description. It may have been a teacher, helping us with a difficult maths problem but who was not wanting to give us the answer. So a series of hints gradually led to us to “see the light”. “I get it now” was the usual response.
There was a day just after the disciples had found the empty tomb that first Easter Sunday morning, when two disciples were walking away from Jerusalem towards a small town called Emmaus. Jesus caught up with them and asked them what their problem was, because “sadness [was] written across their faces” a graphic description of their emotional state at the time. They explained their misery to Jesus, who was kept from being recognised, and He then ” … took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). When the two disciples were nearly at their destination we read that they begged Jesus to stay with them, which He did. At the subsequent meal ” …He took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared!” (Luke 24:30-31). Suddenly the two disciples realised who had been walking along the road with them. It was a “light bulb” moment that made them return to Jerusalem. “They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”” (Luke 24:32). Those two disciples suddenly “saw the light” and received the understanding about what truly went on in Jerusalem that first Easter weekend.
We pilgrims suddenly saw the “light” the day we were saved. All of a sudden we transitioned from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. Paul wrote, “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). Our previously monochrome existence was all of a sudden transformed into glorious technicolour, exposing a world of which we previously had no idea even existed. John wrote, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:5-7). We also read about Paul’s conversion on the Damascus Road, “As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him” (Acts 9:3). The Light that Paul saw was so bright that he was blinded and his conversion was so complete that ” …immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”” We pilgrims may not have had such a dramatic experience of “seeing the light” in the way that Paul did, but nevertheless we now understand that the lives we are living are being illuminated by the Lord of all, Jesus Himself.
One of Jesus’ “I am” statements can be found in John 8:12, “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life”“. It was a direct and very clear statement that exposed the dichotomy in the Jewish religious society when Jesus walked on this world. The Pharisees were upset with His claim because it gave them an uncomfortable choice. If they believed in Jesus and His claim of being the Light of the world, then they had to discard their whole philosophy and spiritual way of life, and instead become a disciple of the Master Himself, following Him and His teaching. However if they didn’t then they were being accused of stumbling around in darkness, with the implication that they were heading for a spiritual death. Paul defined his previous life before he met Jesus as his being a “Pharisee of Pharisees” so his conversion was dramatic in the extreme. No wonder that he fell over when Jesus met him that day.
This is the message of hope that we propagate to those around us, those living in a spiritually dark and hopeless world. They are in the same camp as the Pharisees, stumbling around, like sheep without a shepherd, and heading for a lost eternity. We have a message of light and salvation that we administer with the same confidence that David had. Jesus is the Light of the world. There is no other invention or claim of man that comes even anywhere close to our amazing God and His Kingdom.
Dear Heavenly Father of Lights. We praise and worship You today. We honour You and exalt Your Holy Name. Only You are the Light of the world. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 