With you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light – Ps. 36:9.
God has turned his light on in our darkness by his self-disclosure. “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (Jn. 8:12), and the writer of Hebrews speaks of him as the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:1-3). “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn 1:4).
So, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7) and “the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov. 9:10); “the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:6).
“Light” is the information that God gives us to understand the reality of life, beginning with God himself as the greatest and most important reality. Thereby we understand ourselves, and our world, in the light of God’s character and purpose. Conversely, darkness is ignorance and unbelief – “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:4). Jesus said, “he who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12).
All this leads up to the understanding of Ps. 36:9, “in your light do we see light”. Only through God’s self-disclosure (“your light”) do we grow in our understanding of the reality of what is (“do we see light”), leading us toward not just knowledge (science) but wisdom – the skill of doing life well according to God’s design and desire.
Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.
I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.
I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.
Psalm 119:98–100
It is like C.S. Lewis explained, “I believe in Christianity like I believe in the sun, not just because I see it, but by it I see everything else” (emphasis mine). Therefore, the Psalmist proclaimed how much he loved God’s self-disclosure, and it was his constant meditation (Ps. 119:97).
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
Psalm 1:1–3
Copyright © 2022 Grace Bible Church, All rights reserved.