Day 4: Psalm 119

One of the most frustrating and beautiful promises that God gives us about His scriptures is that they are like a “light.”

I’ve heard lots of confusing descriptions for what the Bible is - one description is that it is “the owner's manual of life.” Not once have I ever enjoyed reading the owner's manual to anything. Another description I hear is that the Bible stands for “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.” While well-intended, the Bible itself unveils God’s great plan for Heaven to crash into Earth and for God’s Kingdom to come on Earth once and for all. You may have your own description, but the Bible refers to itself as a light. Notice the Psalmist:

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Psalm 119:105

At first glance, this seems helpful. We may even think of a flashlight that helps guide a path on a dark night. While I’ve always liked that description, I understood it differently several years ago when I was in Jerusalem. I was in a store close to the Jordan River and I bought an ancient lamp - it sits on my desk currently - and it is about the length of my two index fingers combined and an inch tall. The local guide I was with told me that for thousands of years, certainly for the Psalmist, this is what a lamp was. It certainly didn’t light much around it.

In reality, it would only light one step in front of you. God’s Word works like that. Often, we want God to be a floodlight, revealing 10 or 100 steps ahead. He doesn’t. He keeps us dependent on Him, revealing one step at a time. The invitation is not to see the future, the invitation is to trust. As you navigate the current reality of quarantine, we are surrounded by darkness. We don’t know how long this crisis will go on, we don’t know who will become infected, and we don’t know the economic impact. It would be easier to act in the present if we could grasp the future. Yet, within the crisis is an opportunity to trust in God like never before. He won’t be your flashlight, but He will be your lamp. He has promised to guide you no matter how dark or uncertain - step by step. We tend to get mad at God when He doesn’t do what He never promised to do in the first place. He hasn’t promised us certainty or ease. However, He has promised us another lily pad will appear in the swamp so we can stand.

May your faith and my faith deepen as we trust God to be our lamp. Where is He asking you to step next? Don’t think about the entire journey ahead. Think about where the light is shining. I don’t know what lies ahead, but I know today I need to pray a little more and love my wife and kids a little stronger. I know I need to be a presence of kindness on Zoom calls. I know I need to be an encourager to my neighbors. I know I need to make more phone calls and check in on friends.

The lamp gives me great peace to do what I know and not be consumed or confused by what I don’t. What about you?

Jared