Your Light In Darkness!
"Do not cast me away when I am old; do
not forsake me when my strength is gone."
Psalm 71: 9
In the nineteenth-century in the United Kingdom, candlepower
indicated a brightness of a light, based on the intensity of light
produced by a certain size of
candle burning at a certain rate.
Today, candlepower has been replaced by lumens—the
brightness of modern LED
(light-emitting diode) bulbs.
Regardless of how many lumens a light source emits, we seem
to always wish for more, especially outside at night when we are
using a flashlight to find our way. It seems we are hardwired to be
suspicious of the dark. But the psalmist reminds us that we don’t
need ample light to see our final destination in the dark; we only
require enough to see our next step. As long as we can see the
next step, we are safe—and God’s Word is that source of
light
(Psalm 119:105). When the writer of Psalm 71—probably David
(see Psalm 70)—found himself in a dark place near the end of
his life, he trusted in God to guide him.
God and His Word are all the light we need.
We only need enough to follow Him to green
pastures and quiet waters (Psalm 23:2).
"We are to order our lives by the light of
God’s law, not by our guesses about his plan."
J. I. Packer
