The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1.

You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 2 Samuel 22:29.

The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. Proverbs 4:18.

Each of the above verses of Scripture were in the devotional, Jesus Today, and after reading our psalm, Psalm 52, how can we not see that we are the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives and the prisoners held in the darkness? David wrote this psalm after learning that on the order of Saul, Ahimelek, God’s priest, and 85 priests of God, as well as the town of Nob and everyone in it, were killed by Doeg, the Edomite. They were killed because Ahimelek helped David. Darkness. Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?…You who practice deceit, your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor…You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth…You love every harmful word, you deceitful tongue!…v. 1-4. I can only imagine in his frustration and sorrow David wrote – Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living…The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at you saying, “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” v. 5-7. And in the very midst of the darkness David learned of and that the people were living, these words of light – But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever…For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people…And I will hope in your name, for your name is good. v. 8-9.

It’s hard in the midst of the darkness then and now to see light but the light of our God – Father, Son, Spirit – is always here. Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” John 14:6. The truth of God’s love is the light we walk by. In stark contrast to that Light is the darkness of hate. We have known the darkness of hate and idolatry since the fall of Adam and Eve. Our history is bloody and violent. It still is today. Jesus, God the Son, came to show us a better way. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7. Holy Sovereign God, help us walk in Your Light because You alone are our hope and shield and Your Love is leading us to You where there is no darkness.