My wife and I go back and forth playfully bantering about the lights in our house being on. It’s not over the electricity bill, she just doesn’t like all the lights on. I on the other hand want every light in the house on if I’m home and awake. I joke with her and say I’m a child of the light, that’s why I don’t like darkness.
I was reading in Psalm 136 when something caught my attention.
Psalm 136:7-9 KJV 7 To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever: 8 The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever: 9 The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.
The Psalm begins with: Psalm 136:1 KJV O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. As you read through the Psalm, it talks about God’s creative power, His deliverance that He gave, His redemption and His provision. These 3 verses though just don’t seem to fit. I mean God gave light, the sun, the moon the stars, because His mercy endureth forever. What does this have to do with His mercy?
Being in a constant place of darkness can significantly impact mental health, leading to feelings of depression, anxiety, disorientation, disrupted sleep patterns, and a general sense of hopelessness, paranoia, it affects cognitive function, impacting concentration and decision-making abilities. Could you imagine being in perpetual darkness? You see we were not made to be in darkness. This is why it was merciful, because of the effects it would have on us.
1 Thessalonians 5:5 KJV Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Let’s go a little deeper.
Genesis 1:1-4 KJV 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
God made the light and saw that it was good. James 1:17 KJV Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
He also separated the light from the darkness in the natural, but He does this in the spiritual as well.
1 John 1:5-7 KJV 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
We cannot walk in darkness and have fellowship with Him. That is we can’t willfully live in sin and claim to be living for God.
Matthew 5:14-16 KJV 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Do you know what would happen if you were to put a candle under a bushel basket? It would either smother the candle out and you would lose your light. Or it would catch the basket on fire and you’d lose that whereby you could gather a harvest. If we refuse to share God’s light we will be like Jeremiah. Jeremiah 20:9 KJV Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. It will begin to burn us from within. Not to mention if you turn your basket upside down then you don’t intend on gathering a harvest.
We are supposed to be shining God’s light unto the world so they can see the way to get to Him. So don’t walk around in darkness, turn on the lights.
1 Peter 2:9 KJV But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.