Friday, August
10, 2018
From the
depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help. Hear my cry, O Lord.
Pay attention to my prayer. Lord, if you kept a record of
our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive? But you offer
forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.
I am counting on the Lord; yes, I am counting on him. I have put my hope in his word. I long for the Lord more than sentries long
for the dawn, yes, more than sentries long for the dawn. O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord
there is unfailing love. His redemption
overflows. He himself will redeem Israel
from every kind of sin. Psalm 130:1-8(NLT)
It’s hard to forget the
angst of waiting for the dawn when you’re on sentry. There is always something so unfriendly about
the darkness. It is no wonder Scripture
uses darkness as a descriptive for sinful activity; it’s something that has inherent
destruction about it, and always leads to no-good.
My unit in Vietnam did not
have overwhelming casualties; we were in more secure areas than some. However, we still had to be on guard. When my turn came around to pull guard duty
through the night it seemed they were the longest nights of the century. We were posted by twos to the guard stations,
and, although we became sleepy, the threat of an enemy sneaking into the camp
was more than enough to keep us alert…and on edge!
During one moonless night shift
it was so still and dark, even the sound of an ant breathing could disturb the
silence. Suddenly a firefight broke out
in the valley below us. It was truly
unnerving to see the flashes of rifles and feel the thunderous concussion of grenades
and mortars exploding, and the helicopter gunships above raining-down streaks
of machine-gun fire. In 20 minutes, that
seemed three-weeks long, it was over, and you could see and smell the traces of
leftover smoke from the explosions, floating, slowly fading to dark and
quiet. The memory of death, altogether dark
and quiet; this is the fearful waiting of the night.
The Psalmist was hoping
desperately for the dawn. He compared
his waiting to the angst of the military sentries longing for dawn. But the kind of dawn he was longing to see
wasn’t of physical threats of darkness and death; the writer of this Psalm was
agonizing through the long night of darkness in the soul of his nation. This was a spiritual void, a place of godlessness
that created an unlit void in the God-shaped place we humans call our
hearts. When we walk in sin, we give
power to the darkness to overwhelm and take us prisoner.
But the prophets pointed to
the dawn:
Who among you
fears the Lord and obeys his servant? If
you are walking in darkness,
without a ray of light, trust in the Lord and rely on your God. Isaiah 50:10(NLT)
For You Today
The most unique departure from the
constraints of nature and the physical absence of light, compared to spiritual
darkness, is a matter of control. In the
physical realm, humans have no control over when the sun comes up…that’s God’s
work.
But we have the Lord God in which to
trust, Who removes our spiritually-blind ways…and the switch of faith is always
within reach – and entirely our choice.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com
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