Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
✙ Ps 97:11
✙
This is a beautiful verse, and one that, when it stands alone, can bring reassurance: Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart. But what happens when I put that verse in context? I've just been led (see yesterday's devotion) through what appears to be a wildfire during an outbreak of night lightning. What could be more terrifying or unpredictable? So earlier in Psalm 97, the message that human beings cannot control the holiness of God has been received loud and clear.
But in the midst of this terror in the dark, God's children realize that there is goodness. There is a light dawning in the distance—consistency and predictability at last! If I depend on my own righteousness, I know the dawn will be but a false glimmer of hope. But if I depend upon the righteousness of Christ, then the light shall rise in the darkness And if I act on it, then my gloom shall be transformed into the glory of noonday [see Isa. 58:10].
But in the midst of this terror in the dark, God's children realize that there is goodness. There is a light dawning in the distance—consistency and predictability at last! If I depend on my own righteousness, I know the dawn will be but a false glimmer of hope. But if I depend upon the righteousness of Christ, then the light shall rise in the darkness And if I act on it, then my gloom shall be transformed into the glory of noonday [see Isa. 58:10].
Holy One, protect me from the storm by covering my sin with the righteousness of Christ. I pray in his Name as he taught me: Our Father...
