We can each provide a personal perspective of the world and current events. We form opinions each day as we try to take in the vast scale of all that is happening. Whatever your view, it is most probably influenced by a dark world.
King David has an interesting insight into the working of an unconverted mind. It seems he was inspired to write about man’s wickedness as though he were seeing our day today:
“Transgression (lawlessness) speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. 2For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. 3The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. 4He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil” (Psalm 36:1-4 ESV).
Is this not a perfect description of our dark world? We can read from different secular sources that Americans now live in a “post Christian” nation. We are losing the moral compass that has a “true north”. That compass now points wherever the individual wants it to point. This is the epitome of darkness. This is also the fulfillment of God’s warning to His people:
“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, . . . 28The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29And you will grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; …” (Deuteronomy 28:15, 28-29).
Light and darkness are also closely associated with God’s people today. The Apostle John wrote that it was possible for someone to think they are walking in the light when in fact they are in darkness: “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked” (1 John 2:6 ESV). We need to consider this in light of the compass analogy. Since God is light, there is only one true “north”.
In Psalm 36 David contrasts wickedness with the approach we need to have: “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights” (Psalm 36:5–8 ESV).
We all need to seek God’s will from His word every day. We need to practice seeking His light in the darkness and embracing it. God will provide the light if we ask, and that light will show us “true north”: “For with You is the fountain of life; in your light we see light” (Psalm 36:9 ESV).
Brian Orchard