Your statutes are wonderful;

    therefore I obey them.

130 The unfolding of your words gives light;

    it gives understanding to the simple.

131 I open my mouth and pant,

    longing for your commands.

132 Turn to me and have mercy on me,

    as you always do to those who love your name.

133 Direct my footsteps according to your word;

    let no sin rule over me.

134 Redeem me from human oppression,

    that I may obey your precepts.

135 Make your face shine on your servant

    and teach me your decrees.

136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes,

    for your law is not obeyed.

We noticed that a good friend of ours was in some discomfort, and asked him about it. He answered that he had been trying to move around in a darkened room and had fallen over an object he did not realise was there! He had landed rather heavily.

How thankful we should be for the gift of light.

In God’s Word there is always sufficient light to at least show us the next step. It will also reveal to us potential stumbling blocks; areas where we might trip up (133).Why would we fail to use the light that is so readily available?

Warren Wiersbe observes: ‘His light shines within you (v.130) and His face shines upon you (v.135), so that you become a light in a dark world (Phil.2:14-16).’ ‘With the Word’, p.302.

We might well consider Jim Packer’s words also:

‘The way to benefit fully from the Spirit’s ministry of illumination is by serious Bible study, serious prayer, and serious response in obedience to whatever truths one has been shown already. This corresponds to Luther’s dictum that three things make a theologian: oratio (prayer), meditatio (thinking in God’s presence about the text), and tentatio (trial, the struggle for biblical fidelity in the face of pressure to disregard what Scripture says).’