The Light of Life!
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"Make Your face to shine upon Your servant." Psalm 31:16
As a night without stars, so is my soul, O Lord, if You hide Your face from me! My feet falter, my steps are uncertain, my hands grope as at midnight, my heart is oppressed by an unspeakable fear and dread.
O blessed Light of my life, what has caused You to withdraw Yourself? Why are You hidden behind these thick clouds, so that I cannot rejoice in You?
Alas! my soul, there can be but one answer to your question,
and it is a very serious and sorrowful one: "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you!"
O my Lord, this indictment is all too true; but I have acknowledged my transgressions: "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." I hate the sin which . . .
so constantly surges up within me,
defiles my holiest service, and
dares intrude even into my prayers.
You know my cry goes daily, almost hourly, up to You: "O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed! My soul is also sore vexed — but You, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for Your mercies' sake!"
Not for long can such a prayer, if sincere, remain unanswered. The Lord does not delight to keep His children in prison. He has but been waiting that the soul's transgression and exceeding need of pardon, should be recognized and confessed, and then He turns to deliver and bless. Mr. Andrew Murray says, "The true victory over sin is this — if the light comes in — the darkness is expelled." Yes, just as the mists and shadows roll away from the sky when the sun is risen upon the earth — so do sins, and griefs, and fears flee before the brightness of the uplifted face of a pardoning God! Lord Jesus, blessed Savior, it is the light of Your reconciled countenance, which I need to "end this grief of sin; "it is Your personal presence within my heart, which alone can make my peace flow as a river.
"Make Your face to shine upon Your servant." Appear on my behalf, and by Your own almighty power, work the miracle of sun-rising in my soul, scattering the blackness of my sin — by the quickening beams of Your matchless love! "My soul waits for the Lord, more than those who watch for the morning."
Waiting soul, is He sure to come? Yes, truly; more surely than that tomorrow's sun will arise upon this world when the hours of darkness have fulfilled their mission — will "the Dayspring from on high" visit those whose eyes are looking, and whose hearts are longing for Him, and His glorious beams of grace.
But there was a time — do you not remember it, O my soul? — when "we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;" nay, worse than that, for "He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." What dense blindness was that which saw no beauty in One who is "altogether lovely!"
Rather, far rather, would we be mourning over our distance from Him, and languishing for the manifestation of His sweet presence, than that He should ever again be to us only "as a root out of a dry ground," "without form or loveliness."
Let us thank God for opening our eyes, as a necessary preparation for seeing the light. We would never have prayed, "Lord, make Your face to shine upon Your servant," if we had not seen the "thick cloud" of our transgressions which intervened between Him and our soul's vision of His splendor.
I feel as if I were writing today, for someone whose spiritual experience answers to my own, and I have the hope that such a one will be comforted by "the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God." Dear friend, there is no reason why you should remain in the darkness of the Lord's averted face, if you truly long to be restored to His favor. Cry for, and claim, the incoming of the Light of Life. He will be to you "as a light that shines in a dark place;" and, before you have finished reading these words, you may hear Him say, "In a little wrath, I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you."
"O Light, all light excelling,
Make my heart Your dwelling;
O joy, all grief dispelling —
To this poor heart, come in!"
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