Evening, June 16, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?” — Psalm 27:1

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” This is of personal interest — “my light,” “my salvation” — when the soul is assured of it, it therefore declares it boldly. At the new birth divine light is poured into the soul as the precursor of salvation, for where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light: he is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that he is light; nor that he gives salvation, but that he is salvation; he, then, who by faith has laid hold upon God, has all covenant blessings in his possession. Since this is declared as a sure fact, the argument drawn from it is put in the form of a question, “Whom shall I fear?” It is a question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared, for the Lord, our light, destroys them; and the damnation of hell is not to be dreaded by us, for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath, for it rests, not upon the conceited vigor of an arm of flesh, but upon the real power of the omnipotent I AM. “The Lord is the defense of my life.” Here is a third glowing description, to show that the writer’s hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We do well to accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. Our life derives all its strength from God; and if he deigns to make us strong, we cannot be weakened by all the scheming of the adversary. “Whom shall I dread?” The bold question looks into the future as well as the present. “If God is for us,” who can be against us, either now or in the time to come?