Psalm 139

And so we’ve finally come to this—my most favorite psalm in the Bible, possibly my most favorite chapter in the Bible. I just love how the picture of God in it is all-pervasive. There is nowhere we can go to outrun Him. He is everywhere—even with us in the womb, long before we are capable of perceiving Him.

But, for me, the most glittering jewel in this jewelry box of a psalm is found in verses 11 and 12: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

I love that thought. With God, there is no such thing as darkness. There is no such thing as hiding. I believe this is a physical reality for Him, but it’s also a spiritual reality. God dispels the darkness—no matter what kind it is—wherever He finds it.

I think that is reflected at the end of this song when finally, finally!, after nearly 138 psalms of the psalmist asking for God to smash his enemies, David says, “If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (vs 19-24)

Once again, David asks for an end to his enemies, yet he finally adds a caveat at the end. (Could that be because his other requests for such action went ignored or denied?) David asks God to see if there is any darkness in him, and if there is, he is willing to give it up. Here is the kind of honesty God wants from us. We don’t have to hold back our ugly thoughts from God. (hint: He knows them anyways) The best thing to do is to bring them to Him and then ask Him to change whatever needs changing in us.

God knows no night, and the more we surrender our entire being to Him—our thoughts, our feelings, our desires—the more we will find the darkness also dispelled in our own lives.

With God, there is no night, and that means He can dispel the darkness inside of us just as well as He can dispel the darkness that surrounds us. When we trust Him and rest in Him, we can live as though it’s high noon even at midnight, remembering that the darkness is not dark to our God.

There was an astounding example of that in the book I quoted from recently, Miracle in the Andes. Allow me to share another quote from the book with you in which Nando writes about Arturo—one of two boys who sustained internal injuries that eventually led to his death on the mountain:

Many of the younger boys were weakening… but Arturo and Rafael were the worst off, by far. Although he had suffered terribly from the first minute of the crash, Rafael had lost none of his fighting spirit. He remained courageous and defiant, and he still began every day with a loud proclamation of his intention to survive, a brave gesture from which we all drew strength. Arturo, on the other hand, had grown even quieter and more introspective than usual, and when I sat with him now, I sensed he was nearing the end of his fight… “Nando, I want you to remember, even in this place, our lives have meaning. Our suffering is not for nothing. Even if we are trapped here forever, we can love our families, and God, and each other as long as we live. Even in this place, our lives are worth living.”

Wow. To me, that’s what it means to know no night. That is what it means to trust in a God who says that darkness is not dark to Him, knowing that when things are so black that you can’t see your hand in front of your face, the One who holds your life in His hands says, “I can see everything as plain as day. Trust me.”

That’s the faith God wants us to have, and it’s the faith we can have as we come to know Him better. So, the next time you’re surrounded by the darkness, remember that the God we serve knows no night. Darkness is not dark to Him. He has you in the palm of His hand always, and He is working out His plan to bring you into His glorious light!