Psalm 97 has spoken to my heart early this Monday morning! The whole Chapter (or Poem or Song) really!

But one Line especially.

“Clouds and darkness are round about Him.” This is verse 2a of the thrilling Passage.

Is this saying that, even when I am in darkness, those times in my life when things are just not that “bright” … God is still around me?

YES!

And those days (excuse me, nights) when lots of things are not all that “clear,” in fact very hazy (cloudy) … God is there as well?

YES!

Maybe this amazing Truth is the basis for the great Christian song “Standing Somewhere in the Shadows You’ll Find Jesus!”

God with me … all around me … in darkness and gloom.

Notice this too … not clouds OR darkness, but clouds AND darkness. Double problems! (“When it rains it pours,” the old timers used to say!) Think of the Patriarch Job here!

Still, it can’t get too dark or too cloudy … but that God is “in” the situation!

This very Thought might be of great comfort to many a heart in coming days (and nights)! As anarchy threatens the world. Anti-Christian rhetoric, spiritual warfare.

BUT … having said that (today’s Lesson) I feel I must “balance” this “clouds and darkness” Reality with a verse like Psalm 36:9. Precisely, “For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.” Another divinely inspired Utterance about our great God!

God also is in the Light, really … He IS the Light! Truth be told, it is only through Psalm 36:9b (“In Thy Light we see Light” than Psalm 97:2 can be understood!

In God’s LIGHT … we can see/comprehend/understand/believe that God is around us even in the deepest DARKNESS and thickest CLOUDS!

Wow!

Walk in the Light … but when (not if ) darkness comes … look for Him! He is there! He will never leave you nor forsake you!

That’s His Promise!

Two seemingly opposite verses … yet both true to fact.

Look again …

“Clouds and darkness are round about him” Psalm 97:2

“In thy light shall we see light.” Psalm 36:9

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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