The light of His presence

You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence. (Psalm 90:8)

The first line of this verse is fairly easy to read and gloss over. We know this, right? God sees our iniquities. The second line makes it clearer, more vivid. Even our secret sins, you know the little sins we keep as pets, feeding them just enough to keep them alive, but out of sight of others, even those sins, the ones we’ve worked so hard to cover up, but not eradicate, will be exposed in the light of his presence.

I have two responses to this verse.

My first response is one of fear. Fear of exposure. This is the fear I see in my children’s eyes when they get caught doing something they know they’re not supposed to. I’m like that kid. I think I’m getting away with something, and that no one knows or sees, but now I’ve been told that all my secret sins will be exposed with nowhere to hide. Not one single feeble shadowy corner to tuck a sin away in. My whole life will be flooded with the light of God’s presence, and all will be exposed. This terrifies me.

On the other hand, it excites me beyond imagining. To be in the presence of the Lord, with no more shadows, no more secret sins lurking about, just pure light, how glorious that will be!

We dwell now in the shadow of death.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalms 23:4 KJV)

This world belongs to the shadow. J.R.R. Tolkien understood this and labeled the evil in his novels “the Shadow”.

Alas! Mordor draws all wicked things, and the Dark Power was bending all its will to gather them there. The Ring of the Enemy would leave its mark, too, leave him open to the summons. And all folk were whispering then of the new Shadow in the South, and its hatred of the West. (Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring)

But when Christ came, with him came the light!

“the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16)

The reality is that Christ has already defeated the Shadow. He is, even now, flooding our hearts with his light, chasing the shadows away.

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

This is the already-not-yet of the kingdom. His light has shone in our hearts, and yet we still dwell “In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.” (Tolkien)

And so we rejoice in our salvation, knowing that

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)

And yet we long for the day we will be fully in his presence, bathed in the pure light of his holiness and glory, where there is no shadow at all, where all sin is gone!

On that day, all the shadows will be gone, our secret sins exposed and done away with, and we will be as Gandalf speaks of Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring,

He may become like a glass filled with a clear light for eyes to see that can.

In that day, the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, will fill us completely!