Psalm 119:105 states, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
While searching for gold with my dad, we found ourselves in the bottom of a canyon when the sun was setting. We slid down a steep hillside to get onto the canyon floor. The safe way out was to follow a six mile trail that gradually climbed up to where we had left the car. There was not a moon, and darkness settled in. We had a flashlight that Dad suggested we do not use. “Save it for when we really need it,” he said. We reached the road, where Dad waited, while I walked the last mile to the car. The fog began to settle in and I could hardly see. I still did not use the light. Finally the road turned into two tire tracks leading into the pasture. My visibility was less than two feet. I then turned on the light, crawled along with the light almost touching one of the tracks, until my head bumped into the back of the car.
The Psalmist mentions the “word” being two things; a lamp for his feet and a light for his path. First let’s look at the light for the path. When we walk on His path, God continues to give us light for the journey. This is a narrow path, and few find it (Matthew 7:13 & 14). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, called it a “way,” a narrow way, that leads into life. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way.”
The Psalmist says in the verse after the text, (106), “I will keep thy righteous judgments.” To know these judgments, God’s righteous way, we must continually be in the word. The light comes on when the Holy Spirit illuminates what we read. I could never understand algebra. Last night Lori simply stated, “What you do on one side of the equal sign, you have to do on the other.” That is simple enough. It almost makes me want to go back and study algebra—almost. The more we learn, the brighter the path gets (“sweeter gets the journey every day,” from the song by Fred Hess, 1968). Another great song is “Heavenly Sunlight,” a hymn by Henry J. Zelley, and George H. Cook.
Now let’s look at the word as a lamp unto the feet. This is the light we need when visibility grows short. The Psalmist says in verse 107, “I am afflicted very much.” We may find ourselves backed into a corner with seemingly no place to go, as the Children of Israel against the Red Sea (Exodus 14). When they cried out in fear, “…Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (V. 13). Do you realize he spoke this in the middle of the night? Pharaoh’s army did. They were in deep darkness. God’s pillar that was darkness to them was light to the Israelites. Their next step was onto the dry ground of the Red Sea.
When the old enemy, the devil, lays a snare for your soul (V. 110), when your soul is continually in your hand (V. 109), there is a light for the next step, THE LAMP LIGHT!
