Christ the True Light
Canon Liddon. Psalm 27:1-14 The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?… In the New Testament, the idea which is hinted at in the language of David is expressly revealed as a truth. God does not merely give us His light. He is light, just as He is love in His own uncreated nature. "God is light," says St. John, "and in Him is no darkness at all." When St. John would teach us our Lord's Godhead as clearly and sharply as possible, he calls Him the "light," moaning to teach us that as such He shares the essential nature of the Deity. He is "light," because lie is what He is — absolute perfection in respect of intellectual truth, absolute perfection in respect of moral beauty. And hence those momentous words, "I am the light of the world"; and hence that confession of the Christian creed, "God of God, Light of Light." Thus the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was to the spiritual world what the rising of the sun is in the world of nature. It had effects even upon the orders of the heavenly intelligences, of which St. Paul hints in his Epistle to the Ephesians. But, for the human soul, it meant a passing from darkness to light, from warmth to sunshine. And thus a prophet had bidden Zion arise and shine since her Lord was come, and the glory of the Lord had risen upon her; for He was announced as the Sun of Righteousness who should arise with healing in His wings, so that although darkness had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, yet the Lord should arise upon Zion, and His glory be seen upon her. And, in the Benedictus, Zechariah salutes Him as "the day-star from on high, who hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." And Simeon, holding the Divine Saviour in his arms, says that He is "a Light to lighten the Gentiles"; and himself felt that the word of prophecy was fulfilled, when the people who walked in darkness had seen a great light; and they that were in the region and shadow of death, on them hath the Gospel light shined. Some of us may remember that great work of Christian genius, the picture of the Nativity — the "Notre," as it is called, of Correggio, which is among the treasures of the Dresden Gallery. In it the Divine Infant is represented as with a body almost transparent with light; and from Him all around are illuminated. His mother, His foster-father, the angels who bend in adoration, they are illuminated in the ratio of their nearness to Him. And this is but a representation on canvas of spiritual and eternal truth. He is the one Light of the intellectual and moral world; and we are in the light just so far, and only so far, as we are near to Him. (Canon Liddon.) Parallel Verses KJV: {A Psalm of David.} The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? WEB: Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?