Psalm 18:8 (NIV) You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

Back in the time of the tabernacle that God instructed Moses to construct, the Lord commanded that the lamps of the lampstand be kept burning continually. The light was never to go out on them. This lampstand was the only source of light in the tabernacle. We now know that the lampstand was meant to represent Jesus, the light of the world (John 8:12). Jesus proclaimed to be the light of the world and He said that whoever follows Him will no longer be in darkness but would have the light of life. That is exactly what Jesus made possible for each one of us that opens our heart to receive Him as our Lord and Savior. Once that happens, we become the tabernacle for God’s presence and Jesus becomes the light within us.

When David wrote Psalm 18, he was writing the words prophetically as the Holy Spirit inspired him. When he wrote that the Lord kept his lamp burning, he must have been envisioning that one day, this God that he was so taken up with and that he loved and revered so much would one day be the source of the light within him. That’s what you and I are supposed to experience in our relationship with our Lord and Savior. Once Jesus lives in you, the darkness within you is gone and the light of Jesus lives within you and burns, shining light continually in you and through you to others so that they can see that life-giving light (Matthew 5:16). David credited God with keeping his lamp burning and that is what God does. However, just like the priests had to tend to the lamps on the lampstand by trimming the wicks and making sure that there was nothing that would put the lamps in danger of going out, we, too, need to do maintenance so that our lamps will never go out.

That maintenance consists of constant connection to the source of our light, which is Jesus. That is done through prayer, through His Word and through keeping our minds fixed on Him, relating Him and His Word to all that we are, all that we do and all that we say. Our relationship with Him is not supposed to be one of fits and starts or one of constantly having to re-light our lamp because we allowed it to go out. That is not what the Lord intends for us at all. It needs to be one continual flow of His presence in our lives. It is the Lord that keeps our lamp burning but for that to happen, we have to be with Him continually. How can you be with the Lord continually? He is the one who made that possible by coming to live in you. If He really lives in you, then there is no separation from the source of your light. Your darkness has been turned into light and your lamp keeps on burning because He keeps it burning. Make sure that the light from your lamp is always burning. That shows that He is living in you and that He has made you one of His light sources to a dark world that needs to see and experience the light of Jesus.

Pastor Joey Vazquez