Psalms 36:9
9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
Psalm 36 starts by looking at wicked men, and then contrasting them with the righteousness and goodness of God. His Mercy and faithfulness reach the heavens like the vast blue sky above us reaches heights unseeable. Then His righteousness is like a mountain range painted on the horizon, his judgments are said to be like the great deep. Then we see a different man enter the picture, those who have trusted in this great God are drinking from the “river of pleasures” and have found the fountain of Life.
The Holy Spirit is painting a picture here. If the attributes and beauties of God could be painted on a landscape I suspect they would look something like what our psalm is describing. Then there is one last element we have not mentioned, the most important element of all, light. Without light, not one of these beauties could be seen. When all is dark we cannot see the righteousness of God, nor his judgments, nor the river of pleasures, or the fountain of life. Without light, nothing can be seen and nothing can live.
Light was the first element that God set in order in his creation, without it nothing else could have survived. So it is with the light of the world, Jesus Christ. If we had not seen the light of the savior we would still be in darkness. All the beauties of God would still be hidden from us. Nor could we have found our way to the fountain of life. Thankfully, the glorious light of the Gospel shined on our dark hearts and illuminated all the realities of man's sinfulness and the everlasting mercy, faithfulness, goodness, righteousness, and judgment of God. Our sinner in verses 1-4 seems to live in a world of wicked imaginations, he can’t see beyond his own self-indulgence, but we as children of God have been brought from a world of wicked imaginations into a world of God’s glories. This world is far more beautiful to behold and instead of imagined pleasures there are “rivers of pleasure.”
So bright is the light of the Lord that it is by his light that we see light, “in thy light shall we see light.” This is another way of saying “For with thee is the fountain of life.” God is the source of all life. He spoke this world into existence, every creature large and small, every man poor and rich, every principality righteous and fallen. It is by him that we see anything that we ever have or ever will see, he is the cause to every effect. He is the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. When we walk in the light of the Lord we walk in the true light. So bright is the Light of the lord that in heaven there will be no need for sun or moon, so bright is the light of the Lord that those living in this light can be sufficed to walk by faith and not by sight in this life. They can walk uncertain paths, in uncertain situations because their pathway is illumined by the greater light.
Blind men suppose we live in a fantasy land, they deride us and say that we are stupid, but they are blind and we can see. They have not yet seen his mercy and faithfulness that reign over all his works like the sky stretches across the whole creation. They can’t see his righteousness, like a great unmoving mountain towering over his sea of judgment, whose depths will never be known, they have never tasted of the pleasures of the Lord and so let them deride, let them scoff and we will pray that one day their eyes will be open to beauties of our Lord and by the glorious light of the Gospel they to can find the fountain of Life, the Light of the world, Jesus Christ.
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