Our scripture is Psalm 18:6-24; I’ll read portions, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry came before Him, even to His ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of the hills also quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry…He bowed the heavens also, and came down With darkness under His feet…He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters And thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire…He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, Lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them…He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me, For they were too strong for me…He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me…Therefore the LORD has [rewarded] me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight” (NKJV).

What’s happened in this scripture? God’s child is in trouble. He calls out to God. God gets angry at what’s happening to His child. He bows the heavens to come down to rescue His child. He comes down with dark clouds concealing His light and sends out lightning and arrows to vanquish the enemies of His child.

This is the thought I enjoyed seeing in this scripture: When the darkness hides God, it’s because He’s bowed the heavens to come down to rescue me. When things look dark, we can remember this: God spoke the light into being and separated it from the darkness, but then God uses the darkness. He used it to show forth His light. It may conceal it for a time, but God’s just using it on His way to complete His rescue mission.

We see another glimpse of that in God when Jesus comes into the world, where we read in Matthew (quoting Isaiah 9), that the people who were surrounded by darkness saw a great light. God’s on a rescue mission. Don’t forget that the dark clouds of troubles are just shielding the brightness of His light. He’s riding the heavens to swoop in to save you.