If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:11-12)

According to some studies, more crime takes place at night than in the daytime. There are probably a few reasons for that. Nighttime might be the ideal time to catch a crime victim sleeping. At night there will likely be fewer witnesses to report a crime in progress or speak to investigators afterward. But nighttime is also a preferred time for a crime because some criminals feel that the dark of night is deal for hiding a crime.

It shouldn't surprise us that people are more willing to commit crimes under the cover of darkness. St. Paul wrote, "Those who get drunk, get drunk at night" (1 Thessalonians 5:7). Jesus once said, "Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed" (John 3:20). Sinful human beings live under the delusion that doing something in the dark makes it harder for God to notice. Or at least we feel like we can overlook the things that our sinful nature wants to do if we're not so brazen as to do them in broad daylight.

David the psalmist knew differently. In our consideration of Psalm 139, we have seen that God knows our every thought and every word and that he is everywhere, unlimited by physical space as we are. In the verses 11 and 12, David pokes a hole in the absurd notion that darkness can hide a person from God.

"If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to you," David says. Here David sounds like the sinner who hopes to get away with some sin by hiding it from God's sight. At one point in his life, David would have liked to hide his sins under the cover of darkness. The night he committed adultery with Bathsheba, David somewhere in his heart probably hoped God wasn't paying attention. It's equally absurd for us to hope the same thing. Whether the sin is some form of adultery, drunkenness or theft, doing it at night in no way hinders God from seeing exactly what we are doing. Pitch darkness is just as bright to God as the sun on a cloudless day. No matter how much we wish for a way to hide our sins from God, he sees them all. For God, night shines just as brightly as the day and does just as little to keep our sins from him. If we think there is any way to hide our sins from God and so to escape his punishment, we're only kidding ourselves.

But when we confess our sins to God and realize that he is gracious and merciful and wants to forgive us, the fact that darkness does not hide us from him is such a relief. He who created light at the very first moment of creation is also the light of the world, who entered this sin-darkened world in human flesh in order bring light to us spiritually blind sinners. God the Son came to earth not only to expose the sins we commit in the darkness but also to lift the veil of hell's darkness by doing away with it at the cross. In Christ we have true light--spiritual light. In him we have the clearly-lighted path to heaven because he washed away our sins and has risen from death for us. His word lights the way to heaven and it also lights our way through this life as it shows us how to live our lives of thanks to him.

It's also a relief to know that darkness is as light to God because then we know he won't fail to notice us when we need him. It's not unusual for people to feel more alone at night. Darkness wraps us up like a blanket and makes us feel isolated from the outside world. People who live alone feel more secluded and lonely at night. But darkness is as light to the LORD. When you wake up at night and there's no human contact, God still sees you just as if it were noon. And as he has assured us repeatedly in his word, he is with us always. As David says, darkness will not be dark to God. Our gracious and ever-present God is with us always and won't fail to see us when we need him and call on him for help.

Praise God that even darkness is as light to him!