“And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2).

Darkness (Def): (Heb): Choshek from Chashak: Without light, hidden; figuratively misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness

Deep (Def): (Heb): Tehowm from Huwm: Abyss with a surging mass of water, sea, or subterranean water supply

The Psalmist was well aware of those times when “darkness covers the deep”. Those times, when:

“My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, ‘Where is your God’?” (Psalm 42:3).

When Darkness Covers the Deep. When everything around us is “without form and void”. When there is no light; when misery and destruction are everywhere; when sorrow, death and wickedness surround us; when people say, ‘Where is your God’? Can we still find hope, then? The Psalmist did when he remembered and poured out his soul unto his God (cf. Psalm 42:4).

“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of your waterspouts; all your waves and your billows are gone over me. Yet, the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night my song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life” (Psalm 42:7-8).

When darkness covered the face of the deep,

“The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be Light’! and there was Light” (Genesis 1:2b-3).

The Apostle experienced this command of the Lord when he was covered in darkness, making “havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison” (Acts 8:3).

“And Saul breathing out threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the High Priest and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues that if he found any of The Way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly there shown round about him a Light from Heaven” (Acts 9:1-3)

When God says, “Let there be Light”! there shall be light; and the darkness that covers the deep shall be done away. The darkness shall flee away as with the dawning of a new day; as with the rising of the sun over the horizon giving of its light to all.

As the Apostle expressed it in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

“For God who commanded the Light to shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6).

Think for a minute of this glorious command, when,

“You He has made alive when you were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3).

But the command came, didn’t it? We heard it by the word of the Gospel. We heard it and came to an understanding that:

“God is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, He made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved)” (Ephesians 2:4).

As the Apostle wrote:

“In whom you also trusted, after you heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise” (Ephesians 1:13).

The same Holy Spirit who hovered over the deep, hovered over our hearts and after we came out of the darkness and into the Light, we were hermetically sealed, sanctified, made righteous and holy by the grace of our God.

When darkness covers the deep. Deep calls unto deep and the Spirit of God “searches the deep things of God” (cf. I Corinthians 2:10), and shines forth the Light of Christ to every heart giving us the hope of salvation and of the glory that is to come.

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