“In your light we see light.” — Psalm 36:9
The problem with most of us is not that we see our problems too clearly. The problem is that we see God too dimly.
A small view of God produces a large view of your problems. Think about that. When God shrinks in your perception, everything else grows. Your obstacle becomes a mountain. Your setback becomes a catastrophe. Your fear becomes all-consuming. Your doubt becomes reasonable.
But when God expands in your perception, everything else shrinks. Your mountain becomes a bump. Your tragedy becomes a temporary setback. Your fear becomes manageable. Your doubt becomes absurd.
Psalm 36 describes two kinds of people. The first person lacks the fear of God. He flatters himself in his own eyes. He devises evil. He finds no rest. Why? Because without a proper view of God, he’s left with an inflated view of himself and an exaggerated view of his problems.
But then the psalmist shifts. He speaks of God’s mercy reaching to the heavens. God’s faithfulness to the skies. God’s protection like a mother bird sheltering her chicks. God’s abundance like a river of delights. God’s life-giving presence.
And then comes the cure: “In your light we see light.”
This is not about seeing your problems more clearly. This is about seeing your problems in the context of God’s vastness. When you gaze upon God’s character—His mercy, His faithfulness, His protection, His provision—your problems don’t disappear. But they get repositioned. They become smaller. They become manageable. They become something God can handle.
The cure is not to stare harder at the trouble. The cure is to gaze at God until His nearness becomes precious to you.
Just think about what happens when you’re standing at the edge of the ocean. If you focus on a single wave, it looks enormous. It looks like it could swallow you. But if you step back and see the entire ocean—the vastness, the depth, the power—suddenly that one wave becomes what it actually is: a tiny ripple in something infinitely larger.
That’s what happens when you gaze at God. Your problem doesn’t change. But your perspective does. Your problem becomes a tiny ripple in the vastness of God’s power and God’s plan.
The psalmist says God’s mercy reaches to the heavens. Not to your ceiling. Not to your circumstance. To the heavens. God’s faithfulness stretches to the skies. Not just to today. Not just to this season. To the skies—which is to say, forever.
And then: “How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among mankind find refuge in the shadow of your wings.”
Notice that phrase: “both high and low.” Whether you’re at the top of your game or at the bottom of the pit, there is refuge. There is shelter. There is a place to hide. Not because your circumstances have changed, but because you’ve repositioned yourself under the shadow of God’s wings.
This is the cure for a small view of God. Not positive thinking. Not pretending your problems don’t exist. But a deliberate shift of your gaze. From your problem to your Provider. From your trouble to your God.
When you do this—when you truly gaze at God until His nearness becomes precious—something remarkable happens. The psalmist describes it: you drink from the river of His delights. You find life in His light. You experience the fountain of life.
This is not escapism. This is realism. This is seeing things as they actually are: God is infinitely greater than your problem. God is infinitely more powerful than your obstacle. God is infinitely more faithful than your fear suggests.
So today, stop staring at your trouble. Stop magnifying your obstacle. Stop rehearsing your problem. Instead, lift your eyes. Gaze at God. Remember His mercy. Remember His faithfulness. Remember His protection. Remember His provision. Remember His nearness.
And as His nearness becomes precious to you, watch what happens to your problem. It doesn’t disappear. But it shrinks. It finds its proper place. It becomes something you can face, not something that crushes you.
That’s the cure. Not a smaller problem. But a larger God.
