I. We have in the text a great certainty light is given.The light within the soul falls from other worlds, from unseen, unrealised heights beyond the soul. "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." Those strange, perceptive intuitions which pry and penetrate into metaphysical subtleties, those frequently even unhallowed inquisitivenesses which question all things and sometimes, it may be, too daringly whence are they? Yes, "the light is given."
II. We have in the text a great perplexity "the way is hid." It seems that the light only reveals itself, neither the objects nor the way. It seems as if our consciousness became paralysed at the touch of speculation; a dark, black wall rises where we anticipated we should find a way. The light tantalises; it distresses. Like a handful of men in camp besieged and beleaguered by the mighty armies of the foeman, the soul exclaims, "I am among lions! Which is the way out?" Knowledge is the saddest condition of the soul if there is not the knowledge of the true God and eternal life.
III. Light can only be seen in Christ. God can only be known in Him. "Why is light given to a man whose way is hid?" (1) To enable him to find his way and to escape beyond the hedge. Light is not its own end, excepting as it shall guide us to the Source of all light. Be the almoner of the light thou hast. God gives the candle for the day, for the occasion. Be faithful to the light of today. (2) Light is given to teach man his dependence, to show him that "it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (3) What is naturally illegible to sense, and to the apprehension of sense, is legible to faith. "He who believeth shall not walk in darkness." His way is not hid. "The light that never was on sea or land" shines on that way.
E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp,p. 91.
References: Job 3:23. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs,p. 118. Job 3 S. Cox, Expositor,1st series, vol. iv., p. 241; Ibid., Commentary on Job,p. 60. Job 4:6. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 314.Job 4:12-21. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xi., p. 197.