Friday, October 23, 2009

Songs in the Night



Job 35:10
God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night.


Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plenteous harvest or sends home a loaded argosy. It is easy enough for an Aeolian harp to whisper music when the winds blow-the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skilful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by-who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all things go well, I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow upon my path; but put me in a desert, where no green thing grows, and wherewith shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where no jewels are? Let but this voice be clear, and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise: silence my tongue, lay me upon the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself give me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is adverse, unless an altar-coal shall touch his lip. It was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon Him for the music. O Thou chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune Thou our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.

Devotional by Charles Spurgeon

Image courtesy of All Posters

7 comments:

Samantha said...

Such a beautiful post, I am always blessed when I visit your blog.

Karen said...

Beautiful devotion...thanks for sharing, Cathy!

rcubes said...

The post...So beautiful...That picture is nice...I found myself praising Him today for reassuring me that He is with me no matter what trial I face...God bless you.

Deborah said...

My little girl was sitting on my knee when I opened your blog...she saw the header and said, "Jesus died on the cross!"
before I read the previous comments, I came here to say this post was, "Beautiful." I see I'm not the only one!

TJ said...

How true - thanks Cathy.

Cherdecor said...

This is so good that I want to copy it and save it in a file.
Thank you so much.

Denise said...

Very lovely post my friend.