A song in the night hours when the mind tries to rest, the body tries to relax is possible when there is peace within. But when the mind races with thoughts of the day that seemly not pleasant, the song disappears in the waves of anxiety. The Bible says that weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps. 30:5). It is at night that we are confronted with feelings of disappointments, anger, frustrations, and so on. While all sleep and we are left alone battling these feelings, the night seems long. However, it is in that time frame that we do need a song to pull us out of our struggles. The song in the night will lift up the burden we are carrying. It is a song that will be directed to God, a song of supplication, a song of praise and gratitude, for He promised to keep in perfect peace those whose mind stays on Him, because they trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3). Praises are weapons of warfare against our enemy. Job said, “But no one says, Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs of rejoicing in the night, Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?” (Job 35:11-12). Paul and Silas, after been struck with many blows, and thrown into prison, into dungeon, their feet fastened in the stocks, about mid-night, when they were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the very foundations of the prison were shaken and at once all the doors were opened and everyone’s shackles were unfastened (Acts 16:23-25). Lives were saved that night as a result. Songs in the night were echoed through the entire prison that night, in the midst of sorrow and pain, injustice applied to their bodies. Paul and Silas had a testimony to tell the world and a lesson to teach all of us today. How we move mountains through our struggles and pains, it is through a song in the night and not through our own strength. It is God Who gives us strength to perform, when we seek Him. This is faith, enduring faith, echoing through songs in the night.
“My soul longs for You, (O Lord) in the night; my spirit seeks you earnestly” (Isa. 26:9a). When we sing songs to God in our trials, He opens heaven and peace will flow to us; things may not change at first, but for sure, He heard and accepted our song. Queen Esther, when heard of the danger concerning her people, she fasted and prayed. She didn’t panic, because she knew her God would give her a song of victory in her night. She sought the Lord first thing and her testimony lived forever, when God delivered her and her people from the hand of her enemy, Haman. King Jehoshaphat faced his giants with prayer and with praise as he was told to do. The Bible tells us that he and his people rose early and when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord saying, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, He set ambushments against the men of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir who had come against Judah and they were slaughtered” (II Chron. 20: 21-22). The battle becomes the Lord’s when we let Him fight for us. We will always face our nights sometimes in life. They are necessary to direct us to God in closer relationship. The song He gives us at that time is to call on His name in order to acknowledge Him as sovereign through songs of praises. King David had many nights in his life time. His psalms are filled with praises in his trials, believing that God was going to hear him, or had heard his prayers. He said in Psalm 40 1-3: “I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings. And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many shall see and fear and put their trust in the Lord”; and in psalm 42:1-3,5: “As the hart pants and longs for the water brooks, so I pant and long for your, O God. My inner self thirst for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?… Why are you cast down O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, my Help and my God…Yet, the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”
Light from the Word 