Praise – Light from the Word

You Shall Have a Song as in the Night

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.”

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There Is a Refuge in Praise and Worship

The word refuge, among many other definitions, has a spiritual meaning in which we submerge in faith seeking God In our troubled days. It is also a physical place where we can hide from enemies in times of wars, coming our way. Psalm 46:1-3 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very present and well proved help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, through the earth should change and though the mountain be shaken into the midst of the seas, though its waters roar and foam, through the mountains tremble at its swelling and tumult. God, as our refuge, is impenetrable. Nothing is stronger and greater than He is. A lighthouse from a distance assures us of a refuge, well built, with a light that illuminates the areas of danger. As a matter of fact, YAHSHUA is our lighthouse. Praise and worship were the way that God instructed the Israelites to fight their battle against three countries, as in the Moabites, the Ammonites, and with them the Meunites while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah. Battling fear and uncertainty, he determined to seek God by proclaiming a fast in Judah. He prayed, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? And do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In Your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand You. Did not You, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before You people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend?” (II Chron. 20:1-7).

As the nation of Judah sought the Lord for deliverance, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel and he said, “Hearken, all Judah, you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat. The Lord says this to you: Be not afraid or dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go down to them, Behold, they will come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the ravine before the Wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need to fight this battle; take you positions, stand still, and see the deliverance of the Lord, [Who is] with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you…” After consulting with the people, Jehoshaphat appointed singers to sing to the Lord and praise Him in their holy garments as they went out before the army, saying, GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD; HIS MERCY AND LOVING-KINDNESS ENDURE FOREVER. As soon as they started singing, the Lord set ambushments against the men of Amon, Moab and Mount Seir (II Chro. 20:1-22). As King David, so Jehoshaphat, followed His steps and found refuge in the presence of the Lord; praise and worship offered to the Lord saved them from a multitude of enemies, who had come to destroy them. “God inhabits the praise of His saints.” In no way will He forsake them in their destresses as they seed Him with worship and adoration. The army of the Lord is powerful when God goes before them. The weapons of praise and worship to Him will take over the enemy, be it anything that disturbs our peace and health.

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A Song in the Night

(Acts 16)

On his missionary journeys, Paul was confronted with angry Jews, and Gentiles. He was mistreated unfairly several times and sometimes thrown in jail. In one of his letter to the Corinthians he gives a summary of his experiences in his mission field. He wrote: five times I received from [the hands of] the Jews forty [lashes all] but one; three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I have been aboard a ship wrecked at sea; a [whole] night and a day I have sent [adrift] on the deep; many times on journeys , [exposed to perils from rivers, perils from bandits, perils from [my own] nation, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the desert places, perils in the sea, perils from those posing as believers; in toil and hardship, watching often, in hunger and thirst frequently driven to fasting by want, in cold and exposure and lack of clothing ( II Cor. 11:23-27). However, Paul arose from it all with a song of victory even in the darkest hours of his life: we are hedged in on every side, but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out, but not driven to despair; we are pursued, but not deserted; we are struck down to the ground, but never struck out and destroyed; always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord YAHSHUA suffered, so that the life of YAHSHUA also may be shown forth by and in our bodies. For we who live are constantly being handed over to death for YAHSHUA’S sake, that the life of YAHSHUA also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death (II Cor. 4:8-11).

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