Trouble – 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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But My Words Will Not Pass Away

(Luke 21)

Just before His trials and death, YAHSHUA left us warnings about the end-time. He assured that His words were firm in heaven and that the words uttered by Him were alive and powerful to bring about all that came from His mouth. “My words will not pass away.” The future is His; and He is very much in control of it. By the power of His words, He created all that has been created, just by expressing command- “let it be and there it was.” The apostle John said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God; all things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing ma that has come into being (John 1:1-3). So, we conclude that if YAHSHUA said, it will happen, soon or later. We live here on this earth on borrowed time, not knowing when, neither the imminence of things to come. But God in His mercy has given us a window of knowledge concerning the future, so that we will not be found unprepared. In Deuteronomy 29:29, Moses said, The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this Law. YAHSHUA revealed the future to His disciples and to us so that we will not be found surprised and doomed for lack of knowledge. After finishing the sermon about the end time, He assured all by saying, The sky and the earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away (Luke 21:33). That was emphatic and profound, for His spoken words will be forever relevant to all.

Take heed to yourselves and be on your guard, (He warned), lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed with the giddiness and headache and nausea of self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries and cares pertaining to this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap or a noose; for it will come upon all who live upon the face of the entire earth (Luke 21:34-35). I am sure YAHSHUA was talking about today. Yes, we have arrived to the time when our life is surrendered by confusion, lies, calamities, pandemics, loss of freedom, and the enemy of our soul- fear, while the world turns to the direction for the antichrist to be revealed and the One World order to take place. Left in the dark, for lack of knowledge of Scriptures, many are unaware and in disbelief of what is happening. So, it is that the knowledge some of them have of prophecy is without insight; for this reason, they have not been able to acquire the understanding of YAHSHUA’S prophetic words to connect with today’s day. As a result, they walk and stumble in darkness, led by the spirit of fear, which has permeated this world. The signs of it are seen on the wearing of masks and vaccines, when the message YAHSHUA left for us was given to guide us to faith, peace and to trust in Him in the troubled world that was to come. This is the time to revive our faith in His prophetic words and rejoice that our names are written in the Book of Life, that is, if you have a relationship with Him. YAHSHUA said, I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you will have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33). He prayed that God will not take us out of the world, but that He would keep and protect us from the evil one (John 17:15). What we are going through today, will continue, bringing the world to its climax, when the judgment found in Revelation will take place. But we His bride are to keep awake and watch at all times, praying that we may have the full strength and ability and be accounted worthy to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man (Luke 21:36). There will be a reward for those who will keep the faith; we will stand in the presence of the Son of Man saved from the tribulation that will follow, as Paul said, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord YAHSHUA the Messiah, Who died for us so that whether we are still alive or are dead, we might live together with Him and share His life (I Thess. 5:9-10).

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Oh, That I Had Wings Like a Dove

Listen to my prayer, O God

Hide not Yourself from my supplication

Attend to me and answer me

I am restless and distraught at the noise of the enemy

My heart is grievously pained within me

And the terror of death has fallen upon me

Fear and trembling have come upon me;

Horror and fright have overwhelmed me.

(Ps. 55: 1-5)

A prayer in the form of a psalm from the depth of the of David’s heart, speaks to us and comforts us in some way, knowing that we too can go to the heavenly Father with all our cares and troubles. This psalm is an expression of what David was going through in that time of his life. This shepherd boy, who killed a bear and a lion to save his sheep, finds himself in a crossroads where no help was in sight, only faith and a prayer to deliver him from the rebellion of his son, Absalom and the betrayal of his close friend, Ahithophel and many of his servants. (II Sam. 15-18). Betrayal is like cancer; it eats up the emotion and robs the peace from within. It takes a while for the results to fade away, and meanwhile, the soul is tormented with bitterness. In writing this psalm, David did not express forgiveness, but asked for God to avenge those who had offended him. We can taste his hurt feelings in verses 12-15: For it is not an enemy who reproaches and taunts me- then I might bear it; nor is it one who has hated me who insolently vaunts himself against me- then I might hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend; we had sweet fellowship together and used to walk to the house of God in company. (Psalm 55:12-14). The memory of his past friendship with Ahithophel was like the taste of bitter herb going down to the stomach. That was a heavy burden on the soul. David and his family had to flee from his son, who tried to take the kingdom from him by stealing the hearts of the men of Israel. His rebellion was also a betrayal and vengeance.

David’s prayer was of urgent timing. His supplication came to God in restlessness of his heart, in grievous pain. Desiring peace, David wanted to fly away from all his troubles. He said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away, I would lodge in the wilderness; I would hasten to escape and to find a shelter from the stormy wind and tempest (Vs. 6-9). A temporary relieve, was David’s desire to have. A place where he would not hear the noises of confusion and anger against him. He just wished wings of a dove, a symbol of freedom. However, a physical presence elsewhere would not accomplish much in the way of inner peace; but a calm and undisturbed mind and heart. Circumstances we face in our everyday life can lead us either to peace or disturbances of the mind. The secret of consistency in achieving victory through it all however, is not in our self, but in the trust and faith in God, our Provider, our Shelter and refuge in our troubles. David well knew it, as he expressed it in several of his psalms. But it was necessary for him to express his inner feeling of fear and uncertainty in face of his circumstances, for they were of great proportion, beyond his ability to cope alone.

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