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Songs in the Night

In the world of nature, you only really find out whether a tree is evergreen when the season turns to winter. Throughout all the other seasons, to the untrained eye, it can be hard to tell the difference between those trees that will eventually shed their leaves and those that will keep them. Yet once the sun fails to climb quite as high in the sky and the temperature drops, the truth begins to emerge. When winter sets in, it soon becomes clear which trees have kept hold of their leaves and which have not.

And so it is too in the spiritual life. As worshippers, perhaps we don’t really know what we’re made of until we encounter a little winter in our lives. When things are at their toughest, when life feels at its most frail, that’s when we really find out what kind of worshippers we are.

Can we remain evergreen followers of Christ, still able to bring a song of praise in the deep dark of winter? Anyone can sing during the daytime, when life is all brightness and ease. When there’s peace and prosperity, when the people we love are healthy and the plans we have made look as though they’re in line with God’s will, it’s not so hard to raise a hand and utter a thank-you. But can we still find our way to the place of praise when the sun goes down? Can we offer up a song in the night?

That’s a phrase that comes up several times in Scripture. The book of Job talks about the God who “gives songs in the night” (35:10). We can see it in action too in the story of Paul and Silas (Acts 16:16-40). There they were in jail; it was midnight. Their hands and feet were bound in the stocks and they’d been treated unfairly. In the darkness of that prison, most of our hearts would perhaps give way to fear, discouragement, or dejection. But not Paul and Silas. Their bodies might have been chained up, but their spirits were free. And what were they doing? Singing. From their lips came songs of worship, trust, and praise. And that praise became their sound track for a miraculous release from prison.

Then there’s Jesus at the end of the Last Supper (Matt. 26:17-30). As He celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples, we’re told that they sang a final hymn. Most likely the song they chose was the “Great Hallel,” Psalm 136. Imagine Christ standing there, His final hours already counting down, and He adds His voice to the others as they sing over and over again, “His love endures forever… His love endures forever… His love endures forever.”

In full knowledge of what was soon to come, and with the shadow of the cross falling over Him, Jesus chose to sing with His disciples this song of praise. Facing toward Gethsemane and headed toward Golgotha, and yet the Son of God sang of goodness and love.