Songs in the Night (Part 2)

TEXT: Psalm 77:1-6

When we hear the phrase "songs in the night" our minds are filled with two thought patterns that are at odds with each other. When we think of a song, we think of joy, happiness, laughter, and good times. However, when we think of night, we think of darkness, sadness, grief, despair, and gloom. Only in God's Word do we find something so paradoxical as songs in the night. There is another passage in Scripture that uses the phrase "songs in the night." In Job 35:10, Elihu says, "Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?" Listen to how Spurgeon expounds on this seemingly contradictory phrase, "songs in the night."

He said, "Night is one of the greatest blessings men enjoy; we have many reasons to thank God for it. Yet night is to many a gloomy season. There is 'the pestilence that walketh in darkness;' there is 'the terror by night;' there is the dread of robbers and of disease, with all those fears that the timid know, when they have no light wherewith they can discern objects. Night is the season of terror and alarm to most men. Yet even night hath its songs. Have you never stood by the seaside at night, and heard the pebbles sing, and the waves chant God's glories? Or have you never risen from your bed, and thrown open the window, and listened there? Listened to what? Silence—save now and then a murmuring sound, which seems sweet music then. And have you not fancied that you heard the harp of God playing in heaven? Did you not conceive, that the distant stars looking down on you, were also mouths of song—that every star was singing God's glory."