The Songs in the Night

One topic that isn’t talked about too much in todays world but was very much a part of the bible in the past was Songs in the Night. While our church from the past had a hymn with that title and it was sung by our choir periodically it was something I never fully understood as to what it really is.

The first place we see Songs in the Night was in the book of Job. Job’s friend was acting like God’s attorney in the time of Jobs trial and he was reminding him of who God was and how merciful and loving He is: Job 35:10 “But none says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night.” This implies that at the time the knowledge of what that meant was wide spread among believers. This was something they all knew about and who provided them to His people.

We see it again when King David wrote of his sorrows in Psalms 77: Psalm 77:6 I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search. Again it implies something well known to Him and to the reader. So what are the songs in the night?

Nearly all people I have ever known has had at least one sleepless night that they can recall. The come for a variety of reasons, most of all during times of intense trial or sorrow. Typically in the night when a person is in the middle of such things it when they intensity of them hits the hardest. In the still and quiet of the dark your mind tends to wander into your hardships and difficulties. Often times those thought are full of our own negative emotions. Often they are unfounded. In some cases Satan himself will push thought on us to discourage, depress and cause us to fear. The Song in the Night is one of the tools that God gives us to remind us that we have Him and that we are in safe hands.

Those songs are similar to a parent quietly singing to a troubled child to sleep after they wake up in terror. While comfort can be spoken to a person a song carries it much further, tapping into the pleasure and rest aspects of our wellbeing. Throughout time songs were used to remind us of things and to make us happy. To lift us out of a bad state we are in. In the times before there was artificial light and the landscape was dark, someone singing in the night was a way to remind people that they were not alone and someone was nearby. In this case it is God singing to us. The reminding of how powerful He is and the promises he makes through the bible for our care and well being. Both Job and David would go to those songs as a way to preach to themselves the promises of God. The promises that supersede the known troubles and are established through our faith. In these promises they were able to see their situations in a more Godly way and to rest deeply in His comfort.

Though the Songs in the Night seem to be a lost concept and understanding in today’s world they are just as important as they were thousands of years ago. So when you have a sleepless night during times of trails and difficulty remind yourself of God’s Songs in the Night

Your Brother in Christ,

Steve Koenig

Lakeshore Fellowship