Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 19– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“God, my maker, who gives songs in the night.'”

—Job 35:10

Any man can sing in the day. When his cup is full, man draws inspiration from it. When wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise God for giving a plentiful harvest or for sending home ships loaded with cargo. It is easy enough for a wind chime to make music when the winds blow; the difficulty is for music to swell forth when the air is still. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight, but it takes skill to sing in the night without any music. Songs in the night must be divinely inspired.

If all things are going well, I can fashion songs out of the flowers that grow along the pathway. But put me in a desert, where nothing is green or flowers for long, how will I find the ingredients to write songs of praise to God? How can a mortal man make a crown for the King where there are no jewels? If my voice is clear and I’m in good health, I can sing God’s praise, but if my voice is hoarse and I lay upon the bed of sickness, how will I then be able to praise the Most High, unless he himself gives me the song?

No, it is not in man’s power to sing in adversity– unless a hot coal from God’s altar touches one’s lips. The prophet Habakkuk sang this song in the night– “Although the fig-tree does not blossom, and there is no fruit on the vines; though the olive yields no oil and the fields yield no meat; though sheep are missing from the barn, and there are no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.”

Since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait upon him for the music. O Chief Musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is upon us, but tune our lips to the melody of thanksgiving. [M&E]