Sermon Central
-
Songs In The Night
Contributed by Mark Roper on Nov 26, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Many men are terribly tormented, because they focus on their troubles, their distress, and their fears. They look within themselves to escape their troubles instead of listening to God
Songs in the Night
Scripture Job 35:10
“But none saith, Where is God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?”
Mans Problem
Many men are terribly tormented, because they focus on their troubles, their distress, and their fears. They look within themselves to escape their troubles.
A. They forget to look to the hills whence all real help cometh (Psalm 121:1)
B. They do not say, “Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?” (Job 35:10)
Understanding the wise words of Elihu “But none saith, Where is God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?”
Job: A just man who felt like giving up
Read from chapter 3
"I’m sorry I was ever born. Why didn’t I die at birth? I’d have been better off. At least there’s no misery then.
"I knew things were going to no good. I was afraid of something like this all along.
"I’d be better off dead than suffering all this trouble."
Wrong: Bildad, Eliphaz, Zophar: The problem is with you Job, change!
Right: Elihu The problem: Man tries to take care of it, without God.
Job faced terror and needed a night song.
1st Job in his great lose, felt the need for God, he sought comfort from God, but the trials seemed to be endless.
2nd His prayers seemed to go unanswered.
3rd There seemed that there was no end in sight.
4th Job felt the night (Absence of God)
He learned:
5th Continually look to, know God is present, and understand God is providing.
His statement of faith
6th Job 42:5 NIV My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you
Night is the season of terror and alarm for men.
We face Nights of all kinds, which press upon our spirits and terrify our souls.
Nights of sorrow, nights of persecution, nights of doubt, nights of bewilderment, nights of anxiety, nights of oppression, nights of ignorance
Satan delights in our terror in the night
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Our songs and psalms sorely vex and grieve the devil, whereas our passions and impatiences, our complainings and cryings, our "Alas" and "Woe is me" please him well, so that he laughs in his fist. He takes delight in tormenting us, especially when we confess, praise, preach, and laud Christ.
The sweetest songs often come from nights of affliction.
Anybody can praise God when things are going good.
Songs sung with faith
But it was a divine song, which Habakkuk sang, when in the night he said
“Though the fig-tree shall not blossom,” and so on, “yet will I trust in the Lord, and stay myself in the God of Jacob (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
Songs sung out of sorrow
A piece of wood once bitterly complained because it was being cut and filled with rifts and holes. But he who held the wood and whose knife was cutting into it so remorselessly, did not listen to the sore complaining. He was making a flute out of the wood he held, and was too wise to desist for such an entreaty.
Instead, the flute carver said, "Oh, thou foolish piece of wood, without these rifts and holes thou wouldst be only a mere stick forever--a bit of hard black ebony with no power to make music or to be of any use. These rifts that I am making will change thee into a flute, and thy sweet music then shall charm the souls of men. My cutting is the making of thee, for then thou shalt be precious and valuable and a blessing to the world."
David could never have sung his sweetest songs had he not been sorely afflicted. His afflictions made his life an instrument on which God could breathe the music of His love to charm and soothe the hearts of men by such an entreaty through the ages.
Songs sung from seeking God presence.
“Thomas Andrew Dorsey was a black jazz musician from Atlanta. In the twenties he gained a certain amount of notoriety as the composer of jazz tunes with suggestive lyrics, but he gave all that up in 1926 to concentrate exclusively on spiritual music. "Peace in the Valley" is one of his best known songs, but there is a story behind his most famous song that deserves to be told.
In 1932 the times were hard for Dorsey. Just trying to survive the depression years as a working musician meant tough sledding. On top of that, his music was not accepted by many people. Some said it was much too worldly--the devil’s music, they called it. Many years later Dorsey could laugh about it. He said, "I got kicked out of some of the best churches in the land." But the real kick in the teeth came one night in St. Louis when he received a telegram informing him that his pregnant wife had died suddenly.
