Morning and Evening

October 19, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"God, my Maker, who giveth songs in the night." — Job 35:10 · KJV

Any man can sing in the day. When the cup is full, a man draws inspiration from it; when wealth rolls in abundance around him, any man can praise the God who gives a plentiful harvest or sends home a laden merchant ship. It is easy enough for a wind harp to whisper music when the breezes blow — the difficulty is for music to swell forth when no wind is stirring. It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but he is skillful who sings when there is not a ray of light to read by — who sings from his heart. No man can make a song in the night of himself; he may attempt it, but he will find that a song in the night must be divinely inspired. Let all go well, and I can weave songs, fashioning them wherever I go out of the flowers that grow along my path; but put me in a desert, where nothing green grows, and with what shall I frame a hymn of praise to God? How shall a mortal man make a crown for the Lord where there are no jewels? Let this voice be clear and this body full of health, and I can sing God's praise; but silence my tongue, lay me on the bed of languishing, and how shall I then chant God's high praises, unless He Himself gives me the song? No, it is not in man's power to sing when all is against him, unless an altar-coal touches his lip. It was a divine song that Habakkuk sang when in the night he said, "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Then, since our Maker gives songs in the night, let us wait on Him for the music. O You chief musician, let us not remain songless because affliction is on us, but tune our lips to the melody of thanksgiving.

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