Streams in the Desert June 7
Fill the Night With Song "Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night" (Job 35:10).
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Job 35:5-13
5 Look up at the heavens and see; gaze at the clouds so high above you.
6 If you sin, how does that affect him? If your sins are many, what does that do to him?
7 If you are righteous, what do you give to him, or what does he receive from your hand?
8 Your wickedness only affects humans like yourself, and your righteousness only other people.
9 “People cry out under a load of oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.
10 But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,
11 who teaches us more than he teaches the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than[b] the birds in the sky?’
12 He does not answer when people cry out because of the arrogance of the wicked.
13 Indeed, God does not listen to their empty plea; the Almighty pays no attention to it.
Do you have sleepless nights, tossing on the hot pillow, and watching for the first glint of dawn? Ask the Divine Spirit to enable you to fix your thoughts on God your Maker, and believe that He can fill those lonely, dreary hours with song. Is yours the night of bereavement? Is it not often at such a time that God draws near, and assures the mourner that the Lord has need of the departed loved one, and called "the eager, earnest spirit to stand in the bright throng of the invisible, liberated, radiant, active, intent on some high mission"; and as the thought enters, is there not the beginning of a song?
Is yours the night of discouragement and fancied or actual failure? No one understands you, your friends reproach; but your Maker draws nigh, and gives you a song--a song of hope, the song which is harmonious with the strong, deep music of His providence. Be ready to sing the songs that your Maker gives. --Selected
The strength of the vessel can be demonstrated only by the hurricane, and the power of the Gospel can be fully shown only when the Christian is subjected to some fiery trial. If God would make manifest the fact that "He giveth songs in the night," He must first make it night. --William Taylor
Today’s Hymns
I’m Singing for my Lord
Songs in The Night
Scripture to Respond
Psalm 91:4-6
New International Version
4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
Psalm 42:8
By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.
Reflection:
Are you afraid of dark nights?
A believer must go through the challenge of dark nights before he can grow. Do you know how to lean on God to go through these trials? God is with you. The dark night can never pose threats to you. He makes people sing in the night.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, please keep me in a good relationship with you all the time, without any fear of the coming of the dark night, so that I may rejoice in you because of your deliverance and care even if I have to lose everything one day.
Wong Wai Tung (Chief executive officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) & Sam Chow (Administrative officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) Reflection and Prayer translated by Jenny Hung
