Songs in the Night + “Singing Hymns at Midnight”
“It is marvellous, brethren, how one sweet word of God will make many songs for Christians. One word of God is like a piece of gold, and the Christian is the gold-beater, and he can hammer that promise out for whole weeks. I can say myself, I have lived on one promise for weeks, and wanted no other. I had just simply to hammer the promise out into gold-leaf, and plate my whole existence with joy from it. The Christian gets his songs from God; God gives him inspiration, and teaches him how to sing: “God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night.” So, then, poor Christian, thou needest not go pumping up thy poor heart to make it glad. Go to thy Maker, and ask him to give thee a song in the night; for thou art a poor dry well. You have heard it said that, when a pump is dry, you must pour water down it first of all, and then you will get some up. So, Christian, when thou art dry, go to thy God, ask him to pour some joy down thee, and then thou wilt get more joy up from thine own heart. Do not go to this comforter or that, for you will find them “Job’s comforters” after all; but go thou first and foremost to thy Maker, for he is the great Composer of songs and Teacher of music, he it is who can teach thee how to sing.”
—Charles Spurgeon
Singing Hymns at Midnight.
“And at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God.”
(Acts 16:25)
The story of Paul and Silas has been on my heart for about a week. Paul had seen a vision in which a man implores him: “Come over into Macedonia and help us.” Paul lost no time in responding to the request: “And after he had seen the vision, IMMMMEDIATELY we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.” When they arrive in Macedonia, they visit a few cities and end up in Philippi, “the chief city of that part of Macedonia….” (Acts 16:12) Once there, they minister to some women by the riverside, most notable a woman named Lydia, and she and her household were baptized. One day, while going to prayer, Paul and his entourage encounter a demon possessed girl who began to follow them and say, “These men are servants of the most high God, and they have come to tell you how to be saved.” This went on for a number of days, and Paul has had enough. He is “grieved.” (16:18) and turns around to these demons who are speaking truth, and casts them out of her in the name of Jesus. This causes quite an issue, for verse 16 had stated, “She was a fortune teller who earned a lot of money for her masters.” KJV says, “she was a damsel possess with a spirit of divination…which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.” Her masters hopes of wealth were now shattered, so they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them before the authorities at the marketplace.” These men had capitalized on the captivity this poor girl had endured. Here bondage was their business plan, and now their hopes of wealth were crushed. They are furious. Outraged. When they “Saw that the hope of their gains were gone,” they grabbed Paul and Silas, drug the to the city center, and accuse them of “exceedingly troubling the city.” (Which is funny, because, so far, all they’ve done is baptize a few folks and free one girl from demonic power.) They “rile up” the crowd, and the magistrates STRIP them out of their clothes and publicly beat them. This was not a few men pounding them with their fists. Verse 23 says, “when they had laid many stripes on them…” Roman beatings were no joke! Here is one line from one of the several articles that I read: “As the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.” OUCH! One article I read stated that this was not a limited beating, as in 39 stripes, but this was a beating without limitations. To say that Paul and Silas were in rough shape would be an understatement. To say that Paul and Silas were in excruciating pain would probably be an understatement. But the Philippian rulers weren’t done…they cast them into the prison and command the jailor to “keep them safely.” He takes the request very seriously, and “having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks.” (v. 24) They have been severely beaten, are undoubtedly in nearly unbearable levels of pain, and are in stocks in the inner prison. This would be a great time to complain! They certainly have reason! This would be a great time to lament…to cry in pain. This would be a great time to hatch an escape plan. Paul and Silas are pretty limited right now…in many senses, all they have are their words. And their words could have rightfully said a lot of things. But in that dark midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God…” They made a choice to sing in pain and in the dark. They didn’t know the outcome. The Romans were brutal, and it was not unlikely for this to be the end of Paul and Silas’ life. They didn’t know the rest of Acts 16, as we do today. They only knew that God was still good, and God was still worthy, and they chose to sing and declare the goodness of God in pain from an inner prison cell.
And it was their worship in pain at midnight that literally opened the door of the miraculous. “And suddenly, there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bands were loosed.” Their song in the dark became the key that unlocked their prison cell. Not only did it unlock their cell, but the cells of their fellow-prisoners. It loosed them from the stocks that had held them fast, and the next thing you know they are baptizing the very man who was responsible for “keeping them safely.” 😉 Their decision to sing in what looked like a hopeless situation became the tool God used to “pop the lock” on their stocks and usher a new family into the kingdom of God. The effects of their painful, midnight worship had immediate results, but it also had a ripple effect down through the ages that has effected many. Christians throughout the centuries have been impacted and spurred to worship in their own dark nights, because of their decision to sing at midnight.
If ever we find ourselves in dark, painful seasons, “locked” in some sort of senseless, inexplicable situation, let us follow the example of Paul and Silas. Let us choose worship when we’re wracked with pain. Let us sing a song that pierces the darkness. Our God is still a God who “gives songs in the night.” (Job 35:10) It may just be our singing that unlocks the doors of our prison cells. It may just be our song that looses us AND fellow-prisoners. It may just be a “song in the night” that opens the door to salvation to someone nearby. A painful song in the dark is powerful because it is an expression of FAITH, and FAITH is the key to the miraculous. Singing in the dark is a bold declaration of TRUST in the sovereignty and the goodness of God.
So go ahead and SING IN THE DARK…OUT LOUD…ON PURPOSE.