The nocturnal serenade persisted for months, interrupting the solitude of those quiet, country nightscapes. We looked forward to that sweet lullaby every evening, cracking open the bedroom windows, anticipating the arrival of Hoots, the affectionate (yet not terribly original) name I had given to the owl who had taken up temporary residence in our aging, maple tree. Owls are nocturnal creatures, active at night, sleeping by day. They can shriek, chirp, scream, whistle, bark, growl, or whistle, but our Hoots loved to hoot. A hoot is a territorial call that can be heard for miles, warning neighboring owls that the territory has been officially claimed, so STAY OUT! Or…there is the possibility that Hoots may have been courting, searching the surrounding vicinity for a Mrs. Hoots. Whatever the case was with Hoots, we loved his nightly serenade. His vocalizations, along with the supporting cast of crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers, would lull us gently to sleep with those sweet songs in the night.
Young Elihu was one of four men who gathered to grieve with Job, that patient, godly man who was still reeling from the personal loses that he had experienced. Elihu’s counsel is recorded last in the Book of Job, for he listened and waited silently while Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had spoken, as they attempted to make sense out of Job’s sufferings, find some hidden meaning in his pain and despair. He waited out of respect, “because they were elder than he.” Elihu was a young man, lacking the wisdom of his counterparts, but his words struck my heart today as he added this to the conversation: “But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night.” Ah, those precious songs in the night!
We all have night seasons, those times in our lives when we feel alone, when difficulties weigh most heavily upon us, when daybreak seems so far away. As we travel those dark valleys, we can empathize with the psalmist, Asaph, as he penned these words, “Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?” Asaph was searching for God in his personal experience with darkness, so he called to remembrance God’s “…song in the night.” Asaph replayed in his memory the past works of his God, “I have considered the days of old,” he recalls his experiences with a God “…that doeth wonders” and redeems His people with the strength of His arm, a God whose voice is the “thunder”, and His lightning “lightened the world.” When Asaph reflected upon the wonder and awesomeness of the God he served, His past victories, His strength and power, what began as a song of sorrow transformed into a song of praise, a night song for this weary psalmist.
If you are in need of a song in YOUR night, find a quiet spot alone with the Father, ponder His mercy and grace, reflect on His past victories in your life, sit for a moment and consider His awesomeness, and find your song of praise. Allow that song in the night to lighten your load and lift your weary spirit as you, in chorus with that psalmist of old, declare “who is so great a God as our God.”
Psalm 42:8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me,
So we’ll follow wherever He leadeth, / Let the path be dreary or bright. / For we’ve proved that our God can give comfort; / Our God can give songs in the night. AJ Flint