Night Songs: Psalm 137

Night Songs

Psalm 137

To believe in Christ when He is shrouded in darkness, to stick hard and fast by the Savior when all men speak ill of Him and forsake Him—that is true faith. He who singeth a song to Christ in the night, singeth the best song in all the world; for he singeth from the heart.

Charles Spurgeon

Psalm 137 is a communal lament. The people have been captured and taken to a foreign land. They have witnessed the brutality of their captors and are mourning deeply for their many losses. And to make it worse, their captors are taunting them to sing, to sing a song of Zion, their beloved city that now lay in ruins. The psalmist cries, “How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?” (137:4).

How do we sing the Lord’s song while living as sojourners in a foreign land? While experiencing hardship and loss? While waiting in the dark, longing to see a ray of light on the horizon? For surely, in this world we will have trouble, and our Lord was and is not ignorant of this, and yet He commands us to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God (Colossians 3:16). How do we live in the tension of “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10)? Spurgeon, in his sermon “Songs in the Night,” encourages us with several truths. He reminds us that it is our God who gives us songs in the night, he instructs us on what we should sing about, and then why we should sing.

First, Spurgeon affirms that Christians will have “nights.” “Nights of sorrow, nights of persecution, nights of doubt, nights of bewilderment, nights of anxiety, nights of oppression—nights of all kinds, which press upon our spirits and terrify our souls.” However, while we know that “whoever desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 4:12), we ought equally to be assured that our God, in the midst of those dark times, will give us songs to sing. In trouble, it is not in our own power that we are able to sing with hope and confidence in the Lord, “God alone can furnish us with songs in the night.” He alone is our hope and stay as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. He alone can cheer the heart weighed down with anxiety. So, in our hard times we must “Go to thy Maker, and ask him to give thee a song in the night…he is the great composer of songs and teacher of music; he it is who can teach thee how to sing.” When we feel we cannot sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land or in the dark night of our soul, we first look to God and beseech His help for a song. It may be that the most beautiful song we sing will be the new song He puts in our mouth while we wait patiently for Him and see His deliverance (Psalm 40:1-3).

Next, Spurgeon encourages us about which we can sing in hard times. We can sing about God’s past mercies. “Christian, perhaps the best song thou canst sing, to cheer thee in the night, is the song of yester-morn. Remember, it was not always night with thee…God, who made thee sing yesterday, has not left thee in the night. He is not a daylight God, who can not know his children in the darkness; but he loves thee now as much as ever.” One past mercy upon which we can set our mind is the electing love of God which caused us to be born again to a living hope.

We can also sing of our past experiences. “Wast thou never poor before, and did he not supply the wants? Wast thou never in straits before, and did he not deliver thee? Come, man! I beseech thee, go to the river of thine experience, and pull up a few bulrushes, and weave them into an ark, wherein thine infant faith may float safely on the stream. I bid thee not forget what God hath done.” We can also sing about what He has done for others. “The King is a merciful King; go and try him. If thou art ever so low in thy troubles, look to ‘the hills, from whence cometh thy help.’ Others have had help therefrom, and so mayest thou.” Keeping a record of His faithful work in our lives and in the lives of others gives us something to fall back on when the way seems dark and the Lord seems silent. We will be able to remind ourselves of His faithful and powerful work. And certainly there have been other saints who have journeyed a dark path before who have left a record of His dealings with them. God has not forsaken even one of His children and never will.

Spurgeon then says that we can sing of the day that is to come. The day is coming when all will be made right. A day coming when there will no longer be any night. A day coming when all fears, crying, mourning, and sighing will be done, when singing the Lord’s song in a foreign land will be replaced with singing before His throne. A table prepared before us in the presence of our enemies will be replaced with feasting at His table. Strangers and sojourners will be replaced with home at last for eternity. The grain of sand of this life swallowed up in the ocean of eternity.“Often do I cheer myself with the thought of the coming of the Lord.” The night will not last forever.

But why we should sing in the dark times of life? Spurgeon says we ought to sing to cheer ourselves, to cheer others, because it is one of the best arguments in the world of our faith, and because God loves to hear His children sing in the night. First, we sing to cheer ourselves. “There is nothing like singing to keep your spirits alive.” Singing and music reach down into us touching our soul. Music moves us; it revives and cheers us. Perhaps it has to do with the way singing and music affect us physically as well. Increasing studies show that “singing releases endorphins, serotonin and dopamine - the 'happy' chemicals that boost your mood” (Opera North). We are both body and spirit and singing affects both. “Singing is the best thing to purge ourselves of evil thoughts.” So in the day of trial, cheer yourself by starting to sing and by continuing to sing.

Sing also to cheer others. Spurgeon loved John Bunyan’s book The Pilgrim’s Progress. He refers to it often, and this sermon is no exception. On this point he says, “as Christian was going through the valley he found it a dreadful dark place, and terrible demons and goblins were all about him, and poor Christian thought he must perish for certain; but just when his doubts were the strongest, he heard a sweet voice; he listened to it, and he heard a man in front of him saying, ‘Yea, when I pass through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.’

Now, that man did not know who was near him, but he was unwittingly singing to cheer a man behind. Christian, when you are in trouble, sing; you do not know who is near you, Sing, perhaps you will get a good companion by it. Sing! Perhaps there will be many a heart cheered by your song.”

We sing also “for that is one of the best arguments in all the world in favor of your religion.” It could be, that no other witness will speak so loudly, so clearly, so resolutely as you will when you sing songs of truth in the darkness where God has led you. And we sing because God loves to hear his people sing in the night. Singing in the night, when we have no guarantee of a particular outcome, demonstrates a heart resting in His sovereignty. Singing in the night, when confusion abound, demonstrates a heart that knows it is the Lord who orders our steps and never leads us astray. Singing in the night, when all may be lost, demonstrates that our portion in this life and in eternity is God Himself.

Dear Christian, who sits in darkness, who weeps at the effects of the Fall, who groans in this body, sing. Ask God your Maker for a song. Look to His past dealings with you, His faithfulness to His children, to the great Day to come, and sing. Sing to cheer your heart and to cheer the heart of your brethren. Sing so the world may see the hope that is yours in Christ. Your Father loves to hear you sing.

Let’s pray through Psalm 137 for the Lord to fill our mouths and hearts with songs to Him in the hard times.

Resources:

Read Spurgeon’s sermon here: songs-in-the-night

Some songs for the night: Night Song by Cityalight, God of Every Grace by Keith and Kristyn Getty, I Set My Hope by Keith and Kristyn Getty

137:1-3 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

Let’s pray:

▫️We would bring to the Lord those things that cause us to weep: “Nights of sorrow, nights of persecution, nights of doubt, nights of bewilderment, nights of anxiety, nights of oppression.”

▫️We would honestly speak to the Lord about the difficulties we are facing. What doubts are you struggling with? Are you questioning the Lord’s goodness and wisdom?

▫️We would ask the Lord for a song in this hard time. A song that would bring comfort, truth, and hope to our hurting hearts. Confess how difficult it is to sing and have a heart of praise in the midst of hard things.

▫️We would wait patiently for the Lord and He would incline Himself to us and hear our cries. He would bring us up out of the miry clay, set our feet upon the rock, giving us a firm place to stand. He would put a new song in our mouths, a song of praise to Him that many will see and fear and trust in Him (Psalm 40:1-3).

137:4-6 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

Let’s pray:

▫️When our souls are weighed down, the Lord would remind us of His great love for us. In that love, He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He set His love upon us and He loves us still.

▫️We would recall to mind that it has not always been night for us. The Lord would bring to our mind the evidences of His faithfulness throughout our lives and the lives of others. He would increase our confidence in His lovingkindness as we contemplate His faithfulness.

▫️Our hearts would be cheered and uplifted as we think of eternity. A deep, solemn rejoicing would be in our hearts as we consider all the burdens that cause us to groan, all that is mortal will be swallowed up by life (2 Corinthians 5:4).

137:7-9 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!” O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

[Note: Psalm 137 is an example of an imprecatory psalm. VanGemeren quotes Brueggeman, “On reflection, it [Psalm 137] may be the voice of a seasoned religion which knows profoundly what it costs to beat despair…It is an act of profound faith to entrust one’s most precious hatreds to God knowing they will be taken seriously.” VanGemeren adds, “These psalms help us to pray through our anger, frustrations, and spite ultimately to achieve submission to God’s will.”]

Let’s pray:

▫️We would trust God with our deepest hurts and despair. We would lay it all out before Him, entrusting ourselves to His wisdom, love, and care.

▫️We would see the ways in which God has been our help, and we would sing for joy in the shelter of His wings (Psalm 63:7). As we sing, our hearts would be cheered.

▫️Our life would be used by the Lord to encourage others who are struggling. We would come alongside other believers and speak truth and comfort to them which we have received from the Lord (2 Corinthians 1:4).

▫️Even in the hardest times of our lives, we would sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God, and it would be one of the greatest witnesses to the truth of the gospel.

▫️Our night songs would be from a heart resting in God’s sovereignty, submitting to His wisdom in ordering our steps, and finding God as our portion forever.

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May the Lord do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, for His glory and our good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Photo credit to marius.

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