Songs in the Night
How God Transforms our Pain to Praise
There are some of us today traveling through deep waters. We have known dry creek beds, swampy lowlands, and little creeks along the way of life. But the deep waters are different. There is no tempest on a creek. There can be no murderous waves swelling like sea monsters before our bow when we are wading through a swamp. Oh, the stream and the wetland have their dangers, to be sure. A person can fall flat into the water and drown as easily in a shallow canal as in the frigid North Atlantic. But we can admit that the nature of the danger of a turbulent sea certainly seems more intimidating.
Trials and temptations, events out of our control, and times of sorrow can be likened to that stormy sea. Such seasons are also like the darkest night. I use this metaphor in the book Songs in the Night: How God Transforms our Pain to Praise.
I wrote Songs in the Night to help fellow sojourners sailing the tempest and fellow travelers experiencing the ink-black season of suffering. It is not a voyage anyone intends to take. And when our lives feel out of control in the angry, dark waves of trouble, we feel that we might never see the land of the living again. I wrote from my experience as a Christian shepherd, that is, a pastor. I wrote out my understanding of the night, the nights I have encountered in shepherding. And the storms. However, the most incredible models I have known for such a journey came from others. I had a seat at the bow of their ships. And I have seen people singing songs in the night, “doxologies in the darkness.” I have observed broken people singing Amazing Grace when there is no apparent sign of mercy. ’Tis a mysterious note sung that. When we know that the very things that seek to destroy us become the instruments God uses to save us, we sing the mystery of the cross. That is the hope of the book: nothing I have written, no great insight from a philosopher or a preacher—just light in mystery.
“Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; They cry out for help because of the arm of the mighty, But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night’” (Job 35:9-10 NKJV).
Songs in the Night is available in print and e-books (Apple Books, Kindle, etc.). But today, I want to commend the Audible version. Voice actress Brenda Davis reads the audiobook. I continue to find her reading moving, even to me as the author. She brings a voice, literally and figuratively, that causes the book to do more than I anticipated. That is to her credit, not mine. So, I want to point you to that reading. This is the Apple link, but it is on Audible, Amazon, and other online audio bookstores.
The most extended preview of the audio version that I found is at Apple Books. I trust you can give a listen. So may you or a loved one learn (to the degree that what I wrote is biblical) to sing songs in the night even at the crest of the crushing wave or in the lonely hours of the longest watch.
Songs in the Night: How God Transforms our Pain to Praise (P & R Publishing, Bethesda Books Audio, and Audible) available for listening at Apple Books. Preview: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/songs-in-the-night-how-god-transforms-our-pain-to/id1523335819