shortlady
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- Joined
- Aug 3, 2005
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Night
READ: Psalm 42
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the
daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me—a
prayer to the God of my life. —Psalm 42:8
In his riveting and unsettling book Night, Elie Wiesel
describes his boyhood experiences as one of the
countless victims of the Holocaust. Ripped from his
home and separated from everyone in his family except
his father (who would die in the death camps), Wiesel
suffered a dark night of the soul such as few will
experience. It challenged his views and beliefs about
God. His innocence and faith became sacrifices on the
altar of man’s evil and sin’s darkness.
David experienced his own dark night of the soul,
which many scholars believe motivated his writing of
Psalm 42. Harried and hounded, probably as he was
pursued by his rebellious son Absalom (2 Sam. 16–18),
David echoed the pain and fear that can be felt in the
isolation of night. It’s the place where darkness
grips us and forces us to consider the anguish of our
heart and ask hard questions of God. The psalmist
lamented God’s seeming absence, yet in it all he found
a night song (v.8) that gave him peace and confidence
for the difficulties ahead.
When we struggle in the night, we can be confident
that God is at work in the darkness. We can say with
the psalmist, “Hope in God; for I shall yet praise
Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.11).
—Bill Crowder
I’ve found that when life’s brush obscures my view
With gloomy strokes that seem to mar the scene,
God’s hand appears and gives to sunless hue
And dreary skies a more majestic sheen. —Gustafson
When it is dark enough, men see the stars. —Emerson
READ: Psalm 42
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the
daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me—a
prayer to the God of my life. —Psalm 42:8
In his riveting and unsettling book Night, Elie Wiesel
describes his boyhood experiences as one of the
countless victims of the Holocaust. Ripped from his
home and separated from everyone in his family except
his father (who would die in the death camps), Wiesel
suffered a dark night of the soul such as few will
experience. It challenged his views and beliefs about
God. His innocence and faith became sacrifices on the
altar of man’s evil and sin’s darkness.
David experienced his own dark night of the soul,
which many scholars believe motivated his writing of
Psalm 42. Harried and hounded, probably as he was
pursued by his rebellious son Absalom (2 Sam. 16–18),
David echoed the pain and fear that can be felt in the
isolation of night. It’s the place where darkness
grips us and forces us to consider the anguish of our
heart and ask hard questions of God. The psalmist
lamented God’s seeming absence, yet in it all he found
a night song (v.8) that gave him peace and confidence
for the difficulties ahead.
When we struggle in the night, we can be confident
that God is at work in the darkness. We can say with
the psalmist, “Hope in God; for I shall yet praise
Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (v.11).
—Bill Crowder
I’ve found that when life’s brush obscures my view
With gloomy strokes that seem to mar the scene,
God’s hand appears and gives to sunless hue
And dreary skies a more majestic sheen. —Gustafson
When it is dark enough, men see the stars. —Emerson
