Songs in the Night!

Sister Sarah Navaroji of the Ceylon Pentecostal Mission wrote the song 'Ennai marava Yesu nadha' (Jesus, You will never forget me!).  She was once traveling alone to Colombo from Chennai.   In the sixties, one could catch an express train and ferry service from Madras to Colombo via Dhanushkodi.  She was sitting on the train waiting to see her mother.  It was an era before mobile phones, and we do not know why her mother could not come to see her.  As she sat waiting,  tears welled up in her eyes, and she clung to her Saviour, Lord Jesus, who had promised never to leave her.  She wrote the now immortal lines based on Isaiah 49:15, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you".  I love this song dearly, and whenever I am sad, I sing it in my heart, and God's Presence immediately floods my soul in my valley experience!

I am reading the book of Job in my quiet time, and the words of Elihu in Job 35:10 set me thinking.  Elihu observed that people cry out because of oppression.  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).  According to Spurgeon, the great cause of a Christian's distress, the reason for the depths of sorrow into which many believers are plunged, is because while they are looking about, on the right and the left, to see how they may escape their troubles, they forget to look to the hills from where the real help comes.  They do not say, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night?'  Many sing by day, but the Christian who sings in the night proves to be a person of faith and courage.  When Paul and Silas lay in prison, beaten, bloodied, and chained, they sang in their cell (Acts 16:25).  When David and the psalmists walked through the twilight of God's seeming silence, they sent songs into the darkness.  Christians sing not only at sunrise, when rescue has finally dawned, but also at midnight!  Often, God uses our midnight songs to keep us till the morning, and that is my personal experience!  

My friend, are you feeling lonely?  Are you struggling under a heavy load of commitments?  Do you fear walking in your valley alone?  Look to the Lord with hope and faith.  The Lord gives songs in the night and keeps us in His hands until the day dawns!  

என்னை மறவா இயேசு நாதா

உந்தன் தயவால் என்னை நடத்தும்                                                                                                                                                                                   வல்ல ஜீவ வாக்குத்தத்தங்கள்

வரைந்தெனக்காய் ஈந்ததாலே ஸ்தோத்திரம்

ஆபத்திலே அரும் துணையே

பாதைக்கு நல்ல தீபமிதே – Sister Sarah Navaroji

Prayer:  Why are you cast down, O my soul?  And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.  Amen.

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